G4S to run child protection services?

Submitted by Matthew on 21 May, 2014 - 11:07

Michael Gove has surpassed himself in proving himself to be a callous disregarder of the needs of children.

If we thought his attacks on the democratic accountability of community schools were not enough, his department has now proposed the privatisation of Child Protection services, including the power to remove children from their families.

If these plans were to go ahead, the most vulnerable people in society would be reliant on services which are subject to the vagaries of the market.

Professor Ray Jones of Kingston University states that G4S and Serco have been trying to get into these services for a long time and have so far been thwarted. He and over 30 other child protection academics and professionals are challenging Gove’s plans.

In a radio interview on Saturday 17 May, Amanda Kelly, a Public Sector Consultant, and spokesperson for Gove’s plans, said that this move is needed in order to provide fresh and innovative thinking into the provision of a jaded service.

When asked for an example she said, in a stunningly stupid and insulting statement, that the problem at the moment is that social workers spend too much time on the computer rather than putting the needs of the child at the centre of what they do.

The lament of every social worker is the amount of paper work they are obliged to do which takes them away from the very reason they took on the job in the first place — the child.

The culture for many social workers and other child protection practitioners is that everything they do has to be written down in case there is an inspection or challenge. Everything they do is carried out with one eye over the shoulder, i.e. away from the child.

This is not caused by the fact that Child Protection services are under Local Authority control, but by the blame culture imposed by a government out to attack local services in order to make cuts, and by the sensationalist coverage of individual cases in the press which generate a sense of fear and panic.

Privatisation of Child Protection Services would not change this. On the contrary, it would be a weapon in the arsenal of a management which wants a flexible, deskilled and underpaid workforce in a service run for profit rather than public good. The management style of G4S in school caretaking service has shown many examples of bullying and anti-union practices.

This has nothing to do with “fresh” or “innovatory” thinking. It is as old as bosses ever employed workers and long pre-dates the existence of social services. This is part of a wider plan to remove services from Local Authorities, end local community control, reduce budgets, install private financing. In the process it has the added benefit of atomising the workforce which cannot then fight effectively for better wages and conditions or for services.

Gove’s plans are being challenged by professionals who say that Local Authorities must not be forced to hand over services to outsourced companies.

This challenge must be taken up by the unions and community users of the services that are so vital for very vulnerable people. It must be widened to fighting the cuts budgets being passed through council chambers.

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