FORGOTTEN GENERATION
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It’s an ugly world we live in.
Many Children and Young people from marginalised communities and those in the care system feel disconnected from public institutions and believe they have little ability to improve their welfare or even care about them.
Children in care have experienced being let down by adults, and social workers.
The vast majority of children in care share one thing in common – they have been let down by adults and services time and time again. Not just any adults but the very system of the people that took them away.
Children will often have multiple social workers. Or the duty worker, a complete stranger, may have come to tell them they couldn’t live with their foster carers anymore and they would have driven them to live with more strangers, in yet another town they have never been to.
Children in care ‘failed’ while some providers ‘make millions’
The most vulnerable children are being “failed by the state” and a broken residential care system, the children’s commissioner for England has said.
Greater use of private provision has led to a fragmented, unco-ordinated and irrational system amid “significant profits”, said Anne Longfield.
The system has been allowed to slip deeper into crisis, she said. The government said an independent review of children’s social care would begin “as soon as possible”.
Ms Longfield has published three reports detailing the plight of children the system “doesn’t know what to do with”.
She said the government has failed to respond to previous warnings that thousands of these children are in danger of becoming victims of criminal and sexual exploitation.
Older children were found to be living in “disgusting” conditions akin to a prison cell, one of the reports said.
We live in a selfish world of lust and greed and young people are just a cash cow a money box 📦
Time to act
The evidence indicates that children and young people risk being a forgotten generation – but prioritising children and young people in decision-making presents the opportunity to improve our nation’s health, bring down the pressures that are currently impacting services, and enable a prosperous society.
No single organisation is responsible for taking on this challenge: all provider types, local systems and national leaders have a part to play in improving outcomes for children and young people.
Change Now!
Young people are our future if we don’t look after them today who will be looking after you tomorrow?
Together through collective collaboration we can build a Genuine Future for children and young people.
Who’s in?