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Costs and consequences of placing children in care: New book from CCFR

Researchers from the Centre for Child and Family Research (CCFR) based at Loughborough University, have released an important new book which draws on original research investigating the costs of providing care to children and young people and how variations in these costs relate to differences in children's needs.

An ideal resource for social work managers and policy makers working in children's services, 'Costs and Consequences of Placing Children in Care' describes a study that aimed to calculate the costs of care pathways for a sample of 478 children looked after over a 20 month period.

The study, funded initially by the Department of Health and later by the Department for Education and Skills, explored factors within both the children's characteristics and the service responses that contributed to cost variations. The relationship between need, cost and outcome was further explored by gathering recorded information from case files and qualitative interviews with a smaller sample of the children.

The methodology devised to cost care pathways and link these to outcomes has now been developed by CCFR into a computer application called the Cost Calculator for Children's Services (CCfCS) which can be used by any child welfare agency to link the costs of social care processes over different timeframes for children with different levels of need.

The costing methodology and CCfCS are being further developed by CCFR to cover a wider group of children and broader range of services.

'The aim of this extensive programme of work and the objective of the book is not to suggest ways to cut costs or reduce the number of services offered' said Professor Harriet Ward, lead author and Director of CCFR.

'It is about providing agencies with the evidence and tools they need to ensure children and young people who enter the care system receive high quality care and support. At the heart of the book are the children and young people who took part in the initial research - case studies provide an important insight into their needs.'

'Our ultimate objective is to make it possible for agencies to compare the full costs to the public purse incurred over time by children with different levels of need and explore how costs relate to outcomes.'

The book is the fourth volume in the Child Welfare Outcomes series, edited by Harriet Ward and is available to purchase from Jessica Kingsley Publishers at www.jkp.com. Alternatively, please download an order form