Yes. We did it!

Some brilliant news! The government has announced that they won’t allow the privatisation of our child protection services.

Back in May, 38 Degrees members sent a tidal wave of over 77,000 messages to education secretary, Michael Gove – telling him to keep child protection services away from private companies.

Together, we added our voices to pressure from policy experts like Children England, who started the campaign to scrap plans to privatise child protection services. Our people-powered action helped push Michael Gove to row back on his plans.

Just two days before Gove’s consultation ended, it still wasn’t big news. Then emails from 38 Degrees members started to roll in and Gove was left in no doubt about how unpopular his plans were. This is a great victory for people power – and for common sense.

Kathy Evans, chief executive of Children England, said:
“It’s rare that Government listens and responds to consultation so quickly”.

It’s because 38 Degrees is independent – never taking money from big business or government – that we can stand firm against plans like these. We’re funded by hundreds of thousands of 38 Degrees members who chip in and prioritise the campaigns that we run together.

It’s not easy to stand up to the government and win. Especially when so many of our public services have been put up for sale. Protecting children is one of the most difficult and sensitive roles for a government to perform – so 38 Degrees members can be really proud that together we’ve made sure children’s needs continue to be put before profit.

Let’s take a moment to celebrate what we can accomplish when we all work together.