SW sufficiency model

This entity relationship diagram (ERD) represents the proposed data collection method for the Southwest Sufficiency Project, which aims to standardize children's data collection across the region. Additionally, this ERD can serve as a framework to link with data collected by other local authorities, fostering collaboration and consistency in data management practices across the region.

Project background:

In regions across England, children who are looked after are ending up in unsuitable homes. Children can be placed far away from where they need to be, without their siblings or in the wrong type of homes (e.g. residential over foster care). Homes are also increasingly expensive and are councils are overspending.

The Southwest region recognised a difficulty in understanding which homes were unsuitable and why, and could not produce any meaningful analysis to help their problem. They didn’t have a shared language for talking about the needs of children and what they require from a home. Each LA described needs differently and so there was no way of capturing and analysing data to understand what was leading to negative outcomes for children.

The Southwest Sufficiency project aims:

1. To create a standardised way of describing what individual children in care need from placement providers

2. To set up a way of sharing data across the region so that they could produce regional analyses to help understand and tackle the problem

So that we could:

• Answer conclusively ‘what new provision is worth investing in’ and quickly make the business case to our stakeholders

• Understand which providers are charging more/less to care for children with similar needs

• Forecast demand and spend, and understand the key drivers of future spend which we can address now

Social Finance were asked to undertake this project in the Southwest, with the intention that the standard developed here be made available to the wider sector, and that work being done elsewhere (e.g. on the tools for data sharing) be likewise made available to the Southwest.

Our project objectives were to:

1. Design a new standard for describing the needs of children and young people in relation to the type of care which will be suitable for them.

2. Plan for a pilot with four local authorities in the Southwest to work out how to implement this standard, without material operational or financial impact.

3. Design an approach to information sharing across the region using existing staff and systems, using Somerset as the data hub.