CASE STUDY · CHILDREN IN CARE
On track for £5.6m a year in savings.
Fewer teenagers in residential care.
A county council's care costs were rising fast. Over five months we found out why, then helped them design and launch a specialist fostering service so more teenagers could live with families instead of in residential care.
Objectives and impact
We were commissioned to help the council meet more children's needs within the county, while relying less on expensive external placements. The work ran in two phases.
PHASE 01 · DIAGNOSTIC · 3 MONTHS
Find out where the pressure on placements was coming from, and what could be done about it.
IMPACT
£9.9m
of annual savings opportunities identified across fostering, commissioning and supported accommodation. The council took several forward itself, and we supported the largest.
PHASE 02 · SERVICE REDESIGN · 2 MONTHS
Design a specialist fostering service for 12 to 15 year olds at risk of residential care.
IMPACT
£5.6m
a year the service is on track to save, by avoiding 20 new residential placements over 3.5 years. We designed a new specialist carer role, a fee structure and a recruitment pipeline. The service is live and recruiting about one specialist carer a month, in step with new demand.
How we did it, and what we found
Five years of child-level data and case reviews showed where the pressure was coming from, and that skilled foster carers could keep more teenagers in families.
Mapped children's care journeys
12-15
Foster placement breakdowns for 12 to 15 year olds were driving residential demand.
Reviewed individual cases
35%
of new residential placements could have been avoided with more skilled foster carers.
Analysed independent fostering
11%
of placement requests for children aged 11+ were accepted by independent agencies, while in-house carers were full.
Designed the specialist carer role
20
residential placements the service is on track to avoid over 3.5 years, recruiting about one carer a month.