Whilst Thatcher sold our silver, successive governments have sold our gold, bankrupting our country, LA and NHS, by selling off public services and then paying public money to use them, one of the biggest money spinners includes the care and education of the deliberately created autism and LD industry, making billions for investors, banks, investment houses and advisors.
It appears the eventual aim is to allow monopoly global mulinationals owned by venture capital banks and their investors to provide services paid for by the public purse.
This allows neither competition between providers, nor any real accountability, asset stripping at will, and a massive conflict of interests, as these Companies’ overriding duty is to make ever more profit from their guaranteed increasing public income from their captive consumers.
Who could have thought that 4 Kisimul special needs boarding schools in Lincolnshire could be sold last year by a multibillion pound investment group Antin to Roadchef for 200 million with Shoosmiths investment advisers paid to advise shareholders .
What would Roadchef know of running special needs schools ? They have no need to, just the money to buy them.
Kisimul School was set up in 1977, named after Kismul Castle, as it overlooks the safest harbour in Britain denoting the safe haven it offered to autistic and learning disabled children on their journey through life.. https://www.kisimul.co.uk/about-us/
In 2003 Kisimul Upper School post 16 facility was built at the request of several LAs to provide residential placements and then on a similar basis Cruckton Hall for boys with ADHD, Aspergers and ADD was built as as labels increased, so did demand.
Billions were then paid by 30 different Local Authorities, NHS/CCGs and Education Authorities to Kisimul for these residential placements..
Generally a minimum of £177,000 a year per pupil was paid for a 52 week placement in 2007 ,the amount NAS was paid for my daughter’s enforced education and care, despite a third of the year being spent at home.
Now over £200,000 is paid per year, per pupil, twothirds by LAs who on the excuse of austerity have cut down SEN funding.
Kisimul’s consumers are captive, as their 38/52 week placements are enforced by Care Order or forced s20 CA ‘consent ’which is a prerequisite to funding, as it was in my daughters case.
So who or how could anyone complain of the school’s services ?.
By 2006 Kisimul’s 270 staff and over 30 LA customers were bought up by Bowmark Capital Limited for 8.5 million, together with its existing management team , which then had plans to expand and develop their services throughout the East Midlands to take advantage of the growing demand.
https://www.bowmark.com/news/1025068/bowmark-capital-announces-acquisition-kisimul
The Royal Bank of Scotland provided the senior debt facility shortly before it was bailed out by the public purse.
But by 2011 Rothschild Five Arrows invest unit, had seen Kisimul’s potential with revenues of 38.29 million and profit of 7.45 million by 2015 and had bought it for an undisclosed amount.
Rothschild also bought out Kisimul’s existing management team indicating Kisimul might no longer be the ‘safe haven’ promised.
By the summer of 2017 Antin Infrastructure Group had bought Kismul from Rothschild’s investment arm Five Arrows.
https://www.penews.com/articles/education-speciai-needs-children-kisimul-20170703
In 2017 Bowmark owned by Five Arrows Principle Investments , the private equity arm of the Rothschild dynasty, tried to buy back Kisimul for 200 million-191,500 million more than they had sold it for just over 10 years earlier.
Private Equity News commented on their bid.
‘Bowmark’s decision to try and repurchase an asset it has already owned comes as firms are having to become increasingly inventive to deploy capital in a fiercely competitive deal market’.
Antin declined to comment on the eventual sale to Roadchef and the actual amount paid remains unknown, yet its value was made and its future income is from our public money.
Antin’s partner Angelika Schochlin noted her surprise that so few investors were looking at social infrastructure stating the need ‘to go beyond a reactive approach and have a vision of things before they happen’
ie forsee that these schools command 200,000 a year per pupil and feed and could provide ‘community living’ for life for these pupils under DOLs ( soon liberty safeguards)with guaranteed millions of increasing public money with scant oversight from LA/NHS commissioners, as they are liable for any inadequacy.
With little regulation other than a government controlled bureaucratic inspection from OFSTED and the CQC,
Antin has grown from 30 to over a 100 Investment directors paid between £98,000 and £334,000 a year
https://www.fnlondon.com/articles/antin-infrastructure-to-expand-team-20140922IN
Its CEO, Alain Rauscher has an estimated annual revenue of 55 million dollars
https://www.owler.com/company/antin-iphttps://www.owler.com/company/antin-ip
Antin owns another group of residential schools for special needs mainly autistic,Hesley North in its portfolio, although they were to be sold to Bowmark in 2012 for 75 million, but the sale fell through.
https://www.ft.com/content/f6270600-c051-11e1-982d-00144feabdc0
Private Equity News notes;
Buyout houses globally are currently sitting on a record $1.5 trillion of dry powder, according to Bain & Co.’s Global Private Equity Report 2017.
So how many other special residential schools with the lucrative prospect of ‘community living’ for life will be guzzled up for billions to make trillions from public money?
There are many ripe for venture capital picking, particularly those in the charitable sector, like St Andrews Healthcare, the largest provision for 12-18 autistic and learning disabled in Europe, NAS,and MENCAP.
But we will not know their commercial worth, even though made from our public money, unless we follow the hidden by paywall, and commercial confidential world of corporate finance and investment.
Yet these venture capital cartels are playing billion pound monopoly with profits made from our money paid for our childrens education and future lives .
These children’s journey as commodities for venture capital buyers and investors will also remain unseen.
We have been allowed to see a little of their journey in November 2018 as 3 and now 8 members of staff have been arrested at one of the homes due to serious safeguarding issues.
https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/crime/eight-arrests-kisimul-children-s-home-lincolnshire-1-5848916
Yet KISIMUL was rated outstanding by OFSTED this year.
Elizabeth has been under two Cygnet Healthcares – one in Cygnet Stevenage and one that is supposed to be the flagship in Beckton. I have been to their conference at the Royal College of GPs and I went with someone I know who has a brother in this expensive private hospital who wishes to be transferred elsewhere. I was extremely interested in the conference which was very well organised and took part in a workshop called “least restrictive care” – well I had to say what I thought – Elizabeth thought it was like prison and I could not disagree with this description.
