Some ethical limitations of privatising and marketizing social care and social work pro-vision in England for children and young people

Abstract

This article analyses the negative ethical impact of privatisation, alongside the ongoing mar-ketisation of social care and social work provision for children and young people in England. It critically appraises the implications of a market-based formal social care system, which in-cludes the risk-averse and often detached role of social workers within ever more fragmented sectors of care. Analysis begins with a discussion of background policy and context. The ten-dency towards ‘service user’ objectification and commodification are then detailed, followed by a discussion of the limiting of choice for service users. Service and social fragmentation, and the often severely restricted ‘life chances’ of many children and young people in care, are then deliberated. The concluding discussion reiterates the moral implications of marketisation in relation to ethical frameworks, including those associated with autonomy, informed choice, social exclusion and social justice. The tendency towards children increasingly being utilised as a means to an end within business-orientated sectors of care is highlighted, alongside ethi-cal questions asked about the State’s purpose in providing a community of support.