Luke Pollard has praised the ‘bravery’ of a dozen care leavers from Plymouth, who visited Westminster recently to meet MPs and raise awareness of their experiences of life in care.
The MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, who hosted the Parliamentary event, said he was ‘incredibly proud’ of the group’s courage and willingness to talk about the hurdles they face as care leavers.
Children who grow up in care often have poorer mental health and employment opportunities than those who don’t, and a quarter of homeless people have been in care at some point in their lives.
Their visit came at crucial time for reform of the children’s social care system, with the new Health and Social Care Secretary, Thérèse Coffey, announced the same day. The government is also shortly expected to publish its children’s social care implementation strategy. The young people staged a special exhibition for MPs, Walk a Day in Our Shoes, where they decorated white gym shoes to reflect their experiences of living in care. Some used the opportunity to call for more resources for prevention work and greater opportunity for siblings to stay in contact.
Luke Pollard said:
“I’m incredibly proud of the bravery of care-experienced young people from Plymouth who’ve travelled up to Parliament to tell MPs about their experiences.
“Care leavers are too often ignored by politicians and I want to help change that, especially in the coming months as the government sets out its stall on the future of children’s social care”.
Cllr Jemima Laing, Plymouth Labour spokesperson on Children, Young People and Families, said:
“This exhibition was a creative and powerful way to let these young people tell us what they want us to hear about their experience of care. They were extremely courageous to share their stories.
“We must listen and make the changes they are telling us the care system needs. I know how much it meant to them to take this work to Westminster and I’m really proud of all of them and the Barnardo’s Care Journeys team who have supported them.”
Graeme, 25, a care leaver who attended the event in Parliament, said:
“Our idea was to take our shoes and our life stories to London so that MPs could see things from our point of view. MPs have care-experienced young people in their own areas and we want them to listen to us about the issues that matter to them and think about how they can help them.”
