Charities better than private sector at running children’s care homes, report suggests

A study has found that profit making residential care operators “provide poorer quality services” for children than in homes run by charities.

The findings are based on analysis of more than 1,300 Ofsted inspections of children’s homes between 2014 and 2021.

It found that charity and council run homes are more likely to receive the inspectorate’s top rating of ‘outstanding’ than those run by the private sector.

They are also less likely to receive Ofsted’s lowest rating of ‘inadequate', the study by academics at the University of Oxford’s social policy and intervention department found.

While 17 per cent of charity run homes received Ofsted’s highest rating since 2014, the proportion falls to 13 per cent among profit making providers.

Only 4.7% of charity run homes were graded as ‘inadequate’ over the period looked at, compared to 7.3% among private providers.

Charities are also better than their counterparts in the private sector at protecting children, according to the Ofsted ratings. One in seven charity run homes were rated as ‘outstanding’ for child protection, compared to just over one in ten among private providers.

While leadership and management is ‘inadequate’ in more than one in ten (11%) privately run homes, the proportion dips to 8.3%, in the charity sector.

NEW: A study from @DSPI_Oxford has found:

- For-profit children's homes are generally rated of lower quality than other provision types
- For-profit children's homes violate more requirements
- Ofsted ratings are negatively correlated with for-profit outsourcing

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— University of Oxford (@UniofOxford) October 5, 2022

Report co-author Anders Bach-Mortensen said: “It is well known that huge profits are being made by companies running these homes, but the response has typically been that the quality of the services justify the costs.”

He adds that “our research suggests quality is not the same” across the private, council run and charity sectors “and should be of concern to commissioners”.

Currently around eight in ten children’s homes in England are run by profit making firms.