Beyond profit

Beyond profit: How could reducing or removing profit from children’s social care impact on outcomes from children, their families and the social care system in Wales and beyond? 

Overview

Children’s social care across the UK has become increasingly reliant on private, profit-making providers, particularly within foster care and residential care services. This shift has prompted growing debate about the costs, quality, accountability and sustainability of care provision, as well as broader questions about whether profit should be generated from services designed to support vulnerable children and young people.

In response to these concerns, the Welsh Government has introduced legislation to remove profit from the care of looked-after children. Through the Health and Social Care (Wales) Act 2025, Wales is transitioning towards a system in which care is delivered by public, charitable and not-for-profit organisations. This represents one of the most ambitious reforms of children’s social care internationally.

Despite the significance of this policy change, there is limited evidence about how reducing or removing profit may affect outcomes for children, families and care systems, how implementation may vary across local contexts, and what intended or unintended consequences may emerge.

The project aims to develop a robust, practice-relevant understanding of how reducing or removing profit from children’s social care may affect outcomes, for whom, and under what circumstances. The findings will support evidence-informed decision making in Wales and contribute to wider UK and international debates about the future organisation of children’s social care.

Activities and Methods

The study is being conducted between October 2026 and March 2028 and comprises three interconnected work packages: 

1. Understanding how reform is expected to work 

• Review of UK and international evidence relating to profit-making in children’s social care. 
• Interviews with key stakeholders across Wales, England and Scotland. 
• Exploration of how reducing or removing profit is expected to influence outcomes and identification of potential intended and unintended consequences.  

2. Understanding implementation in practice 

• National survey of all 22 Welsh local authorities to assess implementation readiness. 
• Selection of three case study sites. 
• Interviews with care-experienced young people, local authority staff and managers, senior leaders, and staff and carers working within both not-for-profit and for-profit organisations.  

3. Preparing for future evaluation 

• Identification of priority outcomes for children, families and services. 
• Review of validated measures and routinely collected datasets. 
• Feasibility testing of baseline data collection approaches. 
• Development of recommendations for a future impact evaluation. 

Findings

The project is currently underway. Early outputs will provide evidence about:

• How different stakeholders understand the role of profit in children’s social care. 
• Opportunities and challenges associated with transitioning to not-for-profit provision. 
• Factors that may influence implementation across different local contexts. 
• Priority outcomes for children, families, practitioners and care systems. 
• The design of future research to assess the impacts of the reforms. 

Other

Co-production and lived experience 

The study has been designed in partnership with a local authority manager and a young adult with lived experience of out-of-home care. Their involvement helps ensure the research remains grounded in the experiences of those most directly affected by children’s social care policy and practice. The project is also delivered in partnership with Voices from Care Cymru who will support the engagement of care-experienced young people throughout the study.

Contact us to learn more about the study at: StablerL@cardiff.ac.uk