Manchester City Council to recognise care experience as protected characteristic
Fiona Simpson
Monday, October 10, 2022
Manchester City Council is the latest local authority to pass a motion recognising care experience as a protected characteristic.
The motion, which was agreed unanimously by councillors at a meeting on 5 October, means that all future decisions and policies made by the local authority will now have to demonstrate that the needs of these two groups have been properly considered and thought through, along with any impact on them.
It follows a similar move by two new unitary councils in Cumbria, Cumberland Council and Westmorland and Furness Council and Ashfield District Council in Nottinghamshire over the last few months.
The motions come as part of a campaign by care leaver Terry Galloway, who grew up in the care system across Greater Manchester and later Devon, and now lives in Nottingham.
In its final report, the Care Review recommended that the government pass legislation recognising care experience as a protected characteristic.
Galloway said: “We don’t have time to wait for government to respond and bring in legislation. This is a pressing issue now. These councils have the power to make it happen now.
“I’m so proud of Manchester City Council for taking this step. And I’m calling on the other councils in the combined authority area to pass similar motions at their next full council meetings.
“I’m also calling on Manchester mayor Andy Burnham to really show leadership in this area by adopting formally the corporate parenting principals and voluntarily adopting protected characteristics for care experience.”
Cumberland, Westmorland and now Manchester. Where will be next? https://t.co/VzQN0gK29K
— Josh MacAlister (@JoshMacAlister) October 6, 2022
Following the motion, Councillor Garry Bridges, executive member for early years, children, and young people, added: "We're already very clear that our involvement with young people doesn't just end when on paper they become adults at 18, and we've had a solid package of measures in place for some time to support our care-leavers up to the age of 25.
"What we will now be doing however is taking this a step further, by extending our support to ensure that people of all ages who have had care experience in the past don't find themselves discriminated against in their lives as a result of decisions and policies made by the council - whether that's in relation to where they live, their job, or other opportunities available to them.
"We're fully committed to doing everything we can to help everyone who is care-experienced - whatever their age - towards independence, and to support them in building a happy, healthy, successful future for themselves.
"The proposals we've agreed today will help ensure they have all the tools they need to do just that."
The government is expected to lay out its response to the Care Review, which was published in May, by the end of the year.
Review chair Josh MacAlister said of the proposal to make care experience a protected characteristic in law: “The disadvantage faced by the care experienced community is an issue of social justice.
“Additional rights, protections and support are needed for this group. Leading the independent review of children's social care, which listened to thousands of people with direct experience of the care system, convinced me that we need to do something dramatically different. That is why the duty of 'corporate parenting' should be extended to more public bodies and why the care experience should become a protected characteristic.
“A growing number of councils in England are getting out in front on these measures and in time I hope the government will also back these policies.”
