Transparency fears over CMA investigation into children’s social care
Joe Lepper
Thursday, July 8, 2021
Campaigners are calling on the UK’s competitions regulator to release its correspondence with public bodies, including the Department for Education, around its investigation into profiteering in the children’s social care sector.
Children’s right’s group Article 39 has submitted a complaint to information regulator the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about the Competiton and Markets Authority (CMA), claiming that the watchdog is refusing to release correspondence it has had with a raft of official public bodies this year during its study.
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This includes correspondence with the Children’s Social Care Review Josh MacAlister, who ordered the investigation, the children’s commissioners for Scotland and Wales as well as the DfE.
Its complaint to the ICO says that the CMA “has not considered the high level of public concern about the degree of profit made in children’s social care”.
We have submitted a complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office following a refusal by the Competition and Markets Authority to release information concerning the market study on children's social care: https://t.co/HD5IaB2I6p
— Article 39 (@article_39) July 7, 2021
“There is huge public interest in the Competition and Markets Authority’s study on children’s social care, not least in relation to profit-making around children’s homes, foster care and the increasing use of unregulated accommodation for children in care,” said Article 39 director Carolyne Willow.
“It is only right that correspondence between this body and the Department for Education and the Chair of the Children’s Social Care Review is released, so we can see how well children’s rights were considered at the early stages.”
Article 39 says that the public bodies involved are subject to the Freedom of Information Act (2000) “so would already be operating in a culture of transparency and accountability”.
Correspondence from the children’s commissioner for England Rachel De Souza to the CMA has already been received by Article 39.
The CMA launched its study into the children’s social care market in March. This followed a call from MacAlister to look into the placements market following complaints from within the children’s sector.
Speaking at the annual conference of the Association of Directors of Children's Services, Dan Turnbull, project manager on the CMA investigation told delegates it would be announced on 11 September if a further investigation would be launched.
Turnbull said he was unable to reveal "early findings" from the current probe but added an interim report was likely to be published in the Autumn with a full report due by March 2022.
The CMA has been contacted for comment.