#CareDay20: Celebrating care-experienced people and #Reimagining the care system

There seems to be heightened interest in the care system in recent weeks. In January, the Children’s Minister wrote to all LAs in England and urged them to pursue adoption where it is in the child’s best interests. Earlier this month the Scottish Independent Care Review released a series of reports setting out a vision based on three years of not only research, but also thousands of conversations with care-experienced people, including children. The press has picked up stories about unregistered placement settings, ill-advised adverts from BT and Little Acorns, out-of-area placements, and the government’s manifesto promise to undertake a care review, just to name a few. People are talking about the care that we provide to our most vulnerable children – and not just people who work in the sector, but also care-experienced people and the wider public.

Become’s #CareDay20 could therefore not have come at a better time. Care Day is the world’s biggest celebration of children and young people with care experience, with this year’s theme focussed on #Reimagining the care system. Become’s general election manifesto, ‘A system that cares’, called for a comprehensive independent review of the care system, and this Care Day we will be seeing care-experienced people on social media sharing the what they imagine for a care system which provides support, stability, and love. If you have something to share, we would love to see you adding your voice to the discussion (don’t forget to use the hashtags! #CareDay20 and #Reimagining).

Today is a day to harness the attention – constructive and controversial alike – that has been turned on the care system over the past months, and transform it into momentum that will carry us through the promised and much-anticipated care review. As Become writes in ‘A system that cares,’ ‘the challenges facing care-experienced young people today are not inevitable. We have the opportunity to change the care system so that it gives every child the opportunity to heal and lead the life they want.’