Outcry as Virgin Care gets £250m contract following claim children in Essex will be ‘guinea pigs’ for outsourcing

Opposition councillors have criticised plans to treat children as “guinea pigs” by awarding a £250 million family support service contract to Virgin Care.

Essex County Council awarded the seven-year contract to Virgin Care, in partnership with Barnardo’s, to run family services across the county.

The contract, which starts in April, includes health, wellbeing and family support services from pre-birth to the age of 19 and will see the combination of existing services like the healthy child programme, healthy schools, family nurse partnership and children’s centres from April 2017….read more

Essex Gazette: 20 December 2016

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