Buckinghamshire County Council

Prepaid card delivers social benefits for children and young people in care

Buckinghamshire County Council provides a wide range of services to communities in Buckinghamshire, England from over 500 locations.

The Challenge

Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC), like all UK councils, was given a new statutory duty to provide access to leisure and positive activities for children and young people (C&YP) in care. BCC's Joint Commissioning team for C&YPs services set up a Leisure Card Board to consider options for improving access to leisure and positive activities. Three options were shortlisted which were: monthly payments to children/ carers, reimbursing activity providers and offering prepaid cards to children to use when paying for their chosen leisure activities. BCC developed their business case outlining the costs of each option from feedback gathered from focus groups of children, foster carers, social workers and other stakeholders. An awareness session was organised for suppliers of leisure and sporting activities. The prepaid card option was not only the most cost effective option the Council could have adopted but it was also the option selected by the focus groups and was adopted by the commissioning team as the preferred option.

The Solution

BCC accepted the recommendation of the Leisure Card Board and Citi's Visa-branded prepaid card programme was adopted for children in care in Buckinghamshire. User group feedback identified popular leisure and activity providers in the region and limited the access normally provided by a Visa Prepaid card. The card is being used widely for positive leisure activities such as swimming, zoos, bowling alleys and leisure parks as well as book and art supply shops. BCC receives management information reporting in order to monitor the programme and results. C&YP's services staff received outline training and support from Citi to develop the programme and the implementation was relatively seamless.

The Result

The prepaid card solution was the most cost effective option for BCC and delivered real value to the children utilising it. Most importantly it has created huge social benefits for C&YP in care and for the broader community. Children using the card are engaging in positive leisure activities in their spare time which will provide immense social return in the longer term. The range of activities being offered has increased due to the great feedback received from the C&YP in care. BCC conducted a survey six months after the programme went live in 2010. The results show the success of the programme and the support for it by the carers.