Britain is going backwards as children in care lose out to the pursuit of profits

‘“Value for money” justifies cutbacks, but displaces the real reason for these services, which is that disadvantaged children have their needs met.’ Photograph: True Images/Alamy

Your editorial on Josh MacAlister’s review of our children’s social care system (23 May) rightly underlines the importance of having services based within an “ethic of care” rather than shaped by a private market. Having worked for many years in local authority social services, I regard it as one of the great privileges of my life to have served on the committee stage of the landmark 1989 Children Act, not long after being elected to the Commons.

That legislation still underpins our care system and has at its heart the key principle of a child’s welfare being the paramount consideration in determining their wellbeing. It is utterly beyond me how that principle can be met when 83% of residential care provision is in the hands of private companies, whose central purpose is to make a profit.