Does business and care mix?

Profit could be put before the welfare of young people as foster care becomes increasingly big business, industry experts have said.

Around 16% of fostered children are placed through independent providers, and nearly a third of those are fostered through agencies owned by private equity firms.

Professor Kirton from the University of Kent says there are concerns about the increasing role of business interests:

“People are always worried that businesses are going to be cashing in on vulnerable children.

"Although those concerns are generally exaggerated there
are always those worries that if an independent

sector becomes too driven by profits that can have a damaging affect on children.”

Grace Wyatt, director of private agency Nexus Fostering, says there is no conflict of interest:

"The purpose of it is not to make money," she said.

"We all like working with the kids and carers and we feel like we can do that better in this environment than in a local authority, so we are not all here to make money."

Support Network

Every time it is decided a child should go into foster care the local council must find a placement, either with one of its own foster carers or through an independent provider.

It is almost always cheaper for the council to place with one of their own carers, but Ginny Daniels,
Fostering Team Manager at Dorset County Council, says cost is not the only reason they prefer to place in house:

“What we offer is local children, local support network, keeping children in their community and helping your local community.

"If you are buying in something that is a better service then you can live with that, but usually it is not,” she said.

Independent providers point out that council placement processes mean private agencies often deal with the most complex cases, and so their agencies and their carers justify higher fees.

Thomas Brown, training and recruitment manager for Fairways Care in Southampton said they deal with young people from very difficult backgrounds:

"There is obviously a need for us, we can come in and offer high levels of support, high staff ratios
with the young people, which because of budgets I don’t think local authorities cannot offer.”

Proffessor Derek Kirton says while independent agencies have introduced new costs for local authorities they have also had a positive impact:

“There is no doubt the independent sector have been innovative in foster care,” he said.

“I’m not sure if without that stimulus local authorities would have improved what they offer to
foster carers to anywhere near the extent that they have.”

Four of the UK's largest fostering agencies are owned by private equity companies: The National Fostering Agency, Fostering Solutions, Pathway Care and Acorn Care.

None of them would provide a comment for this website.

Is the care offered by private companies getting worse? Read more

Are private equity firms a threat? Read more