More social care co-operatives could be on the way, if the government builds on its early enthusiasm. Terry Philpot explains how they could change the way professionals work and profi les the pioneering Foster Care Co-operative
I
t is 13 years since the Foster Care Co- operative (click link) was launched but it changed the landscape for its social workers. For a start, they own the organisation and have a say in its running.
Importantly, the FCC is free from the dreaded government-imposed targets, allowing professionals to pursue quality before profi t. This has resulted in improved outcomes for the child as well as greater social worker job satisfaction. Those principles caught the eye of David
Cameron. He included the encouragement of staff -owned co-ops in the coalition agreement, building on the establishment of Labour’s mutually owned schools, leisure centres and foundation hospitals. It should be the future, shouldn’t it? But prime ministerial rhetoric has been
matched by no more than an uneven and fi tful start for co-ops. It is diffi cult even to fi nd out how many there are. Although ‘mutuals’, which include co-ops, in health and domiciliary care long pre-date the current interest, intention is lagging behind achievement. But the independent social work practices being piloted with
22 SOCIALWORKMATTERS APR12
Foster Care Co-operative
government funding have been one signifi cant spur to creating more co-ops. Evolve YP, an independent social work
practice which works with young people in Staff ordshire, is 52 per cent owned by staff and is a mutual. Others, like Bristol and North Tyneside, are council-run with the long-term intention that they will be become worker- owned mutuals. Children’s social work practices have been followed by seven adults’ services practices,