Many people see prevention as the solution in children’s services because it is cheap in the short term and can save money in the future, but they might be wrong.
If a child receives targeted and expensive support early, the cost may end up being 40 per cent cheaper in the long term. Read more
Our new report on spending and delivery by children’s services is out. It includes estimates of spending per head, and examples of how local councils adapted to changes over the last Parliament. Read our report Read more
Central government, local authorities, and other public sector organisations need to know their unit costs.
In partnership with Dartington Social Research Unit, we are developing a software tool to estimate the unit costs of core services, programmes and projects in line with the Green Book. Read more
Around 60 per cent of pupils achieve good marks in their GCSE exams, but if they come from a worse-off family the percentage comes down to 30. You may think that the solution is to give them more teaching hours in smaller groups. Not that easy.
At Aldaba, we looked at ten of the best pieces of research on after-school tutoring in the world. We found some useful lessons for teachers, policy makers, and school investors. Read more
Dr Miguel Garcia-Sanchez, Director of Aldaba, and Dr Tim Hobbs, from the Dartington Social Research Unit, will be presenting on the unit costs of interventions for vulnerable children at a conference in Washington DC on 28 May. This is as part of Big Lottery Fund’s Realising Ambition programme.
In this blog, I argue that public investments can create new resources and bring up the question of cheapness versus quality in social care.
Dr Miguel Garcia-Sanchez, Director of Aldaba, will be presenting a paper at a conference in Washington DC on 27 May. He will explain the initial findings of the evaluation of Prevention Matters.
Working with the Social Research Unit, Aldaba examined the economic case for Family Nurse Partnership. The funding for this programme for young mums is moving from the NHS to local authorities. Read our report
In this blog I argue that the good work that Government economists do needs to be explained clearly. I take the Universal Credit as an example. My estimate is that 80 per cent of the savings associated with the Universal Credit will never turn into cash.
In this blog, I argue that the funding model for schools and colleges might create pervasive incentives which make participation of NEETs in learning more difficult. Read more