Charities call to end 'market' in children's services

The charities, which include Action for Children, Barnardo’s and 4Children, have put their names to a joint Children England and Trades Union Congress (TUC) Declaration of Interdependence, which puts forward principles that they say should underpin the future commissioning of children’s services, both locally and nationally.

The declaration has been developed in response to concerns that the dominant market-led model used in the contracting of children’s services has resulted in too much emphasis being placed on the price it would cost to deliver a service rather than the quality of what was offered, and undermined the terms and conditions of professionals delivering services.

It states: “The emphasis on managerial concerns and financial models resulting from this marketisation of children’s services has meant that many have lost sight of what remains most important in any services for children: the professional and personal commitment to put children first.

“We have concerns that price-driven competition with outsourcing companies has had a negative impact on service quality, employee terms and conditions, and can encourage behaviours such as corner cutting and ‘creaming and parking’ cases.”

Publication of the declaration comes just weeks after the government backtracked over plans to introduce profitmaking into child protection services, following an outcry by campaigners. Under its revised proposals for the outsourcing of children’s social care, only not-for-profit organisations will be able to run services.

The proposals reignited the debate about the role of the market in children’s services, and the declaration calls for a “new deal” to be struck between the public and voluntary sectors that sees “creative pooling of taxpayers’ and charities’ mutual resources” to get the maximum benefit for children.

In particular, it calls for government to legislate so that local authorities give greater weight to the “quality and social value” of bids to run children’s services when making commissioning decisions, and for the introduction of a national five-year spending plan for children’s services funding.

At a local authority level, the declaration calls for an end to the contracting out of council procurement and commissioning functions; for contracts to run for a minimum of three years to help cut the time and money spent on tendering for work; and for voluntary groups to have a say at strategic planning bodies such as health and wellbeing boards.

It also calls for an end to the use of zero-hours contracts and of casual labour, and the introduction of family-friendly employment practices, such as a guaranteed “living wage” for all employees delivering children’s services.