Costs and Consequences of Placing Children in Care

Costs and Consequences of Placing Children in Care

by HarrietWard (Author), Lisa Holmes (Author), JeanSoper (Author), RichardOlsen (Author)

Synopsis

It costs more to place a child in the care of a local authority than it does to send a child to a top boarding school, and there are substantial variations in costs both between and within authorities.

This book gets to the bottom of the costs of care and provides an insight into how these variations in cost relate to differences in children's needs, and most importantly, whether higher costs reflect better services and better outcomes for children.

Costs and Consequences for Children Placed Away from Home draws from new original research, and considers the implications for best practice and future policy. It also features information about a newly pioneered resource: a fully workable decision analysis model designed for use in local authorities which uses historical data for each child to calculate the probable cost consequences of difference placement choices.

This book sheds light on how to calculate the financial and social costs of care, and will be invaluable to both social work managers and policy makers working in children's services.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 288
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Published: 15 Jul 2008

ISBN 10: 1843102730
ISBN 13: 9781843102731

Media Reviews
This book may have an important contribution to make towards ensuring that costs of care are looked at consistently within, and across, local authorities and help to ensure the best possible care is provided for looked after children. -- Professional Social Work
The messages for practice within are many. -- British Journal of Social Work
The book provides a wealth of information to help to address a number of key questions. -- Rostrum
Author Bio
Harriet Ward is Director of the Centre for Child and Family Research and Senior Research Fellow at Loughborough University, UK. She has undertaken extensive research in the field of assessing need and evaluating outcomes in children's services. Lisa Holmes is a Research Associate at the Centre for Child and Family Research at Loughborough University, UK. Her research interests include the provision of support services for foster carers, costs of foster care, and youth justice. Jean Soper is based at Leicester University, UK.