Cambridgeshire Council – Supporting person centred value-for-money commissioning across the County
The Challenge
- Significant financial pressures due to spiralling health and social care costs.
- Having a clear understanding of care costings in the market.
- Lack of data and evidence to support a transparent conversation between provider and commissioner.
- Difficulty realising value for money in commissioning.
The Solution
- Using CareCubed to benchmark existing and new placements.
- Use of CareCubed tool to understand progress-focused placement costing.
- Implementation services to support culture change and give Home-Finding Officers confidence to challenge.
Results
- Clarification of the true cost of care and operational service delivery.
- £180,166 savings made between April 2025 – December 2025.
- Confidence in benchmarks and provider relationships.
- Implementation of long-term goals for placements with beneficial financial modelling.
When reviewing their systems around children’s social care, Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC) identified a need to improve transparency and accuracy in the costing of placements.
Historically, these placement costs were determined by CCC through referencing previous provider rates. Without a comprehensive benchmarking system, this limited the council’s ability to ensure value for money and made it challenging to negotiate effectively with providers.
To address these challenges, the council implemented the CareCubed Children’s module — the nationally recognised benchmarking tool.
“Through CareCubed we know what to look for in quality care for our young people, not just in a budgetary sense but for that young person who can have a lot of positive progress.
We’ve had a few young people over the last year who have de-escalated and are in much stronger positions regarding their prospects than they would have been if we hadn’t had the correct data available to us from CareCubed. This enabled us to place them in the right environment to live their best lives – and importantly build the skills they need for adulthood.”
CareCubed was used to provide a benchmark for both existing and new placements, analyse the breakdown of costs, and provide a more transparent basis for negotiation with providers.
According to Gavin Mullin, Commissioning Manager at Cambridgeshire County Council, CareCubed has enabled the council to move from broad package estimates to more detailed, area-specific costings, enhancing transparency and supporting informed negotiations. CareCubed has also provided insight into previously underestimated cost drivers, such as broadband, property rent, and energy.
