The government continues to back its amended legislation to allow the outsourcing of child protection, despite a forced U-turn over including private companies in the process.
In June, the Department for Education proposed that child protection investigations and care proceedings could be privatised. But aggressive opposition from social work experts caused the government to backtrack, limiting the proposal to charities and social enterprises.
Criticism for the plans, however, remain high – concerns are being raised that profit-making companies can still exploit loopholes to squeeze money out of the protection of children.
Faced with a barrage of petitions currently totalling over 72,000 signatures, the DfE as maintained support for the change.
Edward Timpson, the Children’s Minister, said: “We want to offer local authorities the freedom to deliver services differently in order to achieve better outcomes for vulnerable children.”
