Friday 20 June 2014

U-turn over privatising child protection services

The Guardian reports that the government has backtracked over proposals to allow local authorities to privatise child protection services. 

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jun/20/government-climbdown-privatising-child-protection 

After what is described as ‘a huge public outcry’, the government is said to have decided not to allow local authorities in England to outsource child protection services to profit-making organisations. However, councils will still be allowed to bring in charities and not-for-profit firms.

I’m sure that is the right decision. I felt the proposals were poorly thought out and lacked any sort of evidence to support them. The Government has done the right thing by listening to its critics. Outsourcing to the private sector would have been an unhelpful distraction. 

Perhaps now the Government will look at the innovation programme again and come up with some more helpful and constructive proposals.