First London borough votes to recognise care experience as a protected characteristic

The motion, brought forward by Councillor Ben Kind, cabinet member for children and young people, was passed at a full council meeting on 25 January, after similar motions were passed at various councils across the UK.

• Unrest over Care Review board plans

• Young people help to improve the language of care

CYP Now attended the meeting, with reporters live-tweeting the motion's progress.

Reporting for @cypnow from @lambeth_council tonight. @TerryGalloway will be addressing the council urging them to treat care experience as a protected characteristic #CareExperience #CEP pic.twitter.com/qEM2gr6K3U

— Emily Harle (@EmilyLHarle) January 25, 2023

Campaigner Terry Galloway urged councillors to support the motion, drawing on his own experience of the care system.

He told councillors that both he and his siblings were “abused in the system and nobody listened”, adding that he remembered telling his sister “that it would okay and we would change the care system together, and use the pain for good".

Explaining that his sister had died after being stabbed by her partner, he said: “She’s gone now, but there are plenty more children in care right now, who leave the system looking for love and looking for family, but who end up exploited by criminal gangs, domestic violence and coercion. We must recognise this and do more for our care experienced people.”

Councillors also heard from Rachel, a care experienced young person working with Action for Children as an ambassador, who discussed discrimination she had experienced due to being in foster care.

Rachel said a staff member at a setting where she was studying spoke to other people about her care experience. Rachel added that the staff member asked her invasive questions about why she was in foster care, including asking why her parents did not love her, and asking if had been to prison because she was a foster child.

She said this discrimination resulted in her leaving the course she had previously enjoyed, saying: “I didn’t feel safe, I didn’t feel comfortable or welcomed anymore.

“Had there been a care experience protected characteristic, they would’ve known not to ask me that or put me in that position.”

Councillor Ben Kind, who brought the motion, told councillors that his foster brother once said: “The biggest challenge in life as a care-experienced person, even as an adult, is dealing with the choices that were made for you by others.”

Kind added: “Care-experienced people face challenges, discrimination and stigma across housing, health, education, relationships, employment and the criminal justice system.

“It’s not just a failure on the part of decision-makers nationally, it is a failure of all of us collectively, and its our responsibility to do better.”

The motion resolves that the council will “treat care experience as an additional equality strand alongside the protected characteristics as set out in the Equality Act 2012”.

This means that “key council policies and changes in policy made and adopted by Lambeth should be assessed through Equality Impact Assessments to determine the impact of changes on people with care experience".

Council documents, laying out the motion, state that the council will formally support the Show Us You Care Too campaign, and call on the government to make care experience a protected characteristic as part of the Care Review, which the government is soon expected to release a response to.

'To the care experienced people of Lambeth, we see you, we hear you' Standing ovation for Cllr David Brindson who brings the motion to see care experience as a protected characteristic in the borough pic.twitter.com/KWyym2kM9r

— Fiona Simpson (@fionajsimpson) January 25, 2023

More than 10 other councils across the UK have now passed similar motions on treating care experience as a protected characteristic, including Nottinghamshire County Council, Sefton Council, and Wigan Council.