Project title

The costs and outcomes of child welfare interventions: extending the Cost Calculator to include cost calculations for all children in need

Introduction

This project, funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, is designed to extend the Cost Calculator framework to include the costs of services for children in need who are not looked after. The study will help increase understanding of the comparative costs of looking after children in placements with family and friends or own parents, or of providing services for children who are supported in their families or independently through Section 17 arrangements.

Aims

• Map the range of services provided or commissioned by Children’s Services to children in need, and identify their specific and general objectives.
• Develop unit costs for the most commonly available services, including appropriate variations, and incorporate the additional cost-related processes for children in need together with any additional child-related variables.
• Utilise and then build upon the data items required for the new Children in Need Census.
• Trial the extended CCfCS in four research sites and identify with local authority managers how the calculations can be used in the planning, commissioning and delivery of services.

Progress

The researchers have completed a mapping exercise which sought to identify which services were most commonly accessed by children in need, their relative cost, and which could be most usefully included in calculations.

Fifteen local authorities participated by identifying the services that they solely or jointly funded or commissioned to support those children identified as being in need under section 17 of the Children Act (1989). They were asked to categorise each service by the Every Child Matters outcomes and explain the funding, nature and delivery of the service.

The research team have undertaken detailed work in four authorities in which the Cost Calculator is being implemented. Data has been gathered regarding the time spent on key activities undertaken in order to support children in need and their families. Child level data has also been gathered on a sample of 240 children.

Findings so far

• The research revealed the ‘core’ services which were most commonly cited and which take up the largest proportion of the children’s services budget.
• Case management teams’ whereby social care professionals manage the day to day needs of a case were defined as a core service.
• ‘Additional services’ such as groups or interventions aimed at addressing specific needs were also identified.

Next steps

Work is currently being undertaken to calculate unit costs for the core services identified in the mapping exercise and the detailed work with the four research authorities. These additional variables and unit costs will be added to the Cost Calculator as well as the costs incurred by education processes and services developed as part of the separate project.

The revised version will be piloted with selected data on a sample of 240 children in need followed for up to twelve months in the four authorities. The team will identify with local authority managers how the calculations can be used in the planning, commissioning and delivery of services.

Outputs

McDermid, S. (2008) Extending the Cost Calculator for all Children in Need. Mapping services for children in need and identifying child level data for those services. CCFR Evidence issue 12. Loughborough: CCFR, Loughborough University.

Ward, H., Holmes, L., Dyson, P., McDermid, S. and Scott, J. (2008) The Costs and Outcomes of Child Welfare Interventions: Mapping Children in Need Services. Report to the Department for Children, Schools and Families. Loughborough: CCFR.

Contact

Samantha McDermid, Research Associate

Email: S.Mcdermid@lboro.ac.uk

Lisa Holmes, Research Fellow

Email: L.J.Holmes@lboro.ac.uk