Alma Economics was commissioned by Action for Children, Barnardo’s, The Children’s Society, the National Children’s Bureau, and the NSPCC to compare the costs and benefits of the government’s Stable Homes, Built on Love Strategy for reform of children’s social care with recommendations made by the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care (the “Care Review”).

Our team first conducted a review of the government’s actions and policy commitments for children’s social care in England following the completion of the Care Review. We incorporated the identified changes into a cost-benefit analysis (CBA) model we had developed during earlier work for the Care Review. We estimated the cost of delayed or limited action for all recommendations mentioned in the government’s strategy across two key policy scenarios: (i) delayed implementation, where the government implements the Care Review’s recommendations from 2025/26 onwards; and (ii) no further action, under which the government takes no further action after two years of the Stable Homes, Built on Love strategy (business-as-usual).

The outcome of this project was a comprehensive presentation that highlighted key figures, including (i) the cost of delay in fully implementing reforms per year and over the next 10 years; (ii) the number of children looked after that would have avoided care under full implementation of the Care Review’s recommendations; and (iii) the average cost to society over several time intervals. Our research has contributed significantly to the charities’ efforts to secure the necessary government investment in children’s services.

Our work received extensive press coverage including this report from Channel 4 News.