Last week, the Minister for Children and Families, Josh MacAllister MP, was interviewed by Sky News about the government’s plans to increase the number of foster carers. In the interview, MacAllister stated that “fostering isn’t work, it isn’t a job”, the IWGB union’s foster carers branch quickly responded, outlining the complexity, regulation and more that is involved in foster care. 

MacAllister was unclear why foster care isn’t work or a job, despite saying in some nations it is remunerated as such. What he did say was: “children want to be loved by someone because they have this amazing connection”. That brief take on care sums up the fundamental problem for those who are providers of care – especially in low-paid or unpaid roles like foster carers, family members or care workers.

It is this belief that care can only be undertaken if it is not corrupted by being recompensed financially, that to do so takes away the actual care itself; that means those who undertake the actual labour of care must do so for “love” whilst those who often exercise the power of institutional care or the formal systems of care do not.

There is disingenuity in MacAllister’s words; unwilling to acknowledge that care exists within a capitalist system and that formal systems of care – whether adult social care (including institutional care) and children’s social care (again, including institutional care) have become profitable markets for shareholders, asset-stripping financial entities or off-shore tax exiles. 

In Ending Extraction in the UK Care Sector, CLES found that private providers had extracted £250 million over a period of three years – and that was in only THREE UK regions. 

It would appear that there is no issue with being paid – and paid extremely well – if you are a private care provider in adult or children’s social care. There is no conflict between money and “love” in this iteration, it only becomes an issue when it means people have to try and make ends meet.

In our report on care solidarity it was power disparities and wealth extraction that presented as common structural inequalities for all those with a relationship to care.

Until we recognise that there is abundance of resources for all those with a relationship to care, but the majority sits with those who truly don’t care we won’t address the real needs that lie across all formal care spaces.