Salford born social enterprise Social AdVentures has proudly announced the launch of their first children’s home. Formally opened by the Mayor of Salford, Paul Dennett on Friday, this new residential service, provides a significant milestone in the organisation’s mission to provide stable and high-quality care for children in need.
Every year, over 2000 children in Greater Manchester are brought into care, with30% of placements breaking down within eight months. In 2021, the Competition and Markets Authority highlighted that prices and profits in this sector were excessively high, driven by large private providers burdened with substantial debt, putting both their stability and the welfare of children at risk.
Two years ago this challenge led to the creation of the Greater Manchester Fair Care Alliance, a commitment from leading local charities and social enterprises like Social AdVentures to work together to offer stronger alternatives to local Children’s Services teams.For Social AdVentures, expanding into children’s residential care is a natural progression from their existing work in education, mental health, social care, and early childhood services.
As a cooperative the organisation is owned by its employees and has worked in Salford for over a decade, known for its work delivering health programmes, forest schools and community centres.
This new venture into children’s care is backed by Social and Sustainable Capital and recognises the significant shortage of local homes for children. The model to not only increase capacity, but ensures children remain close to their home community,siblings stay together, and care is provided by teams of highly trained and dedicated professionals driven by purpose rather than profit.
Scott Darraugh, CEO at Social AdVentures, said:
“Meeting the biggest gaps in public services and the needs of our local community isat the heart of what we do, so we are absolutely delighted to open our first children’s home.”
“This sector desperately needs to move the focus away from profit and back on to the children it’s here to care for, our approach is all about creating real homes where children feel settled and supported, homes in Salford where they can stay near the places they know whilst enhancing their life chances”.
Today’s launch puts Salford on the national map as the first area to launch a cooperative owned children’s residential model, and fitting as the 19th century birthplace of that movement. These roots in the local not-for-profit community will improve wraparound care and allow a quicker approach to duplication and growth based on the cooperative principle of collaboration to achieve social change.
