Private equity funds care: Three charities raise £40m from vulnerable children’s problems.

Three private equity firms that run foster care agencies have been awarded £40 million on the plight of vulnerable children, the Mail on Sunday can reveal.

They have collected their millions in sector problems. When the purchase funds are available, many adopters are declining, saying that the money they receive is for child care.

The number of foster carers has fallen in a decade, and 6,500 foster families are needed in England, according to Ofsted, which oversees education and care.

Some children spend Christmas away from their siblings or stay with carers miles away from their communities.

But private equity firms are raking in millions of pounds in profits by managing feedlots.

These jobs started out as local, small jobs, but in recent years the companies have been overtaken by private companies, and the sensitive area of ​​child care has become big business.

The three main agencies – National Fostering Group, Polaris and Compass Community – are all independent.

They make money by paying councils to place children in foster homes. The industry says they would double or triple their costs if councils made their own arrangements.

The government contracts with for-profit agencies to recruit and train foster carers. Those who pass the assessment, home visit and final checks from the foster team will be matched with the child based on the needs, experience and training of the caregiver.

It’s a big, growing business, with 44 per cent of all foster carers coming from private businesses, according to Ofsted data.

This is up from 41 percent in 2020. One of the private investors is Italian financier Stefano Bonfiglio, whose Stirling Square Capital company is the National Fostering Group, which places children in blessing

Bonfiglio founded Stirling Square in 2002 and is a former friend of transformational educator Trinny Woodall.

The multi-millionaire racehorse lover got married in 2014. Former President Bill Clinton is a friend.

The National Fostering Group had a profit of £23.4 million for the year to August 2023.

Seamus FitzPatrick is the former city treasurer of the division. The firm he runs, CapVest, owns Polaris Community, another ranching firm.

Revenue is expected to be £14.1 million in 2023, up from £13.3 million the previous year.

Britain’s third-largest self catering business is in the right hands. Compass Community offers foster care and other services such as children’s homes and schools for youth in need.

In May this year, the company was sold to Cap10 Partners, a firm founded by private equity veteran Fabrice Nottin.

The Frenchman spent nine years at US asset management company Apollo Global and has been on the board of Watches Of Switzerland.

Compass Society has a £3 million profit for the year to March 2023 on revenues of over £108 million.

Caregivers earn £7.50 per hour

The comfortable lives of freelancers are a world away from those of carers, who earn the equivalent of £7.50 an hour, less than the minimum wage, and pay for clothing and each child’s meals. .

Most are self-employed, so they are not entitled to workers’ rights including minimum wage, sick pay, paid leave, and pensions. A lot depends on the benefits.

One told this newspaper that charity carers ‘work without power or protection’ despite ‘massive profits’ being taken off their backs by the right institutions.

The Fostering Network, a UK charity, said last month that the number of foster carers in England had fallen to a decade low of 42,615 for the year to March from 45,370 in 2021.

‘The fewer foster carers we have, the more children will end up in shelters, in homes away from their families and friends,’ said the head of the Sarah Thomas charity.

Around 57,000 children in England are in care.

Chancellor Rachel Reeves unveiled £44 million for foster care in her Budget to boost foster parenting.

A Stirling Square Capital spokesman said: ‘As a long-term investor in healthcare and social welfare, we have owned NFG for nine years.

‘So far, Stirling Square has not taken the cost of the business and repatriated all available profits into the NFG, which has – and will continue to pay – UK tax.’