Cumberland is first UK council to make care experience a protected characteristic
Published by Professional Social Work magazine, 15 August, 2022
An English local authority has become the first to make care experience a protected characteristic.
The move in Cumberland comes in the wake of lobbying by the Show Us You Care Too campaign led by people with experience of being in care.
Making discrimination against people who have been in care illegal under the Equality Act was also one of the recommendations in England’s Independent Review of Children’s Social Care.
Cumberland Council, which is in the process of becoming a unitary authority, has passed a motion which recognises that “care experienced people are an oppressed group who face discrimination”.
It says that all future decisions, services and policies adopted by the council should be “assessed through Equality Impact Assessments to determine the impact of changes on people with care experience”.
The authority also called on other bodies to treat care experience as a protected characteristic and an extension of corporate parenting.
Cumberland Council’s deputy leader Cllr Emma Williamson said: "This is about equality of opportunity, not feeling sorry or increasing stigma in any way for care experienced people.
“Many suffer in silence and we are often ignorant to how our rules affect them. Unintentionally our decisions, rules and the way we do things have the opposite effect of helping access our services.
“Treating care experience as a protected characteristic will mean we check, every time as we design them, the impact of our policies and the accessibility of our services so we redesign where we need to.”
England’s Independent Review of Children’s Social Care recommended care experience be a protected characteristic following lobbying by people with experience of the system.
The review’s chair Josh MacAlister said he was “delighted” to hear of Cumberland’s lead, adding: “The disadvantage faced by people who have spent time growing up in the care system should be the civil rights issue of our time. Children in care are powerless, are often invisible and they face some of the greatest inequalities that exist in England today.”
Terry Galloway, a founding member of the Show Us You Care Too campaign, said: “This is hugely significant. We want all local authorities to follow – it is the only way we will get system change. This motion is going to give care experienced people voice.
“Quite often when a policy isn’t right someone goes away and suffers or comes back and tries and change things which is retraumatising.
“What this motion will mean is that whoever is making policies and decisions will by law have look at how that impacts on care experienced people.
“In order to answer that question they will have to understand care experience and learn about it.
“At the moment they don’t need to understand. Crucially it gives care experienced people a voice without them having to speak.”
Haringey Council was the first council to sign the Show Us You Care Too pledge asking the care review to make protected charactersitic a recommendation.
Nearly 30 English local authorities in total have so far signed the pledge indicating their support.
Campaigners ultimately want all public bodies and not just local authorities to sign the pledge. It would mean they would have to show what actions they are taking to remove discrimination, with care leavers having legal recourse under the Equality Act.
Official figures show only six per cent of care leavers aged between 19 and 21 are in higher education compared to around 38 per cent of all young people.
Four out of ten in the same age group are not in education, employment or training compared to 12 per cent of all young people.
Nearly half of young men and two thirds of young women in custody aged 16 to 21 have been in care.
Nearly half of care leavers in England are at risk of mental health problems and more than one in four young care leavers have sofa surfed, with 14 per cent having slept rough.
Galloway estimates each care leaver up the age of 30 costs the state around £1.2 million.
“That is why the children’s social care system is broken. Children are going through the system and they are spending all that money and they are going on to commit crimes, have children, and it all goes round again.”
Making care experience a protected characteristic will give it the same protection against discrimination as age, disability, race, religion, gender reassignment, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity and marriage and civil partnerships.
Campaigners maintain this will help end stigma and create systems that better promote the rights of people who have been in care.
Calls have recently been made to make class and the menopause protected characteristics to protect against discrimination.
Galloway, who was in care himself and is now a successful businessman, is creator of the Care Leaver Local Offer website allowing care leavers to check their local support offer.
The website is to be upgraded next month to include information on all public bodies and a tool for comparing councils.