Barnardo's has commissioned a report from Demos which urges social workers to be quicker in taking children into care.  The purported 'evidence' for this is that it costs children's services £354,053 to place a child in care for 14 years and £393,579 for 7 years - i.e. £41,526 more for half the time.

We are also told that 66% of children in care for more than 8 years have at least one GCSE; which is seen as a relative success. (Others might note that after all that expense, in addition to the education costs, a third of children in care have no GCSE passes.)

So what's behind all this?

Well, if you thought Barnardo's looked after orphans, forget it.  They closed their last home in 1989.  Barnardo's coins in well over £100 million a year by selling its services to local authorities etc; it taps into the sentimental 'kiddies' charity sector; and it lobbies openly and vociferously for more state spending. 

Barnardo's commissioned the Demos report in a blatant attempt to tout for more business in relation to taking children into care.

However, we know now it costs at least £25,000 a year (and often more than double that amount) to take a child into care.  This figure should obviously now be added as notional income when assessing 'child poverty'; one of Barnardo's particular obsessions.

Or do those who persistently demand more state spending think that the benefit to the child from being taken into care does not remotely equate to the costs of £500-£1,000 per week to the taxpayer?