Bexley Children's Services Commissioning Review Identifies Opportunities for Needs-Led Changes and Cost Management

Bexley's Children's Services is undergoing a significant transformation, with a particular focus on improving how services are commissioned to better meet the needs of vulnerable children and young people. A review of commissioning developments within the Children's Services Transformation programme, part of the wider Future Bexley Transformation Programme, has identified opportunities to enhance the matching of children's needs to suitable placements and to address the financial impact of high-cost placements.

The service is aiming to make significant contributions towards Children's Services transformation savings of £1.980m proposed in the draft budget for 2026/27 through these commissioning improvements. ¹

An external strategic partner was engaged to evaluate current systems and processes using a 'Valuing Care' approach. This framework is designed to support local authorities in better understanding, articulating, and aligning children's needs, outcomes, and placement costs. It provides a structured and holistic assessment of a child or young person's strengths and needs, enabling more informed care planning and placement decision-making. The approach supports a consistent, shared understanding across practitioners, commissioning and placement teams, and providers, ensuring that decisions remain needs-led and child-centred while also strengthening the authority's ability to assess value for money. At an individual level, it supports reflective practice by enabling the team around the child to clearly describe needs, track how these change over time, and assess whether the level and type of provision remains appropriate. The 'Valuing Care' profile allows for more effective measurement of outcomes for children within a placement. ²

The review identified that while current commissioning practices are largely aligned with children's needs, there are opportunities for improvement. These include needs-led changes to care and support for some children, such as exploring reunification, stepping down to a foster family, and permanence options. Mechanisms are also being established for reviewing children in high-cost residential placements, with models to assist in benchmarking needs and costs. ³

Key recommendations include redesigning the Placement Referral Form to be more strength-based. This redesigned form is intended to focus on children's strengths as well as their needs, putting context around the child and their presenting behaviours, which is expected to further enhance the ability to match children to placements. Piloting Home finding forums with multi-disciplinary teams and providers is also proposed to improve the matching process for hard-to-place children. ⁴

The development of dedicated commissioning roles is highlighted as crucial for managing the placement market more effectively and progressing opportunities at pace. The lack of this expertise in the team, alongside current capacity pressures, limits the ability to progress opportunities quickly. These roles will provide an opportunity to further manage the placement market more effectively, improving resilience, planning, enabling stronger market engagement, and supporting the delivery of financial opportunities. ⁵

The service is making appropriate use of foster care and residential provision, aligned with the needs of the child. However, expenditure on placements for children in care can be especially volatile due to the small number of children requiring placement in residential homes who have disproportionately high unit costs, sometimes exceeding £10,000 per week. The cost of tuition services has also increased disproportionately due to unprecedented growth in the numbers of children out of school due to issues such as emotionally based school avoidance. ⁶

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