UK has ‘sleepwalked’ into dysfunctional children’s social care market, says regulator

CMA finds local authorities are being forced to pay excessive fees for substandard privately run services

The UK has sleepwalked" into a dysfunctional market for children's social care with local authorities forced to pay excessive fees for privately run services that often fail to meet the needs of vulnerable children, an official report has concluded.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) called for an overhaul of the 6.5bn UK market for children's residential and foster care, saying it had found significant problems" with the provision of the privately dominated services.