Thursday, October 06, 2022

Research suggests profit-making children's homes offer poorer care

For-profit children's homes provide poorer quality services for children in care than homes run by Local Authorities, according to research from the University of Oxford’s Department for Social Policy and Intervention. 

Based on the use of Ofsted ratings, the research has been published in Social Science and Medicine.

The researchers, Dr Anders Bach-Mortensen, Benjamin Goodair and Professor Jane Barlow, analysed more than 13,000 children's home inspections by Ofsted. They found that:

  • For-profit children's homes are generally rated of lower quality than other provision types.
  • For-profit children's homes violate more requirements and receive more recommendations.
  • Local authority Ofsted ratings are negatively correlated with for-profit outsourcing.

Most children's homes in England are now operated by for-profit companies.

Dr Anders Bach-Mortensen, Carlsberg Foundation Visiting Fellow from the department says:

"It is well known, huge profits are being made by companies running these homes, but the response has typically been that the quality of the services justify the costs. Our research suggests quality is not the same in both sectors and should be of concern to commissioners."

Read more on the University of Oxford website.

1 comment:

nigel hunter said...

2 right! They are run for profit by hedge fund companies etc.The incentive of doing 'just enough' for the residents is to ensure that profits to the shareholders is No1 priority. The country is being slowly changed into a profits only system is relevant.