17.Memorandum from the Children's Rights
Alliance for England
There is growing private sector involvement
in all areas of service provision for children and, despite lengthy
discussions with our member NGOs, we have found it difficult to
establish clear boundaries between a "public authority"
and a private provider. We realise that this lack of clarity reflects
the ambiguity about which the Committee is concerned.
The private sector is responsible for much of
the pre-school provision in the UK and is also involved in education,
both through private schools and through PFI projects, and through
the provision of day-to-day services such as maintenance and catering
in state schools.
Several Local Education Authorities are run
in partnership with—or wholly by—companies such as
Nordanglia, Capita, Serco and Atkins, or by business consortia
set up specifically for the purpose. Nordanglia and Serco QAA
provide for school inspections. Capita maintains the Schools Census
and Connexions databases, collecting and storing highly sensitive
information. Businesses enter into partnerships with schools,
offering mentoring to pupils and training to staff.
The Connexions service for 13 to 19-year-olds
is run at local level by Learning and Skills Councils, a partnership
between the public and private sector, and in many areas the careers
service is provided entirely by subsidiaries of larger corporations;
Vosper Thornycroft, for example, has established the "Futures
Careers" company operating in many Connexions areas. There
is also a high level of involvement of organisations such as "Young
Enterprise", an educational charity established and run by
the business community.
The private sector is involved in the provision
of health care, of fostering and adoption services, of escort
services and tracking schemes for juvenile offenders; Rebound
ECD, a subsidiary of Group4 Falck, is responsible for the running
of Secure Training Centres.
Children are in constant contact with the private
sector and have no choice about this: we have not found an area
of state provision for children in which the private sector is
not involved.
We regret that we do not have the legal expertise
to address the issues of how the ambiguities that surround the
meaning of "public authority" might be resolved, but
given the particular vulnerability of children, and the rapid
expansion of private sector involvement in services for them,
we do wish to register our urgent concern.
Children are not in the same contractual position
as adults, and if the responsibilities of a "public authority"
were to be enforced via contract terms, this may not be sufficient
to protect children's human rights.
In our view, "public authority" should
be construed as widely as possible and given statutory definition
if children are to be adequately protected by human rights instruments.
28 April 2003
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