Comparing Costs and Benefits ofdifferent models of Child Care

Approach, results and lessons learnt

Comparing Costs and Benefits ofdifferent models of Child Care

Contents– Deinstitutionalisation and the rights of the child;– Framework and hypotheses of the research;– The Child Care Conceptual Framework;– The CBA Framework;– Child Care Costs;– CBA outcomes;– Strengths and weaknesses of the results;– Follow-ups and the situation today.

Comparing Costs and Benefits ofdifferent models of Child Care

Deinstitutionalisation and the rights of the child I– process of replacement of the “one size fits all”

institutional childcare with community-based family or close to family environment care…”under the principle “resources following the child”

– Little willingness to initiate policy reforms: weak evidence base, inertia of the resources allocation system, absence of clear strategic planning for implementation;

– The National Strategy for the Child 2008-2018 aims to decrease the number of institutions and create alternative types of care and community-based social services.

Comparing Costs and Benefits ofdifferent models of Child Care

Deinstitutionalisation and the rights of the child II, systems definition

Comparing Costs and Benefits ofdifferent models of Child Care

A study by the DG Regional Policy on a Cost Benefit Analysis was conducted by:– Child Care leavers in their 20s, too many to mention

but indispensable;– Mrs. Zlatka MIHOVA, Social Research Expert;– Mrs. Elka NALBANTOVA, Child Care Expert;– Mrs. Ivanka SHALAPATOVA, Child Policies Expert;– Mr. Kostadin STOILOV, CBA/Costs expert;– Mr. Benno SAVIOLI, CBA expert;– Mr. Angelos SANOPOULOS, Team Leader.

Comparing Costs and Benefits ofdifferent models of Child Care

Hypotheses of the research– Alternative forms of Child Care are more

expensive than institutional Child Care at a cost per capita ratio;

– Alternative forms of Child Care (foster care, kinship care, community based residential care) meet individual needs better;

– Care leavers of alternative forms of Child Care fare better in their adult, independent life;

– Care leavers of alternative forms of Child Care have a higher positive contribution to society as a whole.

Comparing Costs and Benefits ofdifferent models of Child Care

The Child Care Conceptual Framework

Costs as inflows

Output as headcount

Costs as resource:

Financial

Material

Human

Additional

(donations)

Hidden costs

Outputs as skills:

Self-sustainability

Sociability

Personality/Maturity

Life skills

Needs:

Physical

Cognitive

Emotional

Social

Services:

Physical

Cognitive

Emotional

Social

Admi-nistration

Comparing Costs and Benefits ofdifferent models of Child Care

The CBA Framework contained:– A model for tangible costs of childcare systems to

calculate the average cost per placement and year;– A model for income generated over life time – depending

on educational attainment;– Two models for the cost of unemployment depending on

educational attainment calculating direct cost over life time, on estimated unemployment benefits paid, and on foregone contributions due to unemployment over life time;

– A model for health cost;– A model for cost due to increased divergent

behaviour/crime.

Comparing Costs and Benefits ofdifferent models of Child Care

Child Care Costs– Community Based Residential Care is the most expensive

child care form on a cost per child base (higher cost of specialized personnel, small scale of care units, transparent full costs).

– Foster/Kinship Care forms demonstrate low total public cost per child, as a significant part of the costs are covered by the families themselves, or by the service providers (twice or three times higher than the amount invested by the state).

– In institutions the cost per child ratio looks better than it is; for example rents for facilities are not paid or are calculated far below market level, depreciation of assets is non-existent or extremely rudimentary etc.

Comparing Costs and Benefits ofdifferent models of Child Care

CBA outcomes– Foster Care in all its forms has a superior Benefit/Cost

Ratio than all the other forms of Child Care; this can reach the tenfold of the ratio for Institutional Care.

– Community Based Residential Care has in some case an inferior Benefit/Cost Ratio compared to Institutional Care, attributed partially to the higher placement costs (total Community Based Residential Care benefits being higher than Institutional Care in all cases) and partially to the practical orientation of the education delivered within Community Based Residential Care;

– In Institutional Care benefits and costs hold the balance, however at a low level.

Comparing Costs and Benefits ofdifferent models of Child Care

Other outcomes and considerations– Alternative Care Leavers have constantly expressed

higher satisfaction with the care services received in comparison to Institutional Care Leavers;

– Alternative Care Leavers have outperformed their Institutional Care peers in all objectively verifiable indicators like educational attainment, income and stability of working environment;

– There was a clear trend in favour of Alternative Care Leavers over Institutional Care Leavers in the way they cope with their independent life out of the care system as adult citizens. This trend is observable in all fields.

Comparing Costs and Benefits ofdifferent models of Child Care

Developments– There are positive trends in the shift from institutional to

community based care but not the end of the road;– 3505 fewer children living in institutions and over 2200

more children placed with foster parents (100 in 2010); Increased reliance on kinship care – more children are placed with relatives versus placed in institutions;

– But is little or no synergy between project-based interventions and other mainstream sector processes;

– Still need to strengthen the child protection system, and to increase focus on preventive measures, family support, early intervention and strengthen social workers.

Comparing Costs and Benefits ofdifferent models of Child Care

Conclusions and outlook– Integrate Social Return on Investment!-• Policy Decisions: Policy promoting support in priority

of biological family over foster family over Community Based Residential Care;• Technical aspects: cost structure (ABC), size of the

sample, longitudinal observation, assumptions of the CBA model;• Service Aspects: Conceptualisation of a wide range of

services and definition of standards for quality, funding and accounting, taking in account the satisfaction of the children’ needs.