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‘She never got help’: mother says daughter who died on motorway was failed by care system www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Ofsted has again identified serious failures at the supported accommodation provider Rubi Living, putting children and young people in care at risk. reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/53/...

We march in our thousands against foreigners “who threaten our way of life” but cheer our own for taking our way of life abroad to avoid tax.

Trump cancels Sadiq Khan: Trump says he didn't want London Mayor Sadiq Khan at state banquet www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Baroness Hale on her stupendous, eye-opening life in the law: ‘People are capable of treating tiny children very, very badly’ www.theguardian.com/law/2025/sep...

‘Privatisation premium’: billions from UK energy bills paid to shareholders. It is also the case that hundreds of millions of pounds intended for the care of young people has disappeared into the pockets of investors. www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Solving SEND: MPs reveal their 48-point plan schoolsweek.co.uk/solving-send...

Children in care are being put at risk by the private foster care agency New Life Fostering, Ofsted has warned. Today’s inspection report is bleak. The agency is responsible for 56 children in and around Birmingham.

Inspire Community Services Limited is the latest provider of supported accommodation to fail to meet required standards for 16/17 year-olds. Shockingly, this company has 13 premises where children in care live alongside vulnerable adults.

Coventry call to tackle 'obscene' children’s home profits after firm charged £48,000 for weekend accommodation www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventr...

Once again, the Summer months seem bereft of County Championship games and yet yesterday, most CC games were delayed all day by the September rains and high winds. Can the England and Wales Cricket Board please take this into account when planning next season?

Kruger is more Reform than the actual Reform party. Always has been.

The latest Week in Care is out, rounding up news and views about children’s services and the care of young people from the past seven days. Sign up for your weekly email via [email protected]

Don’t hang out with paedos and pimps is something most of us don’t need to be taught, Libby

Kirk was just a regular geezer and Mandelson, who wrote affectionately to a paedophile, is just a schmoozer… welcome to the Sunday Times

A day like today calls for the leaders of all the political parties, civic leaders and the judiciary to stand together on a single platform with the same message, that racism and thuggery have no place in modern Britain. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Some more direct incitement from Musk This man burned his sheep's clothing a long time ago and is now fully leaning into his right wing white supremacist nationalism

The precarious state of supported accommodation for 16 & 17 year-olds supposedly in care is being exposed by Ofsted scrutiny after a change in the law. All 6 Ofsted inspections published this week identify providers failing to meet basic standards. 1st four:

Amid the many thousands of words in this National Audit Office report into children’s homes, ‘privatisation’ and ‘outsourcing’ are not used once www.nao.org.uk/reports/mana...

Almost like allowing private equity to take over the children's home market was a terrible idea. Someone should have written about that in a book.... samf.substack.com/p/contract-k...

Cost of children's homes doubles but care can be poor, says report www.bbc.com/news/article...

Who would have guessed that police refusal to respond to mental health emergencies would lead to more deaths? (Via The Times)

The cost of a single place in a residential children’s care home in England has nearly doubled in five years to an average £318,000 a year, with private firms racking up huge profits as a result of market failure, according to the public spending watchdog. www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

This got lost amid all the noise around Mandelson, but Rachel Reeves cosying up to private equity is sickening to see www.theguardian.com/politics/202...

Wow…the flagship Oasis secure school in Kent is closing (temporarily). This has been such a disaster. reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/2/2...

Polaris, one of the UK's biggest providers of children's homes and foster care, doubled profits to £18 million last year. Councils paid Polaris £247 million for care and education.

Baroness Lola Young: ‘Just surviving shouldn’t be our best hope for children in care’ www.communitycare.co.uk/2025/09/10/l...

Ofsted has published a damning report into a children’s home in Shropshire owned by Dimensions Care. It details appalling failures in care and absence of concern for the conditions of the home. reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/2/2...

Welcome challenge to the dominance of private equity and venture capital in further education feweek.co.uk/we-must-stop...

The latest Week in Care has links to almost 50 items of news and commentary about children’s services and the care of young people. Sign up via [email protected]

I don’t doubt their intentions, but can a panel like this ever truly understand why so many children are absent from school?

MacAlister to take responsibility for reforms he conceived when leading the Independent Review of Children's Social Care www.communitycare.co.uk/2025/09/07/f...

Under the Westminster lobby radar, but Josh MacAlister’s arrival at the Education Department could prove significant in terms of Starmer’s ability to actually deliver tangible change. schoolsweek.co.uk/reshuffle-ge...

Lobbyist for companies who make money out of children in care attacks me for daring to share an article that criticises companies for making money out of children in care.

Alarm bells should be ringing when a company called Titan Holdings Corporation Ltd decides that children’s homes are a better punt than selling cars. www.burytimes.co.uk/news/2543944...

How the super-rich profit from Britain’s chaotic children’s homes: special report by @ianbirrell.bsky.social www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article...

Cross-party commission urges UK government to scrap two-child benefit limit www.theguardian.com/society/2025...

Nearly half of inspected supported housing providers are failing to meet standards for 16 and 17-year-olds. By @cjayanetti.bsky.social @insidehousing.bsky.social www.insidehousing.co.uk/news/nearly-...

The appalling abuse and neglect of children at Oakhill Secure Training Centre, run by the private company G4S, is laid bare today in a joint report by the CQC and Ofsted. I found the content distressing to read. reports.ofsted.gov.uk/provider/11/...

Labour has done more than the Tories to create a hostile environment in the UK for anyone who is not British www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Dimensions Care children’s homes have been shut down after a series of serious safeguarding failures which caused harm to vulnerable children. This shouldn’t have been a surprise. I first raised concerns about this business back in 2020. x.com/martinbarrow...

The Week in Care is out, rounding up news and views about children’s services and the care of young people from the past seven days. Sign up for your free weekly email via [email protected]

A children's poster supporting efforts to keep an East Sussex library open has been removed by the council in an effort to maintain a "neutral space" during the consultation into its future. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Interesting skirmish in Bury over a proposed children’s home in a so-called millionaire’s row. The neighbours aren’t happy. www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater...

They really don’t.

Coventry council to use Palantir AI in social work, Send and children’s services www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Over the past week I have noted no fewer than 14 children’s judged inadequate by Ofsted or where monitoring visits have identified serious failings. Three are run by councils, the rest are privately owned. This is a typical week, I would say.

Because I’m a foster carer and I buy books, the internet keeps offering me misery porn titles, the worst genre known to mankind

I feel duty-bound to share this nonsense by Mary Wakefield for @thespectator1828.bsky.social but it does demand some sort of response www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-...