Children in care worse off at for-profit providers, finds Oxford Uni study

Outsourcing children’s care placements to private providers is associated with worse outcomes for young people, research by Oxford University has found.

The study claimed the local authorities which rely most on outsourcing to for-profit providers have the highest rates of placement disruptions.

This included short-term placements, placement changes, and looked-after children being moved out of their local area.

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The study estimated that an additional 17,000 out-of-area placements from 2011 to 2022 could be attributed to increases in for-profit provision.

Report authors Dr Anders Bach-Mortensen and Benjamin Goodair said that by 2022, 38 per cent of all children in care were placed with for-profit providers, which is up 9 per cent since 2011.

They said their modelling had demonstrated ‘for-profit outsourcing is consistently associated with more children being placed outside their home local authority, and greater placement instability.’

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They said: “Our analyses show that placement stability and distance have deteriorated or stagnated over the last decade, and that the local authorities that rely most on outsourcing have the highest rates of placement disruptions and out of area placements.”

They added: “This suggests that increasing the already significant proportion of for-profit children’s social placements may not be the most effective strategy to improve outcomes in the children’s social care sector.”

The authors acknowledged there were situations where a short-term stay or placement change might be the most appropriate option.

But they said these outcomes were too prevalent, especially when the sufficiency challenges experienced by most local authorities were considered.