In Episode 93 of The Rest is Money Podcast, presenters Steph McGovern and Robert Preston discuss the “commercial takeover” over children in state care who live in residential care or children’s homes.

Every week, they say, it can cost between £10,000 and £30,000 for each child in a children’s home, money that is paid to a private company (4 out of 5 children’s homes are privately owned).

The profit being made by these private companies can be sizeable (with suggestions of a profit margin of 20%+) even though the evidence suggests that the care is often questionable.

Covered in the podcast are the likely reasons for the increase of children & young people living residential care, including the austerity programs instituted by David Cameron and George Osborne.

Episode 95 continues the story, with the presenters talking about the huge response they had to Episode 93. Many people thought that “profit, children and care” were words that “should never appear in the one sentence.

In this episode, the Secretary for Education, Bridget Philipson is included in the conversation. She said that measures to deal with the scandal – and she agreed it was a scandal – including improved regulation will soon be made public.