Profit from Childcare: JK Rowling, David Cameron and Baker Tilly

Writing a few days ago about our efforts to place children in loving family homes, I drew attention to a petition to David Cameron asking for his support. My blog related how our PM now reads it back to us, telling us that they can fund those with ideas bigger than their budget.

In a recently produced video JK Rowling describes the childcare conditions which may be found in many parts of  Eastern Europe.

In March 2006 the report on "Death Camps, for Children" would break the culture of fear and silence over this issue in Ukraine, arguing for an investment strategy to address the core problems stemming from poverty.

"Excuses won't work, particularly in light of a handful of oligarchs in Ukraine having been allowed to loot Ukraine's economy for tens of billions of dollars. I point specifically to Akhmetov, Pinchuk, Poroshenko, and Kuchma, and this is certainly not an exhaustive list. These people can single-handedly finance 100% of all that will ever be needed to save Ukraine's orphans. None of them evidently bother to think past their bank accounts, and seem to have at least tacit blessings at this point from the new regime to keep their loot while no one wants to consider Ukraine's death camps, and the widespread poverty that produced them.."

(Viktor Pinchuk hosts the Davos Philanthropic Roundtable and has since joined  the Gates-Buffett Giving Pledge. Rinat Akmetov has plegded to resolve the problems by 2016. They have done nothing)

Much the same can be said of Sir Richard Branson, a friend of Pinchuk who was called on for support

These are men of words and not of deeds. 

In the speech about impact investment David Cameron offers the example of Jim Clifford, who is to be admired for his personal commitment in adopting 9 children. Cameron wants to help social entrepreneurs and sell the "great idea" all over the world.

Jim works for accounting firm Baker Tilly and in a Guardian article from a few months ago, he relates the problem of adopting older childen and the need for rehabilitation services.

In the 2006 'Marshall Plan' paper, the same approach was described for children who were also disabled. It would propose EveryChild and Holt International as partners.  By the time it was shared publicly, the government of Ukraine had agreed to the creation of 400+ rehab centres in line with the paper's recommendations.

"The most urgent component of the project below is relief and modern medical treatment for tens of thousands of Ukraine's children diagnosed as psychoneurologically handicapped. Many have died in state care, in primitive and inhumane conditions. Many are misdiagnosed, and end up in atrocious conditions. Following intense publicity and public discussion of the issue during final preparation of this project, Ukraine's government agreed on 5 March, 2007 to open more than 400 new treatment facilities for these children all over Ukraine. That commitment from Ukraine’s government was a major step forward, clearly demonstrating Ukraine’s willingness and ability to take initiative in childcare reform first and foremost. "

  It had suggested in the section on chilcare reform

"Attitudes regarding foster care and adoptions within Ukraine will take time to change and overcome. Additionally, expert social workers must be trained and made available as part of an in-home support program for children returning to families. New training must include a shift away from finding reasons for removal of children from homes, to emphasis on family support to help families cope with keeping their children. It appears that in many or most cases, poverty and insufficient monthly income to care for children is the main reason for placement into state care. In those cases, social support payments to these families will fulfill that primary need and yield an overall cost savings as outlined above. Nevertheless, returning children to their family homes must be monitored for the best interests, safety, and security of each child. Without exception, each child’s safety, health, and security must be the absolute guiding factors in each individual case. Foster care and adoptions within Ukraine must also be monitored with the same level of diligence and respect for each child’s best interests. "

In 2006, seeking support from the Social Enterprise Coalition, now known as Social Enterprise UK, we were told that our work was beyond their current focus. 

In 2008, USAID were reminded of the seriousness of the problem and their response to social investment was that there were insufficient funds to deal with the problem of 'handicapped and retarded' children.

Later it was offered as a proposal to the EU Citizens Consulation, warning of the HIV epidemic on the doorstep of Europe, a country now on the brink of gaining access to EU markets.

The EU ignored it, seemingly, but when the EU Social Business Consultation took place in 2012, several of the ideas proposed in our work would re-appear. The business model being that which we deployed in doing this work . I challenged this apparent plagiarism via our MEP and got a response from Commisioner Michel Barnier,

As one might expect Commissioner Barnier denied all knowledge but pledged to include us in future.

I wasn't aware until reading the Guardian article that Jim Clifford also has another role as technical chair of the GECES subgroup of the European Commission under the social business initiative, a table we weren't welcome at.

As we also discovered with our work in sourcing a social enterprise development centre. We were not welcome in a USAID/British Council initiative that we'd approached them for support with. Partners would include Price Waterhouse Cooper and Erste bank, who'd been introduced to our proposal in the Social Business ideas competition following a tour of Budapest.

I think we can reasonably conclude that social enterprise has been hijacked by the financial world. Far from being all in this together, we are putting forward proposals from which others will derive profit ratther than the intended social purpose. Organisations like EveryChild will be displaced by the kind of profit maximising we've seen already in the public sector from examples such as A4E.

This tragically, was the core of the problem we reported in "Death Camps for Children". Where organised crime benefits at the cost of the vulnerable and voiceless.  

Later I describe the wilful blindness to issues brought home by the case of Jimmy Savile, when vested interest renders us silent about things that matter.    

What tax exile Sir Ronald Cohen describes as a giant step forward for social investment is at the same time a step backward for humankind and ethics.

In the 1996 P-CED manifesto for an alternative to traditional capitalism, we argue that:

"Adam Smith’s 'invisible hand' does not mean 'non-existent', nor detached.  It means what it says: invisible.  That is, not observable."

It marked the beginning of putting love and compassion into the core of business and economics:

“Substitute personal greed with compassion, and the balance sheets will still work out just fine. Profit/loss statements take on a whole new dimension and meaning. Greed and capitalism are not one and the same thing. “Social” capitalism, social enterprise, is perfectly doable. This is the most effective sustainable strategy available for alleviating widespread human suffering stemming from poverty and all that comes with it — up to and including terrorism.” 

With an Invisible Heart - Sir Ronald it seems, is something of a convert  He won't of course be found in the foxholes and trenches we inhabit for social activism. Par for the course, it is his own idea.

 

Our example illustrates that at every step you will be fobbed off and dismissed until you die trying.