Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/640/10334
From The Socialist newspaper, 29 September 2010
Children's homes: Bosses' 'Tribalism' defeated
IN SEPTEMBER the government cancelled the contract for delivering improvement in children's homes with venture capital backed Tribal Group.
This is a victory for young people in care and those in the care sector who demanded the rescinding of the award.
In March, outgoing Children, Schools and Families secretary and cabinet minister, Ed Balls awarded the contract to Tribal, who had no record of delivery in the children's homes sector.
No reason was given for taking the contract off a successful charity, the National Children's Bureau (NCB), and handing it to the private consultancy firm. At its core, Balls' replacement of NCB by the multinational Tribal Group, reflected a process that transformed children in care into commodities for profit.
Interviewed in a childcare magazine, John Kemmis, chief executive of the Voice charity, said: "I am appalled by this news. What experience and expertise have Tribal got in residential child care?"
I and other care leavers called on the House of Commons' Select Committee for Children, Schools and Families to demand the suspension of the award while a full and open enquiry was undertaken.
Tribal's demise is a victory, but the government must now use the money saved by cancelling the award to deliver the recommendations of the 2009 House of Commons Children, Schools and Families select committee.
In a major report it called for the government to commit resources to create stable, long-term residential care for the children in the system.
This, the committee declared, required a dramatic rethink into the positive use of children's homes as viable placements for young people in care rather than placements of last resort.
By a former Barnardo's Boy
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In The Socialist 29 September 2010:
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