The costs of key worker support for disabled children and their families
The costs of key worker support for disabled children and their families
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1365-2214.2007.00740.x
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发表时间：
2007-09-01
影响因子：
1.9
通讯作者：
Webb, R.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Beecham, J.;Sloper, P.;Webb, R.
关键工作人员为残疾儿童及其家庭提供单一联系点，为他们提供支持，并为他们获得其他服务提供便利。关键工人服务似乎为家庭带来了良好的结果，中央政府的政策鼓励提供这些服务。最近增加的关键工人提供一直伴随着扩散的交付模式，但有很少的信息，其costs.Methods内的一项研究，确定哪些服务特性产生良好的结果，为家庭，单位成本为7个关键工人的服务进行了估计。根据经济学理论，这些估计利用了来自管理人员、财务部门和其他公开来源的数据。与关键工人接触的频率和持续时间的数据是从家庭获得的，并与服务特定的单位成本相结合，得出每个家庭的接触成本。探讨了支持家庭的成本变化。结果平均而言，关键工作人员在3个月内与残疾儿童及其家人接触的成本为151磅。研究发现，联系成本因儿童残疾程度和关键工作人员所扮演角色的数量而异。后一个变量是与改善outcomes.Conclusion的低响应率的问卷调查和缺乏数据的成本的其他元素的家庭的支持包可能会限制从这项研究的推广。即便如此，这些发现也有助于管理者和规划者了解如何分配稀缺资源。优质服务似乎成本更高，但成本、质量和成果之间的关系并不简单。
Background Key workers provide a single point of contact for disabled children and their families, supporting them and facilitating access to other services. Key worker services appear to generate good outcomes for families and provision is encouraged through central government policy. Recent increases in key worker provision have been accompanied by a proliferation of delivery models yet there is very little information on their costs.Methods Within a study identifying which service characteristics generate good outcomes for families, unit costs for seven key worker services were estimated. Informed by economic theory, the estimates drew on data from managers, finance departments and other publicly available sources. Data on the frequency and duration of contact with key workers were obtained from families and combined with the service- specific unit costs to arrive at the contact cost per family. The variations in the costs of supporting families were explored.Results On average, key worker contact with disabled children and their families cost 151 pound over a 3- month period. Contact costs were found to vary with the level of the child's disability and the number of role aspects that key workers performed. This latter variable was associated with improved outcomes.Conclusion The low response rate to the questionnaire and absence of data on the costs of other elements of the families' support packages may limit generalization from this study. Even so, such findings can help inform managers and planners about allocation of their scarce resources. Good- quality services appear to cost more but the relationship between cost, quality and outcomes is not a simple one.