Private children’s home bosses in England criticised over huge profits
Children’s home providers in England should not be able to profit from caring for society’s most vulnerable children, the new head of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) has said.
Steve Crocker criticised private providers driving around in sports cars and buying racehorses with their profits after “getting rich off taxpayers’ money”.
Profit margins for the 15 largest private children’s home operators average 22.6%, according to the Competition and Markets Authority.
Most councils in England have at least one looked-after child whose private placement costs £10,000 a week or more, with costs running to £60,000 a week in the most extreme cases. Yet in Scotland, which has moved much closer towards a not-for-profit children’s care system, costs are generally lower.
“There should be a national approach to management and profits,” said Crocker, calling for a national cap on fees in England. “We have long had the aspiration to make the sector not-for-profit – Scotland, which has had that aspiration for longer, has got nearer to it.”
The wealth of some at the top of some children’s care companies can be conspicuous. Blaklion, a horse that raced in the Grand National last month, is owned by a former children’s home chain boss and property developer, Darren Yates. He bought the animal in 2019 for £300,000 after selling his Sandcastle Care chain to a private equity firm. The business became part of Aspris, which said the acquisition would result in it having annual revenues of more than £200m.
Earlier this year the Guardian exposed Robert McGuinness, the owner of a “squalid” children’s home in Bolton, who drove around in a Lamborghini and spent large amounts of company money running a bar in York and on his own
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