Commissioning services for children living away from home
Effective commissioning underpins the government's objectives for looked-after children. We have developed a set of materials to help commissioners in children's services improve the way they commission services for children living away from home.
Commissioning
placements and services for looked after children and children with special
educational needs and disabilities in residential placements (June
2005)
This document outlines the key considerations for local authorities and their
partners in developing a strategic commissioning strategy, helping them to
ensure they have the range of provision required to meet both the current and
anticipated future needs of their population.
Commissioning
Checklist (July 2004)
A step-by-step guide to assist better planning and commissioning of placements
and services for looked-after children and children with special educational
needs and disabilities in residential schools. The checklist has been designed
as a practical tool for commissioners from social care, education and health
services who are working in partnership across their own agencies and with
providers from all sectors. It is intended both to help get started in
producing a commissioning strategy, and to regularly review your
strategy.
The checklist is in three parts. Part 1 will help you to organise an analysis
of your local situation, and part 2 will help you examine how well you collect
key information. Part 3 provides a basic framework for you to produce an action
plan.
Developing
Commissioning of Services for Looked-After Children (January 2006)
This report summarises the work of the Looked-After Children Taskforce. It is
intended to help local authorities or independent fostering providers to
improve the planning and commissioning of placements for looked-after
children.
Good
Practice in Commissioning Services for Children Living Away from Home (July
2004)
This magazine gives good practice examples from social care, health and
education and signposts useful research and websites.
High-Cost
Placements Audit Tool (April 2005)
This audit tool was developed to help local authorities and their partner
agencies understand patterns and trends in their use of high-cost placements
for children with complex needs. It uses a small selected sample of children to
gather information about their background, service histories, characteristics
and needs. The introductory note gives you some guidance on how to use the
audit tool to gather and analyse information.
The audit tool has been piloted in a number of different authorities across
England. It can be used as provided or it can be amended to meet the particular
needs of your local authority or region.
Investing
to Save - leaflet and North East strategies document (July 2004)
This leaflet gives examples of invest-to-save schemes from across the country
and is aimed at helping elected members understand how they can improve the way
their local authority carries out its corporate parenting duties.
Looked
After Children Taskforce: Final Report (July 2005)
This is the final report from the former Looked After Children Taskforce.
The report includes includes materials which support the commissioning of
services and placements.
Looking
After Children: At What Cost? (September 2005)
A leaflet emphasises the cost implications of the decisions frontline staff
make, while the resource pack is a tool to help those responsible for planning
and commissioning placements or services for children living away from home.
All the information in the pack is based on key messages and costing
methodology from a research study carried out in six local authorities in
England and Wales and a subsequent piece of work to pilot the cost calculator -
a costing tool developed as part of the research - in a local authority.
MALAPs
- Establishing Multi-Agency Looked After Partnerships (June 2005)
Developed to promote the implementation of the Healthy Care Programme,
multi-agency looked after partnerships (MALAPs) aim to bring together a range
of partner agencies to facilitate their support of the local authority's
responsibilities to promote the health of looked-after children. Developed in
the North East by John Brown, regional development worker.
Unit
Costs - Not Exactly Child's Play (January 2000)
This is a guide to estimating unit costs for children's social care,
published in 2000 by the Personal Social Services Research Unit and the
Department of Health. The guide is designed to make unit cost calculation
comprehensible to local authority staff, researchers and trainers.
Listen
then Commission (January 2003)
This report makes a number of recommendations about how children's views
could be incorporated into the commissioning process and these recommendations
will be brought to local authorities' attention.
This page was last updated on 02 July 2007
