Content notice: the below includes discussion of physical, emotional and sexual abuse as well as suicide

Cambridge City Councillors tonight unanimously supported a Cambridge Labour motion to treat care experience as a protected characteristic. The motion is intended to ensure that consideration is given in City Council policy making and operations to the impact that time spent in local authority care can have on individuals throughout their lives.

The motion was proposed by Cllr Cameron Holloway (Newnham) and seconded by Executive Councillor for Housing and Homelessness, and former Mayor, Cllr Gerri Bird (East Chesterton). Gerri herself spent time in Local Authority care in Cambridgeshire as a child.

The term ‘care experience’ refers to the experiences of people who have spent time in Local Authority care as a child.

Under the Equality Act (2010), there are nine protected characteristics, and they represent grounds on which it is illegal to discriminate against an individual or group (for example, age or sex). Public bodies are required to consider the impact of their policies, practices and decision making in relation to these protected characteristics.

Extending this protection to people with care experience will ensure that the discrimination and hardship faced by people with care experience throughout their lives will be properly considered in City Council decision making.

Cambridgeshire County County and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority have previously passed similar motions committing to treat care experience as a protected characteristic.

The motion represents part of a national campaign led by Terry Galloway, who was in attendance at the Council meeting to see the motion passed.

During public questions, Kerrie Portman, a care experienced student at Cambridge University, spoke powerfully of her own life experiences:

“When I was taken into care I was told I was being placed in a children’s home because nobody would love me because I’m disabled. I’ve been told by professionals that what I experienced in the Children’s Home was ‘torture’ and ‘child physical, emotional and sexual abuse’ … I didn’t have a friend until I was 19 years old. I didn’t feel I had a home until I was 22. I wasn’t loved until I was 24. But I first attempted suicide at 10. I was first homeless at 13. My story is not unique. I know there is some data in the motion on how systemic the issues for Care Experienced people are. You are my Corporate Parents. Is anything I’ve told you about my life good enough for your child?”

In the following discussion, Cllr Gerri Bird added:

“Disabled children are still treated the way I was when I was in care. They are left to rot. We’re discussing the same issues as many years ago. Why are we still discussing them? Young people who are in care and then have to come out and live a normal life face the biggest problems you can imagine. This is only a start and we will do what we can to continue raising this important issue. I will never forget my time in care, it lives with you forever.”

Cllr Cameron Holloway added:

“People who grow up in local authority care face enormous challenges and discrimination, that often stay with them throughout their lives. Unfortunately, what we call the care system is too often anything but caring.  Josh Macalister, who led the Government’s The Independent Review of Children’s Social Care in 2022, has called the disadvantage faced by the care experienced community ‘the civil rights issue of our times’.

“The statistics are shocking – people with care experience make up a shocking 25% of the homeless population and of people in prison, and they’re also far more likely to struggle with serious mental health issues, as well as being likely to die earlier than their peers. Treating care experience as a protected characteristic can go a small way to attempting to acknowledge and mitigate some of the harms faced by care experienced people throughout their lives.”

“Of course, this measure alone will not solve the huge injustices faced by people with care experience. But it is an important step in making sure that those injustices are taken into account in policymaking, and in making sure that we as a council are doing our best to support people who have faced challenges that most of us could never imagine.”

ENDS