This manifesto from Become - a UK charity for children in care and young care leavers - outlines the charity's recommendations for how to build a "well-funded care system focused on children’s individual needs, supported by highly-trained and caring professionals and responsive to the expertise of those with lived experience is possible."
Key asks in the manifesto include:
- A comprehensive independent review of the care system which listens to children and adults with lived experience of care to address culture, policy and practice
- Long-term stability as the goal for every child in care, delivered by increased capacity across foster and residential care and better support for kinship carers and birth families. There should be independent scrutiny where a child experiences repeated home moves.
- Relationships as a key consideration in all decisions, encouraging continuity through childhood to adulthood and supporting a sense of identity and belonging. No young person should be separated from their siblings apart from in exceptional circumstances and ‘contact’ with siblings should be afforded the same importance as with birth parents.
- Improved support for those leaving care and an end to uncertainty about where young people will live, with no young person forced to move on their 18th birthday and consistency in support until the age of 25.
- Additional funding for expanded Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services to deliver trauma-informed support to all care-experienced young people until the age of 25.
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