Children’s Social Care

Jonathan Brash Excerpts

Monday 18th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Bridget Phillipson]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for drawing the House’s attention to this area. I would be more than happy to meet him. He is right that the situation we have inherited is one where too many children are being let down and where the quality of provision for very vulnerable children is just not good enough. I look forward to working with him to make that change happen.

[Mr Jonathan Brash (Hartlepool) (Lab)]

With more than 300 children in Hartlepool in social care, the council is being slowly bankrupted. The top four private providers on average are charging £12,000 per child per week. That is £624,000 a year per child. Does my right hon. Friend agree that only by capping that outrageous profiteering can we protect children, but also get value for money for local council tax payers?

[Bridget Phillipson]

Private providers are making, in some cases, between 20% and 30% profit. That is way beyond what we would expect in any other area. Crucially, when we think about where they are making that profit, it is off the back of the trauma, abuse and sometimes very difficult early childhood experiences of some of the most vulnerable children in our country. My hon. Friend is right that the issue he identifies in Hartlepool is sadly felt right across the country. He may wish to know that there are now more than 1,500 children in placements that each cost half a million pounds every single year. We have got to change that.