CYP Now - Tackle stereotypes by making care experience a protected characteristic, campaigner urges

A young woman from Cambridgeshire is campaigning for care experience to be considered a protected characteristic, in the hopes that a policy change will improve society’s understanding of what it means to be a child in care.

Johnson said she hopes a policy change would help people understand the additional challenges faced by care-experienced people. Picture: Elle Johnson

Elle Johnson, aged 22, advocates for children in the care system and is currently involved in a nation-wide campaign to have care experience treated as a protected characteristic – a policy which more than 25 councils have already adopted.

Johnson told CYP Now that many people make negative assumptions after finding out she has been in care.

“People don’t see care experience as a good thing. I think people envisage a child who has had encounters with the law, who’s a menace to society, is poorly educated, and is going to be on benefits for life," she said.

“I'm instantly different from my peers, and I have to justify, or at least explain why I’m different,” she said. “It’s not taught, so people don’t know what being in care means. It’s mostly due to a lack of understanding.”

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