A mum and councillor has spoken up for care-experienced youngsters to help remove blocks to them flourishing in this region.
Paula Stevenson, who represents North West Dumfries, called for Dumfries and Galloway Council to take positive steps that will prevent discrimination against young people based on their history of being looked after.
There is widespread recognition that young people in, or who have gone through, the care system can face hurdles later in life when it comes to housing and accommodation, health, employment, as well as education.
The UK Government refused to list care-experienced as a protected characteristic, alongside things such as race and disability, however around 60 councils have opted to give it protected characteristic status in their own local authority region.
Dumfries and Galloway has followed suit after all councillors unanimously backed Councillor Stevenson’s motion.
The Labour councillor said: “I am passionate about ensuring all our children have the best start in life, and for our care experienced children, that means recognising that the playing field isn’t always level for them and acknowledging the need to change that.
“The world is hard enough for a looked after person, needing to live through many challenges before becoming looked after, but we still know these children and young people then go on to be stigmatised because they are ‘care experienced’.”
Councillors agreed to add the term “care experienced” as a specific category into the council’s equalities impact assessments.
This will now be used to describe anyone who is currently, or has been, in the care system.
This includes kinship care, looked after at home, foster care, residential care, secure homes, and adoption.
It was also agreed that the council would continually and proactively seek out and listen to the voices of care-experienced people when developing new policies and strategies that affect them.
Councillor Stevenson told how a conversation with a youngster made her “acutely aware of the stigma and prejudice care-experienced children and young people still have to endure”, despite commitments and previous work to change this.
She said: “This motion is to recognise that, given a fair go, our children and young people have the potential and ability to flourish: that by recognising the obstacles in their path, and removing them as many of them as possible, they can have the same opportunities as their peers.
“It was extremely disappointing that care-experienced children was not listed as a ‘protected characteristic’ by the UK Government, but this is our council’s opportunity to set it right, as much as we can, and to add our voice to the ever-growing list of councils that have tried to amend this as best as we can.”
