Ward, Harriet og Holmes, Lisa | Soper, Jean
The Cost Calculator is a computer application currently being developed by the Centre for Child and Family Research, Loughborough University as a practical tool that has the potential to introduce greater transparency into the relationship between costs and outcomes of services for vulnerable children. Although there are plans to develop the model at a later date to encompass a wider population of children and a more extensive range of services, the current version is restricted to the costs of social care processes for looked after children. The overall aim of the pilot study was to produce a working version (V3) of the Cost Calculator, appropriate to a specific local authority, that could be linked with its social services management information system and use exported data to calculate the social care costs incurred by a sample of at least 100 children looked after over a specific period. The model was to be developed in close consultation with the pilot authority, and with other authorities engaged in the original study, so that the research team could ensure that those elements which would be most useful for planning and commissioning strategies could be fully developed. The working version of the model was then to be developed into a standardised demonstration adaptation (V4) that could be more widely disseminated. This version could then be customised to meet the specific needs of other authorities
28 s., utgitt av The Centre for Child and Family Research i 2005.