1 The Cost Calculator for Children’s Services: Better Decision Making in Commissioning and Education Services Jean Soper, Loughborough University and Si Chun Lam, Coventry City Council

2 Cost Calculator for Children’s Services (CCfCS) Computer application in Microsoft Access, produces reports in Excel Helps monitor the true costs of services to looked after children so as to improve strategic planning and commissioning Based on detailed research in 6 local authorities Piloted in an ICS-pilot authority Ongoing development programme to include education, other services & all children in need

3 The Cost Calculator… calculates costs from the bottom up combines fee/ allowance costs with the costs of social work support for placements calculates individual costs based on the actual care history of each child includes variations by local authority, placement type and child’s needs presents results for any child, group of children or type of placement by any time period analyses costs by outcomes

4 Research results: Index of variation in cost by needs Needs groupIndex EBD152 Offending163 UASC164 Disability ( CWD) 226 CWD+EBD278 EBD+Offend291 No additional needs = 100 Children in different needs groups follow different cost pathways Different cost pathways reflect variations in both costs and frequency of processes A very few <3% exceptional children (not shown in this table) can completely skew profile

5 Research results: Linking costs and outcomes Child with no additional support needs: ~Placement stability, better contact, better educational outcomes, eligible for additional support: virtuous circle Child with high support needs: ~Frequent placement changes, little contact, exclusions & changes of school, not eligible for or refuses additional support: vicious circle ~Least positive outcomes for children with EBD + offending behaviour

6 Key messages from research For some children postponing service provision only reduces short- term costs; more costly placements and services may be required in the long-term Children placed with parents or relatives often require intensive support; it is a false economy to consider these placements as relatively cost free Better cost estimates lead to better informed decision making – in devising packages of care / joint commissioning A systems approach should calculate costs for looked after children within the context of providing services to all children in need A systems approach should also demonstrate how costs are spread across agencies

7 CCfCS: research based Research findings form the basis of the model ~unit costs for each process ~cost calculation methodology CCfCS implementation version You can import your own data ~data import mechanism You can customise your unit costs ~unit costs database

8 Social care processes 1. Decide child needs to be looked after (including activity for finding initial placement) 2. Care planning 3. Maintaining the placement 4. Leaving care/ return home 5. Find a subsequent placement 6. Review 7. Legal processes 8. Transition to leaving care services

Partnership to develop unit costs for Special Educational Needs Coventry KTP ~Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) ~Children’s Social Care ~Special Educational Needs (SEN) Bottom-up approach to costing

The Coventry picture Understanding costs and outcomes Developing in-house provision Better information = better decisions Engagement with stakeholders ~Management (service and strategic managers) ~Social care teams (social workers, administrators) ~SEN team (education officer, caseworkers) ~Data team (information analysts)

11 Education processes 1 Core Services ~Universal Education ~Home Tuition ~Exclusions/Managed Moves ~School Action/School Action Plus CoreSENLAC

12 Education processes 2 Special Educational Needs ~Statutory Assessment SEN Panel Statementing (Assessment Process) Handling Disputes (Tribunal) ~SEN Annual Review CoreSENLAC

13 Education processes 3 Looked After Children ~Personal Education Plans ~Placement Finding Within local authority boundaries Out of local authority boundaries ~Continuing Care / Children’s Support Panel CoreSENLAC

14 Unit cost of activity Number of hours taken for activity Hourly cost of postholder who carries out activity =x What is a Unit Cost? Recording the time taken to complete specific activities Gathering data in the least intrusive way

15 Statutory Assessment - SEN Panel SEN Office 1 hour N/A Travel Where held? 30 mins How long? Who goes? Educational Psychologist Head of Education Welfare Service Parent Partnership Officer Head of SEN SEN Education Officer Activities: SEN Panel Meeting Sample data only.

16 Calculating unit costs Derive per hour salary for post-holders: ~Finding average salaries ~Adding on-costs and overheads Finding unit costs for activities: ~Multiplying salary with activity data ~Using Unit Costs Database

17 Derive unit cost from salaries per hour£38.36Unit costs per hour£1.38Capital overheads per hour£4.53Management overheads per hour£6.72Salary oncosts per hour£25.74Basic Salary 37.0Hours per week 42.0Weeks per year per year£40,000.00Annual Salary Education Officer

18 30 mins SEN Office 1 hour N/A Travel Where held? 30 mins £19.18 How long? Who goes? Educational Psychologist Head of Education Welfare Service Parent Partnership Officer Head of SEN SEN Education Officer Activities: SEN Panel Meeting Sample data only. Unit Costs for the SEN Panel

19 Findings and dissemination Unit costs for SEN in Coventry Combined with data for Cost Calculator Complexity/variations accounted for Will be available to all users of the Cost Calculator

20 Unit Costs of Statutory Assessment Post-holderSEN Education Officer Head of SEN SEN Case Worker SEN Administrator Educational Psychologist Head of Education Welfare Parent Partnership Officer Standard Case £200£50 £25£200£50£25 Cost of Standard Case = £600 Add complexities: ~Child with complex needs such as emotional behavioural difficulties = £535 ~Dispute entering tribunal = £865 Total Cost of Complex Case = £2000