Thread by @MartinBarrow

Today the Children’s Commissioner will give a speech, in which she will say the care system for children and young people is “on the edge of a precipice”. You can read about it here 1/ theguardian.com/society/2020/n…

The speech addresses the challenges set out in three reports published by the Children’s Commissioner last week. You can find them here 2/ childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/2020/11/11/tho…

Privatisation of children’s services, including foster care and children’s homes, is not the only concern. But it is central to much that is failing. 3/

Some context: 80% of children’s homes are owned by private companies, mostly run for profit. Almost 40% of foster care is provided by agencies that are also mostly run for profit. 4/

The biggest providers are owned by private equity companies, based in offshore tax havens. Scrutiny is difficult. But analysis included in the Children’s Commissioners reports shows that they are, in effect, vehicles for high interest loans. 5/

The model is similar to payday lending (think Wonga). Private equity has saddled providers with debts of hundreds of millions of pounds at usurious rates of interest. They also charge providers millions of pounds in fees for arranging these loans. 6/

These costs must be paid for out of fees charged to local authorities, ostensibly to pay for the care, support and education of children and young people. But each year an increasingly high proportion of this money goes into the pockets of financiers, offshore. 7/

Meanwhile, private provision is increasingly precarious, with homes concentrated in the poorest areas and care staff on zero-hour contracts and low wages. Many receive no training. 8/

60% of children now live in homes located many miles from their birth families. The pattern is being repeated in foster care. This is what is happening in Wakefield 9/

https://twitter.com/MartinBarrow/status/1330912462602985473?s=20

There is a whole tier of unregulated children's homes that I'm not even addressing here. Needless to say, it is privately-owned and costs councils millions of pounds every year while exposing young people to unacceptable risk. 10/

I repeat: privatisation is not the only challenge facing the care system. But so many of the problems are rooted in the hollowing out of local authority provision and over-reliance on companies who see children as an opportunity to make money. 11/

Privatisation is bad for children and young people, and bad for families.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Ends/