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 approac...

This article updates the private social welfare expenditures series with complete data for 1985 and information for most categories through 1986. In the United States, private sector expenditures play a substantial role in the provision of social welfare services. This article presents private social welfare expenditures in terms of the four major categories--health, education, welfare and rela...

This brief summarizes the knowledge base and research needs related to LGBT people and child welfare programs. The brief address four topics: (1) the risk of child maltreatment for LGBT people, (2) the experiences of LGBT youth in child welfare programs, (3) the effectiveness of child welfare services for LGBT youth in foster care, and (4) the participation of LGBT adults in child welfare servi...

A key question in welfare policy concerns the potential that welfare-to-work programs have to develop in teenage parents the motivation and skills to provide financially for themselves and their children. The Teenage Parent Welfare Demonstration was a major experiment initiated in 1986 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and evaluated by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., to tes...

Household welfare is inseparable from the environment because of its dependence on ecosystems and their services. However, linking household welfare and ecosystems in order to inform differentiated household livelihood development in spatially heterogeneous regions is still a great challenge. Based on a field survey of 1754 households, we grouped the relationships between household welfare (def...

OBJECTIVE This study evaluated how improved community mental health services for youths affect public expenditures in other sectors, including inpatient hospitalization, the juvenile justice system, the child welfare system, and the special education system. METHODS Participants were youths aged six to 17 years who received services through a mental health agency in one of a matched pair of c...

Faced with social and health system capacity constraints and rising and changing demand for welfare services, governments and welfare providers are increasingly relying on innovation to help support and enhance services. However, the evidence reported by several studies indicates that the realization of that potential is not an easy task. Innovations can be deemed inherently complex to implemen...

The financing structure of any large public service system both reveals the priorities held by policymakers and drives the delivery of services. Of the $11.2 billion in public funds for child welfare services, somewhat less than half is federal. As this article explains, federal funds for child welfare overwhelmingly go to support out-of-home care (foster care and adoption services), and these ...