A privately-owned foster care agency called All4U Fostering has won a contract with a group of local authorities worth up to £400 million.

That's a lot of foster care for a very small company.

http://bidstats.uk/tenders/2020/W32/732430507

This company has 8 employees. Its latest accounts don't suggest it is in a strong position to start providing care to vulnerable children halfway round the country.

Is this really a viable alternative to each LA in this framework agreement (there are 14) recruiting their own foster carers?

Just feels like privatisation for the sake of privatisation.

All4U makes much of its association with a charity called The Layberry Foundation in Kent.

Not much going on here either.

The agency's Ofsted inspections have been mixed. Inspected twice, the first found that the agency fell short of good; the second judged it to be good.
https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/4/1255143

I don't like big private foster care providers. But I can see why local authorities feel the need to access their national networks of foster carers. But it seems highly unlikely this particular agency will have carers across the country (yet).

So All4U will take existing foster carers from the same local authorities, who then end up paying extra for their services. Also. more children probably will end up living further away from their birth families.

The care of vulnerable children is quietly being privatised, and it all feels like the wild west at the moment, open to all comers. Never mind the children.

In case of interest, the industry lobby group that promotes this kind of arrangement is @theNAFP, which is strongly supported by private equity based in offshore tax havens. I'm sure they would love to hear from you.