Private investors and shareholders are making huge profits from the reshaping of adult social care and childcare as corporate and financialised businesses. At the same time, the collapse in recent years of major care chains clearly showed the risks for workers and care recipients in allowing large companies to organise care in the interests of investment firms rather the public interest. Not a day goes without an article in newspapers sounding the alarm about the disastrous state of social care and childcare in the country. Most studies so far have focussed on large private companies and their financial operations in Adult Social Care, while new research shows that Childcare is following suit, with large nursery chains strengthening their hold on the market through acquisitions, mergers and debt. No studies, however, have analysed these dynamics across the two sectors.
We want to begin a public conversation on the importance of understanding the effects of corporatisation and financialisation in both Adult Social Care and Childcare. This will help to:
- Identify the common forces at play in the ‘crisis of care’ across the board.
- Allow policymakers and regulators in each sector to learn lessons from the other.
- Inform solutions to improve recruitment/retention of care workers and deliver high quality care for all.
