Campaigner who was ‘dumped to fend for himself’ after leaving care gets backing from council for change

Terry Galloway addressed a full meeting of the local authority – which subsequently passed a supportive motion – and expressed his view that the care system was “broken”. Mr Galloway described how he had lived in more than a hundred different places and on leaving care had “no voice” and was “dumped to fend for myself”. He shared stories about his brother and sister who had also been in care.

He said his brother suffered serious trauma and was “butting up against a system not designed for care experienced people”.

Mr Galloway, who wants to see systematic change in the care system, said: “He is in and out of prison, addicted to drugs and will inevitably die early. People from care are 70% more likely to die prematurely than others.”

Meanwhile, his sister had also been “traumatised, abused and neglected” while in care and aged 33 was still to receive the help she needed.

An independent review of children’s social care headed by Josh MacAlister – a former teacher who founded the social work charity Frontline – published in May said the Government should make ‘care experienced’ people a protected characteristic, something Mr Galloway wants to see in place.

This would legally protect them from discrimination in the same way other groups are protected by the 2010 Equality Act and provide greater authority to employers, businesses, public services, and policy makers to put in place policies and programmes promoting better outcomes.

Mr MacAlister also recommended that new legislation be passed which broadens corporate parenting responsibilities across a wider set of public bodies and organisations.

The review described how many people spending years in care faced discrimination, stigma and prejudice in their day-to-day lives. There were examples of people being refused employment, failing to succeed in education or facing unfair judgements about their ability to parent when they have children and families of their own.

A motion proposed by Councillor Alison Barnes, the cabinet member for children, and seconded by Councillor Karen King said councillors had a collective responsibility to provide the best possible care and safeguarding for children the local authority looked after.

It said: “Councillors should be champions of the children in our care and challenge the negative attitudes and prejudice that exists in all aspects of society.”

The motion, agreed by members, said the council would treat care experience as if it was a protected characteristic until such time as it may be introduced by legislation. Meanwhile, future decisions, services and policies made and adopted should be assessed through equality impact assessments to determine the impact of changes on people with experience of being in care. It said the council should continue to proactively seek out and listen to the voices of care experienced people when developing new policies based on their views.

Coun Barnes said: “We have the opportunity to be in the vanguard of the response to the MacAlister report. We are all corporate parents for children in our care and care leavers and I believe that we have both the legal and the moral responsibility to support this motion.”

Mr Galloway is co-founder of the website careleaveroffer.co.uk which compares local authorities to discover how they support care leavers and encourages them to improve support in areas such as health and wellbeing, relationships, employment, accommodation and education and training.

He said: “I am super proud of the council for passing this motion and hope that other councils will realise that if we all work together we can make systemic change. They are setting their stall out and leading by example and are calling on partners out there to do the same.”

Mr Galloway said support for care leavers was a “postcode lottery” depending on where people live. He added: “If everyone took responsibility for children and care leavers and did their bit, there wouldn’t be quite as much pressure on social care.”