Small and Sick Newborn Planning & Costing Tool

The Small and Sick Newborn Planning & Costing Tool is an Excel-based instrument the Global Financing Facility designed to support planning and budgeting for scaling up inpatient care for small and sick newborns at district level.

We are pleased to present a training course to guide you on the effective use of this tool to facilitate and implement planning and costing, tailored to each country’s needs.

To download the tool directly, use the button below.

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Course Description

This course provides practical guidance on using the Small and Sick Newborn Planning & Costing Tool, an Excel-based instrument the Global Financing Facility designed to support planning and budgeting for scaling up inpatient care for small and sick newborns at district level. These facilities are designated as Level 2 units in the Every Woman Every Newborn Everywhere Action Plan 2020-2025 (formerly the Every Newborn Action Plan).

Note: While we use the term ‘Level 2 newborn care units’ throughout this course, we recognize that countries organize their health systems differently. The level of facility we describe – providing inpatient care for small and sick newborns at the district level – may be classified under different tiers or categories in your health system

We focus on effectively using the tool to facilitate discussions and cost country-specific standards for small and sick newborn care. Participants will learn how to navigate the tool, input data correctly, interpret outputs, and use the analytics to inform policy, planning and budgeting decisions for setting up and operating Level 2 Newborn Care Units.

The course also covers the country-specific process for implementing the tool and developing a roadmap for successful application tailored to each country’s needs.

Technical guidance on setting clinical standards of care is outside the scope of this course and should be sought from other resources.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

Apply the tool to generate cost estimates for country-specific Small & Sick Newborn Care standards across infrastructure, equipment, staffing, and other domains
Articulate the purpose, structure, and methodological approach of the Small and Sick Newborn Planning & Costing Tool
Identify the key data inputs needed to populate the tool’s modules for planning and budgeting Level 2 Newborn Care Units
Outline the step-by-step process for country-level implementation of the tool, including stakeholder engagement, data collection, and validation
Confidently navigate the tool’s features, correctly enter data into relevant modules, and troubleshoot common issues using the User Guide Manual

Conduct comparative analyses of facility costs across different typologies
Use the planning and costing tool to undertake a basic cost sensitivity analysis and model alternative scale-up costing scenarios
Interpret the tool’s outputs and use the analytics to derive strategic insights to guide Small & Sick Newborn Care policy, planning and budgeting decisions
Define potential use cases for the tool in their specific country context and identify additional analyses needed to fulfil those use cases
Develop a roadmap for effective application of the tool to support national scale-up of Level 2 newborn care units, integrating it into planning and budgeting processes

Target Audience

This course is designed for individuals directly involved in or supporting the planning, budgeting and scale-up of inpatient care services for small and sick newborns, including:

National and sub-national health planners, policymakers and budget officers responsible for newborn health
Newborn program managers
Health facility managers and service delivery planners
Advisors from development partner agencies supporting newborn care

Prerequisites

Familiarity with health systems and newborn care concepts. Ideally familiarity with the WHO-UNICEF model of care for Small and Sick Newborns.
Basic understanding of Microsoft Excel. Ideally, familiarity with Excel’s security features and macro settings, although the course will cover in detail how to enable macros to ensure full functionality of the tool.

Course Outline

This is an overview of the topics discussed under each learning unit and lesson. Each unit has an outline, a quick guide and resources to complement learning, including a data set to replicate the exercises and examples included in each unit.

Unit 1: Introduction & Overview

Lesson 1 Background

Course Objectives, Format and Navigation.
The Small and Sick Newborn Planning & Costing Tool: Background & Use Case.

Lesson 2 Tool Overview

Tool Structure
Methodological Approach

Unit 2: Setting Up the Small & Sick Newborn Care Planning & Costing Tool

Lesson 1 System Requirements and First Use Set-Up

Introduction to the Excel Tool and the user manual
Enabling Macros & other troubleshooting
Data entry best practices and validation

Lesson 2 The Tool’s General Inputs Module

Overview of the General Inputs Tab
Selecting and Defining Typologies
Inputting Basic Facility Standards and Costs

Unit 3: Infrastructure Planning & Budgeting

Introduction to the Infrastructure Tab
Estimating Bed Requirements by Typology
Setting Floor Space Standards for Inpatient Beds and Ancillary Areas
Calculating and Reviewing Total Space Requirements
Calculating and Reviewing Construction and Maintenance Costs
Analyzing Tool’s Estimates & Using Results to inform Strategic Decision Making

Unit 4: Equipment & Commodities Planning & Budgeting

Lesson 1 Setting Equipment Standards

Introduction to the Equipment & Commodities Tabs
Setting Equipment Standards by Bed Type and Facility Level
Calculating & Reviewing equipment standards by facility typologies

Lesson 2 Equipment Costs, including Acquisition, Distribution Costs, Maintenance & Other

Analyzing Equipment Acquisition Costs to identify key cost drivers
Estimating Additional Equipment Costs. Inputting Parameters, Reviewing and Validating Tool’s Estimates for:
- Transport & Distribution
- Spare Parts & Maintenance (Annual)
- Annual Consumables and Renewables (Annual)
- Medicines & Supplies (Annual -not costed elsewhere)
- Buffer stocks
- Accounting for other furniture and equipment costs
Analyzing Tool’s Estimates & Using Results to inform Strategic Decision Making

Unit 5: Human Resources Planning & Budgeting

Lesson 1 – Setting Human Resource Standards

Introduction to the Human Resources Tab
Identifying Required Staff Categories and Roles
Determining Staffing Levels for Nurses according to the types of beds and the needs of 24/7 care delivery
Determining Staffing Levels for other health care providers an ancillary staff

Lesson 2 – Developing & Costing Human Resource Development Strategies

Planning and Costing Staff Training and Development Activities
Reviewing Total HR Numbers and Costs and Assessing Implications for Workforce Planning

Unit 6: Functional Referral Systems Planning & Budgeting

Introduction to the Referral Systems Tab
Estimating Service Parameters for Referral Transport
Costing Ambulance & Other Referral Transport
Costing Referral Communication and Coordination System Requirements
Reviewing Total Referral Costs
Using the tool to model Pre-Referral Stabilization Services
Analyzing Tool’s Estimates & Using Results to inform Strategic Decision Making

Unit 7: Other Components Planning & Budgeting

Introduction to the Other Models of Care Components Tab
Overview of all other components
Reviewing equipment and staff needs
Identifying additional strategies and costs for data systems, family involvement, post-discharge follow-up, infection prevention control and other facility-level requirements
Reviewing & validating costs

Unit 8: National & Regional Level Strategies Planning & Budgeting

Introduction to the National & Regional Tab
Identifying and Costing National Training Programs for Small & Sick Newborn Care Staff
Identifying and costing national and regional strategies, including those required to manage and supervise the scale-up; guideline development and system development support across all domains
Reviewing & validating results of national and regional strategies

Unit 9: Financing Analytics

Lesson 1 Facility Typology Analytics

Introduction to the Financing Typology & Scale-Up Scenario Analytics
Typology Selections for Strategic Analytics
Validating & Analyzing Capital and Recurrent Costs
Facility Typology Analytics & Strategy Development

Lesson 2 Facility Typology Analytics – Exercise Demonstration

How to apply typologies to conduct basic sensitivity analysis and examine cost uncertainties
Use typology analytics to identify major cost drivers across different facility scenarios
Applying controlled parameter changes to examine how facility characteristics affect costs

Lesson 3 Scale-Up Scenario Analytics

Use the Tool’s Scale-up Analytics Tab for Modelling Alternative Scenarios
Reviewing Capital & Recurrent Costs over Time
Using the Tool’s Analytics for Strategic Decision-Making

Unit 10 : Implementing the Costing Tool at Country Level

Review additional use cases of the tool
Setting Up for Success: Policy Touchpoints & Implementation Team
Implementation Roadmap
Data Collection
Stakeholder Engagement
Consultation Workshops
Putting it all together

Format & Navigation

The course is self-paced. Participants can progress at their own pace and explore the course contents in any order. However, each learning unit builds on the concepts and skills covered in previous ones. We recommend to complete the lessons in sequential order. Participants will have a series of video lectures and demonstrations, interactive knowledge checks and quizzes, scenario-based exercises, guide practice using the training dataset, and downloadable job aids, worksheets and quick guides.