Bid to make care experience a protected characteristic gathers pace
Published by Professional Social Work magazine, 17 May, 2022
A campaign to make care experience a protected characteristic under law is gathering momentum with local councillors pledging support.
The Show Us You Care Too campaign is being led by people with experience of being in care in childhood.
They highlight stigma, discrimination and social and economic disadvantage experienced by many care leavers.
Making care experience a protected characteristic would give it the same protection under the Equality Act as age, disability, race, religion, gender reassignment, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity and marriage and civil partnerships.
Haringey Council is the first local authority to sign the Show Us You Care Too pledge. In the run up to the May elections, more than 100 candidates in 63 local authorities throughout the UK said they would propose a similar motion in their authority if elected or returned.
Out of these, 25 were elected in 18 local authorities.
A change in law would mean public bodies, including councils, the NHS and the police, would have to consider how their policies and practices affect care experienced people. They would have to show what steps they have taken to remove disadvantage and decision-makers would be required to consider the needs of care experienced people in policies.
Among those supporting the campaign is Shirley Procter, Labour councillor for Davyhulme East Ward in Trafford, Greater Manchester. She said: "I'm a retired foster carer, having fostered 13 children over a period of 13 years.
"I know the disadvantage children in the care system and care leavers face, the challenges they face fitting into a society that fails to recognise the specific issues and battles these precious children and young adults face."
Ben Dashper, Scottish National Party councillor for Stranraer and the Rhins in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, said: "I was briefly in kinship care as a youth. I know that what unites all the care experienced is this: we did not choose that life.
"Care experienced status should absolutely be made a protected characteristic to further support our care leavers and end structural discrimination."
The Show Us You Care Too campaign has also launched a tool for young people in care to report incidents where they believe they have suffered discrimination.
Terry Galloway, founder and coordinator of the campaign, said: “We know that care experienced people face real barriers in housing, welfare benefits, health, education, and employment and that they are being discriminated against every day either directly or indirectly, but we need people to come forward with specific examples so that we can demonstrate the breadth and depth of the problem.
"The reporting tool is aimed at care experienced people and others that work with them, especially professionals that know the sector and polices. Once we have the responses, we will be commissioning research into specific policy areas because this kind of research does not exist.
"Young people tell us that they are worried about the stigma, and I shared their concerns. Most of what will be achieved by introducing this will be a shift in how policies are written, they will finally take care experience into account and the care cliff will be eliminated as it spreads beyond social care and into wider society.”
The reporting tool can be accessed here