Risk and Value in Privately Financed Health care Projects

An empirical study is presented to investigate the risk factors affecting the value for money that can be obtained from using the public-private partnership delivery system to develop social facility projects. Based on a model describing the main risks affecting a project, a linear regression analysis is conducted on a dataset of privately financed healthcare projects in the UK to explore the main factors that might have significant relationships with the annual unitary charge payment. The results reveal that the economic and political environment, the hospital capacity, the construction duration, and the concession period are significant factors of the price paid by the granting authority. The study confirms that the unitary charge is not only affected by investment, operations and financial lifecycle costs, but also by risk factors and the level of risk allocated to the private sponsors. The proposed methodology might help both public and private parties in improving PFI project's compensation design, in order to achieve a higher value in privately financed infrastructures. The given model might also support the process of better determining the amount of annual payment based on select drivers and appropriately transferred risk factor

Troubling discourses of poverty in early childhood in the UK

Poverty in early childhood is pervasive, effecting every aspect of children’s lives. Under current government policies child poverty in the UK is predicted to rise to 40% by 2022. Dominant discourses of poverty have historically focussed on an over-arching discourse of moral responsibility essentially relating to deserving and underserving poor. This paper examines how government policy continues to significantly impact on young children and families low incomes in early childhood and how stigmatised discourses about welfare, work are pervasive. It is argued that discourses of redistribution and children’s rights deserve greater recognition if poverty is to be addressed