Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what consideration she has made of the use of care cooperatives in the delivery of social care to displace the for profit sector.

Regional Care Cooperatives (RCCs) are part of a package of measures we are introducing to rebalance the children’s social care placements market, improve regulation and commissioning of placements, shine a light on the level of profit being made and bring greater visibility to the prices local authorities are paying.

The vision is for every local authority to be part of an RCC in the future, operating at scale to deliver homes for children in care and delivering what matters most: children thriving in safe, supporting environments that facilitate enduring relationships.

An expression of Interest for the next wave of RCCs was launched in March, with funding to cover the start-up costs of up to six new RCCs. RCCs will give areas the scale to create the types of homes children in care need and the leverage to drive out profiteering and poor-quality placements.

We are confident that our reforms, including the expansion of RCCs will address excessive profiteering and ensure that the supportive and caring placements children need are delivered at a sustainable cost. However, we will keep the market under close review and will not flinch from taking action to cap providers’ profits if needed.