Greenwich- Using marginal costs to develop
a business case for investment
Summary of context
Greenwich is a London Borough that has some of the characteristics
of both an inner and outer London Borough. The last few years have
seen much regeneration of what was the run down dockside area. With
a population of approximately 250,000, it is of average size for a
London Borough. It has an increasing population but relatively low
levels of ethnic minority communities. Educational achievement across
the Borough has been poor for several years and in 2000, the Authority
recorded the second poorest performance nationally for educational
achievement for its looked after children.
The Authority determined that a large number of its looked after children
were either in residential or independent fostering agency placements
at some distance from the Borough. This was making it difficult to
enable children to return to the Borough promptly or to focus on their
education.
Good Practice
Greenwich calculated the cost of all out of authority placements and
what the cost would be if all those placements were with foster carers
within the Authority. This enabled them to present a business case
for investment to the Corporate Management Team to invest in the fostering
service.
Benefits
An increased investment in the fostering service, enabling the
start of a professional fostering service.
Increased stability of placements.
A focus via foster carers on education, considerably improving
educational achievement of 16 year olds.