The Challenge
- Understanding the costs which make up packages of care.
- Controlling spiralling placement costs.
- Changing the organisation’s culture around questioning the cost of care.
The Solution
- Appointing an analyst to understand the local market with CareCubed as a key part of the role.
- Reviewing cohorts of placements, starting with high-cost placements and moving onto midrange placements.
- Using CareCubed to help shape the market, especially around cost setting for new providers.
- Using CareCubed as a robust evidence base and consistent approach which is understood by all key stakeholders.
Results
- £1.58m cost avoidance since November 2022 (total at April 2025).
- Increased confidence in negotiating and understanding provider cost bases.
- Now confident to apply CareCubed learnings and practices to independent non-maintained special schools.
Lancashire County Council (LCC) was the first local authority to adopt the CareCubed Children’s module. Its trail-blazing work has seen a rapid uptake of the tool in the North West region and has contributed to £1.58m of savings and cost avoidance on looked-after children’s home placements since November 2022. The tool is also helping shape the local provider market and supporting culture change in the organisation.
“Initially when we started it was any high-cost children’s home over £6,500 per week. Now we have a real grip on high-cost homes and our
numbers have significantly gone down – partly due to CareCubed but also due to a culture change in the organisation,”
Annette McNeil
Senior Commissioning Manager for Policy,
Commissioning and Children’s Health
After a period of learning how to use the tool, LCC appointed a Market Placement Analyst to help the authority understand the local market.
A key part of this role is CareCubed. This was initially a two-year fixed-term position but was quickly made permanent as the savings became evident.
The first use of CareCubed in this role was for the analyst to carry out CareCubed on its high-cost placement cohort, as well as for uplifts and to work with new providers on understanding fair cost of care. By July 2024 the council was ready to include mid-range homes in its processes, including its framework contract providers.
Annette McNeil, Senior Commissioning Manager for Policy, Commissioning and Children’s Health at LCC says CareCubed has given the organisation a structure to “dive deep into costs”.
“It is about the right home for the right child at the right time in the right place and that means it needs to be a home that meets and matches the child’s needs. It is culture shift of understanding that paying more doesn’t mean that you are getting better care. We are much braver and bolder in Lancashire now because everyone is on the same page and understands the financial constraints we have.”
Annette McNeil
Senior Commissioning Manager for Policy,
Commissioning and Children’s Health
