Placed and paid for: a national overview of the use of private and voluntary day care facilities for children in need

This paper examines day care provision for children in need, who are placed and paid for by local authorities in non local authority services. The England and Wales Children Act 1989 placed a new duty on local authorities to provide day care services for children who are defined as being 'in need', and the guidance accompanying the Act encourages the use of independent sector services for this purpose. This paper brings together the main findings from a survey of all English local authorities, an analysis of local authority documentation and secondary analysis of government statistics to provide a national overview of the use of sponsored day care places for children 'in need'. It concludes that the majority of English local authorities value the contribution of independent day care providers, but that there are potential problems with adopting a market approach to welfare services, such as low levels of training and support for such providers, and a shortage of suitable service provision in the areas where they are most needed. These require further consideration by policy makers and local authorities.