Overview
The model used in the Cost Calculator for Children’s Services (CCfCS) was developed as part of a policy-relevant research project that aimed to explore the relationship between costs and outcomes for looked after children. The study is described in the book by Ward, Holmes and Soper (2008) ‘Costs and Consequences of Placing Children in Care’ which forms an ideal resource for social work managers and policy makers working in children’s services. Download an order form here.
The current version of the CCfCS uses local authority data on looked after children’s characteristics and placements that are collected for national returns. It brings these together with the unit costs of social care activities, based on eight identified processes and the allowances or fees paid for individual placements as a basis for working out costs. Calculations take account of all the numerous variations in costs engendered by differences in children’s needs, placement type and local authority procedures. Because the model utilises unit costs that have all been developed using the same, standardised approach, it introduces greater consistency into the comparison of costs. Local authorities can choose either to use one of the unit costs which are supplied or to create a customised unit costs table.
Local Authorities and Implementation
More than twenty English local authorities are involved in research related to the CCfCS and its implementation. The CCfCS development team welcomes feedback from local authorities; those that have implemented the cost calculator have access to the forums on this website and are invited to attend an annual user group meeting, where further developments are explored. Authorities also contribute to the further development of the CCfCS by acting as research sites, knowledge transfer partners, or members of an implementation consortium, as described in the various projects.
Towards a systems approach
Developments are now under way to extend the CCfCS model to calculate costs associated with other processes and agencies that provide serices to children. Such a systems approach to cost calculations will make it possible to demonstrate how costs are spread across agencies, showing whether reducing the costs to one may increase costs to another. For example, when looked after children are excluded from school there may be a reduced cost to education but possibly an increased cost to youth justice and to social care if the consequences are greater opportunities for offending and a disrupted placement.
The overall objective is to develop the CCfCS to incorporate unit costs for all services that children receive within specific time frames. These will include the unit costs of social care, education, health, mental health, socio-legal and youth justice processes so that eventually it will be possible to calculate the true costs to the public purse of providing services to children with extensive needs and thus to introduce transparency into the joint commissioning of services for such children.
Find out more by browsing through the projects in our Costs and Outcomes programme:
Completed Projects
Extension of the Cost Calculator to include education costs (Coventry)
Costs of Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC)
- The Cost Calculator and the ‘Policy’ groups defined in the Pursuit of Permanence study
- Costs of Children’s Continuing Care
- Social Work Practices
Extension of the Cost Calculator to include health and mental health costs (Cheshire)
Ongoing Projects
Extension of the Cost Calculator for all Children in Need
Costs of short break provision
Development of a performance management framework for local authority fostering provision
Collaboration with Oregon Social Learning Center
Cost and Capacity Implications of Laming
Summary of Research and Development
A printable summary of research and development and the different projects associated with the Cost Calculator is available in the Strategy Paper (updated July 2009)