
The Independent Children's Homes Association's (ICHA) discussion paper, Onside on One Side, published last November, highlights the fundamental contradiction pushing care commissioning towards a crisis: where growth of placement supply cannot occur without expansion of providers' current profitability, yet local authorities need to manage or reduce spending within a financial climate of austerity.
In this paper, ICHA addresses a volatility of market conditions resulting from a culture of spot-purchasing individual placements. This causes uncertainty of funding in residential care, with demand outstripping supply but providers unable to respond and develop more provision due to instability within the sector and diminishing financial reserves. The paper advocates for a shift in the financial, emotional and professional environment that promotes "everyone working in a focused, child-led way".
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