AS a retired social worker and manager of an area office of a London borough social services department, where much of our work was concerned with child protection, I am greatly concerned by the proposal to privatise child protection services. In a little publicised consultation, the Department for Education is proposing to allow companies such as Atos, G4S and Serco to be responsible for that most delicate task of protecting vulnerable children and perhaps making the decision whether or not to remove them from their families.   This work is possibly the most sensitive that Government has to undertake on behalf of us all to protect the vulnerable and it must not be outsourced to organisations whose prime focus has to be returning profits for their shareholders. Although DfE opened its consultation on April 17, it did not seem to be known to the general public until May 17 when a group of senior social services academics wrote a letter to the Guardian.   More information can be found in the consultation document at http://www.education.gov.uk./consultations/index.cfm?action=conSection@consultationld=1961&dld=1344&sld=9160">www.education.gov.uk./consultations/index.cfm?action=conSection@consultationld=1961&dld=1344&sld=9160 The deadline for a response to the Department for Education has passed.   However, we can make our views known locally.   The outsourcing of children's services is not compulsory and it will be for each local authority to decide whether or not to do so.   Coming after the out-cry there has been to the County Council's proposals to outsource adult residential and day care services, as well as youth services, they may well listen.  Let us start a campaign to end this further privatisation of our public services. Pamela Galloway Central Devon Constituency Labour Party