2 Key Sentences from Research re Outsourcing and Children’s Social Care
NCERCC responds to research and reports RCC sector. NCERCC is involved with policy and practice, research and theory and these inform our analysis.
For a full analysis and response see report.
Outsourcing and children’s social care: A longitudinal analysis of inspection outcomes among English children’s homes and local authorities.
Bach-Mortensen, A. M., Goodair, B., & Barlow, J. (2022).
Social Science & Medicine, 115323.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953622006293
The research had limited reporting. Commonly these reiterated previously reporting rather than the research.
There are two key sentences that need to be amplified and disseminated widely
- The severe shortage of appropriate and available children’s social care placements is detrimental to the placement process for children in care.
- Designing commissioning practices that facilitate local, stable, and high-quality care should be a policy and research priority going forward.
These are insightful and if understood by national and local policy makers will assist in leading from the current inactivity and towards exploring child-centred progressive solutions.
The research indicates there is an urgent need for another look at the conditions and context that have been created for the sector, and its commissioning.
There are few researchers who include observations of the current situation being the outcomes of the context.
The research indicates there is an urgent need for another look at the conditions and context that have been created for the sector, and its commissioning.
This is important as changes are being currently being considered regarding commissioning and financing of the sector.
For the people involved in this work and the comments they provide the research offers a valuable advice, “ … caution is needed in terms of regulating the sector going forward, as the role of for-profit provision cannot be replaced without substantial coordination and long-term planning”.
It is important for any researchers or policy makers to understand the situation described in the research is due to many factors.
Progressive voices have been unsuccessful in being heard over the two decades of the commissioning experiment. It is of no comfort that the lack of success in promoting change has been due to the dominance of others.
The research raises more issues than were reported at the time of publication
