Two years on from that, the care-experienced people who produced the Our Care: Our Say report submitted to the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, were increasingly vocal champions for this policy, leading to it becoming a recommendation of review chair Josh MacAlister’s final report in 2022.
The then government declined to take forward this recommendation, citing, with some justification, that there were divergent views in the sector about the potential benefits.
Many see this as a rights-driven issue, drawing direct parallels with disabled people and other groups for whom protected characteristic status has proved positive.
There are those who are sceptical about whether a measure of this kind can really bring about necessary change or would just lead to organisations ticking boxes and jumping through hoops with nothing being different.
Others are concerned that self-declaration, or identifying people in the community as care experienced, could lead to further stigma and discrimination in itself.
And there is a distinct lack of wider evidence that people actually want this. So, to help understand better, Ulster University is researching the perceptions of discrimination of care-experienced adults while in care and after leaving care.
This is undoubtedly a complex issue. There needs to be more informed debate and, importantly, engagement with the care-experienced community.
Undeterred, people in the care-experienced community have been pressing local authorities up and down the country to treat care experience as if it were a protected characteristic. Tireless campaigning by Terry Galloway and others has led to an impressive 103 local authorities so far resolving to do so.
There is no doubt that at a local level this has the potential to make significant impact. It has already raised awareness, with local debate giving a platform for care-experienced people to express their views directly to local leaders.
However, the nature of these local resolutions varies from place to place and the proof of whether this will make a difference remains to be seen. Co-ordination of these individual efforts could magnify the profile of this issue, as well as sharing best practice and could build momentum for national policy change.
There is political support: it’s worth remembering that making care experience a protected characteristic was a manifesto commitment from the Liberal Democrats. The new government can now act but must be clear about the impact expected and the supporting measures needed to make the real difference everyone agrees is needed.
After all, as Josh MacAlister, who is now an MP, said in February 2023: “The disadvantage faced by the care-experienced community should be the civil rights issue of our time.”
- Alison O’Sullivan is chair of the National Children’s Bureau
