Holmes Lisa, Landsverk John, Ward Harriet, Rolls-Reutz Jennifer, Saldana Lisa, Wulczyn Fred, Chamberlain Patricia
Centre for Child and Family Research, Department of Social Science, Loughborough University, Leicestershire LE11 3TU, England, United Kingdom.
Child and Adolescent Services Research Center, Rady Children's Hospital, San Diego, 3022 Children's Way, MC 5033, San Diego, CA 92123, USA.
Child Youth Serv Rev. 2014 Apr 1;39:169-176. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2013.10.003.
Estimating costs in child welfare services is critical as new service models are incorporated into routine practice. This paper describes a unit costing estimation system developed in England (cost calculator) together with a pilot test of its utility in the United States where unit costs are routinely available for health services but not for child welfare services. The cost calculator approach uses a unified conceptual model that focuses on eight core child welfare processes. Comparison of these core processes in England and in four counties in the United States suggests that the underlying child welfare processes generated from England were perceived as very similar by child welfare staff in California county systems with some exceptions in the review and legal processes. Overall, the adaptation of the cost calculator for use in the United States child welfare systems appears promising. The paper also compares the cost calculator approach to the workload approach widely used in the United States and concludes that there are distinct differences between the two approaches with some possible advantages to the use of the cost calculator approach, especially in the use of this method for estimating child welfare costs in relation to the incorporation of evidence-based interventions into routine practice.
随着新的服务模式被纳入日常实践，估算儿童福利服务成本至关重要。本文介绍了在英国开发的一种单位成本估算系统（成本计算器），以及在美国对其效用进行的一项试点测试。在美国，卫生服务的单位成本是常规可得的，但儿童福利服务的单位成本并非如此。成本计算器方法使用一个统一的概念模型，该模型侧重于八个核心儿童福利流程。英国与美国四个县的这些核心流程的比较表明，加利福尼亚州县系统中的儿童福利工作人员认为，源自英国的潜在儿童福利流程非常相似，不过在审查和法律流程方面存在一些例外情况。总体而言，将成本计算器应用于美国儿童福利系统似乎很有前景。本文还将成本计算器方法与美国广泛使用的工作量方法进行了比较，并得出结论，这两种方法存在明显差异，使用成本计算器方法可能具有一些优势，特别是在使用该方法估算儿童福利成本以将循证干预措施纳入日常实践方面。
