Seven children’s charities joined together to deliver the #ItsOurCare day, to enable young people to share their views on the social care system in parliament.
The Day of Action was organised by seven children’s charities including, the National Children’s Bureau, Action for Children, Become, Barnardo’s, Coram, The Children’s Society, and NSPCC.
The in-person lobby at the houses of parliament brought together more than 100 care experienced young people, in an effort to ensure lived experience is the heart of social care reform, following the independent review.
During the day of action, care experienced young people met with the Secretary of State for Education, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the Children's Commissioner to share their opinions on the care review.
Dozens of young people spoke with MPs and peers while others attended private meetings and roundtable discussions with Government Ministers and senior opposition politicians and the event was featured on BBC's Newsround.
A joint analysis of Government data conducted by the charities, shows that over the last four years children’s care placements have changed nearly a quarter of a million times, and two in three young people moved were in care because of abuse or neglect.
Anna Feuchtwang, Chief Executive of the National Children’s Bureau said: “Growing up in care leave is often a distressing experience, and this trauma can be multiplied by unnecessarily unstable placements. The Independent Review has outlined a pathway for improving a system that struggles to provide the security and certainty that can lift children and families out of misery. “
The solutions are not new: we’ve long known that knotty issues like multi-agency cooperation must be tackled if things are to improve. But above all, we need to give care-experienced children and young people a seat at the table, so their ideas and experiences can help policymakers rebuild a better system of support.”
Want to know more about our work on Children's Social Care?
You can see our vision for change here or learn more about our APPGC event on social care reform here.
Alternatively you can read our rapid review of Children's Social Care here or look at NCB's eight ideas for strengthening Early Help.