Jean Soper, Loughborough University and Si Chun Lam, Coventry City Council

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 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

9. 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

10. 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 Core SEN LAC

12. Education processes 2 • Special Educational Needs • Statutory Assessment • SEN Panel • Statementing (Assessment Process) • Handling Disputes (Tribunal) • SEN Annual Review Core SEN LAC

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 Core SEN LAC

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

15. Statutory Assessment - SEN Panel Activities: SEN Panel Meeting SEN Education Officer Head of SEN Parent Partnership Officer Head of Education Welfare Service Educational Psychologist Who goes?      How long? 30 mins 30 mins 30 mins 30 mins 30 mins Where held? SEN Office Travel N/A N/A 1 hour 1 hour 1 hour 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 Education Officer Annual Salary £40,000.00 per year Weeks per year 42.0 Hours per week 37.0 Basic Salary £25.74 per hour Salary oncosts £6.72 per hour Management overheads £4.53 per hour Capital overheads £1.38 per hour Unit costs £38.36 per hour

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

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 • 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