Being in care is something that is difficult for children and young people who are in the system. Children and young people come to be in care if the authority thinks it appropriate. It’s either because it is unsafe for them or the parents can’t take care of them anymore. 

I spoke to a young person who has experienced the care system. They talked about how the care system affected their wellbeing and what should be improved. 

“Whilst in the care system, there is no sort of wellbeing as it’s very poorly looked after. I couldn’t find anything that worked for me. Very little support was given to me or others in the same position, there was pretty much nothing. I hope to see better support in the future, there should be quicker access to medical and health services. Otherwise we just don’t engage.”

“My advice would be to make sure that you keep fighting, talk to people and get the support you need. Make sure that you are present in meetings that are about you so you have a say in your future. Also, fight for things that you don’t agree with.”  

“There are different processes of being in care and transitioning out of the system. One section is parental/voluntary which allows you to leave the care system when your 16. However, if you are under the full section, you can’t leave until you’re 18. Once you leave, there is no support given to you. There should be! At least social workers should provide us with details of places that can provide us with the support we need.”   

“When talking about care, adoption etc, there are words that I find uncomfortable which are ‘lack’, ‘YP’ and others. This can vary from person to person but to get around this, ask the person what they feel most comfortable with as most people rather you ask than assume.” 

“There are so many misconceptions about the care system. One of the main ones is that we get it easy. We don’t! There are so many limitations and it’s not what it seems and the show Tracy Beaker doesn’t help with this either. The show just annoys me as it gets a lot of things wrong and the representation of what it’s truly like, it’s just not there.”

“The living arrangements are very much boys and girls as very little children homes have mixed which I don’t agree with. This resulted in me having a very different relationship with males and females. As well as this, we don’t get much freedom and that made it difficult to find friends.” 

“Overall, I find that the care system is poorly run, nothing sufficient is in place to support children and young people in care. This is why I have set up a fundraiser in hope to launch a team of volunteers to get trained so that they are able to walk around the hot spots for people who need help and support.”

Here is the link to the fundraiser – https://www.gofundme.com/f/talk-now-live-longer? 

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