Privatising Foster Care: The UK Experience within an International Context

Abstract

Foster placements for children in care in the UK are being increasingly provided by nongovernmental organizations. However, although local authorities are purchasing almost one third of their required placements from these external agencies, the UK has not yet followed the examples of other English speaking countries. In parts of the USA and Australia all fostering and other child welfare services have been wholly outsourced or transferred from the public to private and non-profit organizations. A number of these initiatives have been independently evaluated and some of their findings resonate with what seems to be happening in the UK. This article explores these but also other factors which appear to distinguish the policy and practice of foster care in the UK from those of the USA and Australia. Using theory related to the privatization of welfare and relevant domestic and international research, the article examines the development of external commissioning of foster care in Britain. In the light of changing law, ideology and policy, the article concludes by speculating on how the future of fostering and wider child welfare provision in the UK may look, at a time of political change and economic austerity.

Legitimate Deficit: Competitive Bidding in a Residual and Semi-democratic Welfare Society

“…Theoretically, allocating resources through a transparent competitive bidding process should be able to achieve greater fairness in welfare services (Sellick 2011). In this process, the government is expected to be accountable through providing sufficient information about criteria and a rationale for the selection.…”

“…A crucial question is does the procedural change after the implementation of competitive bidding in Hong Kong achieve greater fairness and cost reduction through a transparent process of resource allocation similar to that in Western welfare states (Sellick 2011)?…”

What is work? Insights from the evolution of state foster care

“…Roughly three quarters of foster carers work for local authorities, but the number of independent fostering providers has grown rapidly over the past two decades. Initially based mostly around small, not for profit agencies, this sector is now overwhelmingly privately owned and dominated by a handful of large providers, often backed by private equity capital (Sellick, 2011). While its heterogeneity cannot be adequately reflected throughout the article, it is important to note that foster care is extremely diverse, in the number and age groups of children fostered, in timescales from emergencies to 'permanent' placements and in possible 'specialisms' (e.g.…”

Fostered Children´s Behavioural and Emotional Difficulties: Findings from one Independent Foster Care Agency

“…IFas aim to address these emotional and behavioural difficulties by providing enhanced services such as therapy, educational provision and contact centres as part of their package of care (Sellick & Connolly, 2002;Sellick, 2002). Globally, there has been a gradual increase in out-sourcing, or externally commissioning, the provision of foster placements to non-governmental or independent fostering agencies (Laklija, 2011;Sellick, 2011). More specifically, there has been a wide proliferation of IFas in England and Wales, with 33% of all foster placements in England (Department for Education, 2010) and over a quarter in Wales (Data Unit Wales, 2009) being provided by IFas.…”