Features

Trends in care commissioning

Andrew Rome, director of Revolution Consulting, which conducted a financial analysis of the largest children’s social care providers, assesses the implications for commissioners of council care services.
Successful providers have developed substantial assets, including deep knowledge in meeting children’s needs. Picture: Micah C/peopleimages.com/Adobe Stock
Successful providers have developed substantial assets, including deep knowledge in meeting children’s needs. Picture: Micah C/peopleimages.com/Adobe Stock

Revolution Consulting’s fourth annual study of profit levels, debt risk and financial outcomes of the largest independent children’s social care providers, produced for the Local Government Association, comes against a backdrop of unprecedented focus on children’s services. Calls from a parliamentary select committee in 2019, from the children’s commissioner for England in 2020, and from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in 2021 resulted in the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) carrying out a review of these markets from 2021/22.

The CMA concluded that no action was needed to overtly control prices and profits, and that it was through better commissioning by local authorities that purchasers should gain improved influence. The independent review’s conclusions largely adopted the recommendations of the CMA in its own 2022 report, with the government backing this vision in its Stable Homes: Built on Love policy paper published in early 2023.

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