Lesley Goode and Anna Jones

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What are the real costs of children in care?
Costing social care, health and joint
commissioning processes using the Cost Calculator

• Lesley Goode and Anna Jones

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Today

• Background
• CCfCS
• Customisation and implementation
• Strengths of the model
• The wider picture
• The local authoritys perspective
• Health extension
• Conclusions

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Background

• Initial study
• ?
• Methodology for calculating costs of care
  episodes
• ?
• Development, pilot and production of a CCfCS
• ?
• Extension of methodology

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The CCfCS

• Combines fee/allowance costs and support costs
• Is practise based
• Calculates individual costs based on the actual
  care history of each child
• Relates costs to childrens needs
• Presents results for any child, group of children
  or type of placement by any time period
• Analyses costs by outcomes

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Customisation

• Customisation is not essential
• What goes in
• unit costs of social care processes
• data on children and placements
• Via import mechanism
• What comes out
• reports available

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Strengths of the CCfCS model

• Developed in consultation with LAs
• Uses readily available information
• Facilitates strategic planning, thinking and
  commissioning
• Longitudinal perspective
• Flexible model

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The wider picture

• Authorities who have purchased the CCfCS
• Authorities using the CCfCS
• Extension to include all CIN
• Education extension
• North East collaboration
• User group

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The local authoritys perspective

• Reasons Cheshire purchased the CCfCS
• to stimulate and constructively manage
  competition with external providers
• to improve strategic commissioning
• to facilitate comparisons between alternative
  packages of care.
• Predicted savings
• System security

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Extending the CCfCS to include health and mental
health

• Two year Knowledge Transfer Partnership
• Health and mental health services
• Joint commissioning processes
• Agreements for joint funding
• Conceptual framework

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The work so far

• Health and mental health service mapping
• Links with
• Healthy Care
• Derby City PCT
• Greenwood Institute of Mental Health (Leicester
  University)
• Health CCfCS working group
• Cost case studies

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Potential benefits

• Establish a range of costs
• Understand if services provide value for money
• Improved care packages
• Demonstrate how costs are spread across agencies
• More efficient joint commissioning and strategic
  planning
• Facility to demonstrate best use of public funds
• Improved choice

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Conclusions

• CCfCS achievements so far
• wider benefits towards LAC/ health agenda
• raised priority of streamlining commissioning
• costing of panel procedures

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Contact details

• Anna Jones
• Anna.Jones_at_Cheshire.gov.uk
• 01244 977 241
• 07768 746 784
• Lesley Goode
• Lesley.Goode_at_Cheshire.gov.uk
• 01270 669 944
• www.ccfcs.org.uk
• CostCalculator_at_lboro.ac.uk