Total spending and total number of children change year on year, so it is difficult to make sense of them. Spend per child helps by saying how much support goes to each child, including staff time.
Child in need
Assessed as in need of support under Section 17 of the Children Act 1989
Looked after child
Looked after by local councils, and usually live with foster carers, or in residential care settings such as children’s homes
Spend per child in need in 2016-17 (£, 2017 prices)
We are happy to help youth offending teams to understand their value for money better. Other types of organisations are also welcome to contact us. For example, schools, children’s services, hospitals, and police forces can learn about their value for money through our analyses.
The amount of resources required per case, or ‘unit costs’, matter to everyone, not just accountants, because they tell us a lot about public sector interventions.
Strategists
We understand risks and success chances in advance
Managers
We know the resources we need in the future
Accountants
We can turn our information into useful estimates for colleagues
We collect the information required to estimate resources through workshops and interviews with those who run the interventions. We also analyse accountancy records. Our costing software tool makes information collection faster and cheaper.
It is good to step back and think about the things that have and have not worked. However, if the organisations do this by themselves they find it difficult to be objective. We at Aldaba have the skills to do independent evaluations. We think evaluations are not just about asking people whether they are happy with the service they receive from the organisations. Evaluations require a set of techniques that give the organisations reassurance that they can claim some of the improvements they see in the people they work with.