Private Provision Of Social Services

From The Economist

The recent stories in the press, and on TV last night, exposing abuse in care homes for the mentally ill and elderly along with the news that Britain's largest care home provider, Southern Cross, is in financial difficulty, have caused much concern about the role of the private sector in the provision of social care.

My last blog post extolled the virtues of the market in the NHS, much to the annoyance of an anonymous commentator. Predictably, these private sector failures were used as examples of why any involvement of the private sector in social care is a bad idea. I replied in kind but subsequently have read an excellent piece in The Economist, published today, on the same subject. You can read that article here... When carers fail: Southern Cross’s problems are a business failure, not a policy failure.

It's worth a read if your interested in the implications of increased private provision in our social services.