Our Call for a Public Education Campaign

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OUR CALL FOR A PUBLIC EDUCATION CAMPAIGN

The Collective Who Cares? Scotland's vision is to do everything we can to secure a lifetime of equality, respect and love for Care Experienced people.

Care Experienced people have told us that they want to be part of the change and that they want to take control of their own narrative. This is why we launched

‘The Collective’.

The Collective is made up entirely of people with experience of care, and is responsible for helping Who Cares? Scotland deliver our vision of a Lifetime of Equality, Respect & Love, speaking out on behalf of Who Cares? Scotland’s members and influencing decision makers at a global and national level.

Throughout this report you will see photos of Collective members, from their first residential together in January this year. It was during that weekend that they shared many of the experiences featured in this report, as well as their ideas for how they want this campaign to happen.

Our call A Scottish Government sponsored Public Education Campaign, which is voice led and Care Experience driven is now called for.

Our reason A nationally led public education campaign, committed to social change, will help the Scottish Government realise its ambitions for Care Experienced people.

There are tens of thousands of people in Scotland with a current or historical experience of care. To ensure every single one of those Care Experienced people has had a positive life experience, we cannot only rely on those working in the care system. More people in Scotland are needed to fulfil caring roles for children and young people that enter the care system, to ensure that state intervention in their childhood experience is underpinned by the values of equality, love and respect.

Law and regulations cannot make a person love a child. It is the attitudes, values and behaviours of all people in Scotland that must be deliberately shaped to help Care Experienced people live the life they deserve. People in Scotland need to be part of the transformation.

A Public Education Campaign for Care Experienced People The culture within which Care Experienced people live their life in Scotland needs to be deliberately shaped.

A Public Education Campaign would focus on shaping values, attitudes and behaviours amongst the general public.

This is to ensure any person in Scotland with experience of care, at any age and in all geographical areas, feels like they are accepted, understood and where possible loved, by people in Scotland who they share their day-today lives with.

Being made to feel 'different'

Care Experienced people often share a feeling of ‘difference’, because the state has intervened in some way in their private family life, which can result in living in a different home environment, with different people providing their care.

This feeling of difference for Care Experienced people can create negative impacts on their lives, during and/or after their time in care.

This risk exists despite the intention of care, which is to create a positive impact on the lives of children and young people.

Why will a public education campaign help?

In attempting to deliberately inform the public, education campaigns acknowledge that conscious or sub-conscious application of values, attitudes or behaviours towards people because of certain characteristics or lived experience, can result in a negative impact on their lives. This can often result in prejudice, stigma or discrimination.

Values - This is a measure of the worth or importance a person attaches to something or someone.

Attitudes - This is the way a person expresses or applies their values and is expressed through words or behaviours.

Behaviours - This is the action taken by a person to something or someone because of the values they hold or the attitudes they express.

"I was asked in front of the class in high school if I was in trouble with police because I had a social worker."

Values: 'principles or standards of behaviour; one's judgement of what is important in life‌'

Why do people's values matter?

Values matter because they are a measure of the worth or importance a person attaches to something or someone. They help us decide how to act and think.

They shape how we navigate the world around us.

Crucially, they also affect how we impact on other people.

“Self- love is a hard concept for a lot of people raised in care, including myself. We're conditioned into believing we’re not worthy. That's had drastic impacts.”

Source: Amy Beth from The Collective, January 2019

Values "When I first went into care and was placed in a residential unit, I was really aware of the stigma surrounding the children who lived there at our school. Some of the young people who already lived in the children’s home were seen as disruptive by teachers, and a lot of the kids in school called them names, said they were dangerous, and that it was their own fault they were in care."

Source: Josh's Blog, 2018

“I hate it because we are viewed as if we are on a different planet”.

Source: Reframining care consulation, December 2017

Values

“Within the system individuals have poor aspirations for young people growing up and label and stigmatise them calling them offenders, 'bad weans' or telling them if they don't behave they will end up within the prison service. Care experienced young people are far too often institutionalised and this seems 'normal' for them.” Source: The Collective, December 2018

"Care experienced people have told us that teachers can fail to believe they are capable, questioning their subject choices and having unfair expectations about their lack of ability to attend university. One young woman stated that she is 'judged because I’m care experienced' and was told 'you will never amount to anything'."

Source: Response to Call for Evidence by Engender on the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) – April 2018

“Police told me I was lucky to stay with my gran, it could have been worse, and they asked why I was in care.”

Attitudes: 'a feeling or opinion about something or someone…'

Why are people's attitudes important?

Attitudes matter because this how a person expresses or applies their values in daily life, through their words or actions.

“Police officers treat you differently once they know you’re in care – they get this look on their face. I lie and say I live with my parents.”

Source: WC?S Corporate Parenting Video

“I stopped telling people when I was 17 because I was trying to get jobs and as soon as people found out my address it was you know, bye.”

Source: WC?S Discrimination Workshop, 7th February 2018

Attitudes "I’ve been made to feel different on a few occasions because of my care experience.

They were around trying to get a passport and my birth certificate on two separate occasions. I didn’t know anything about my dads D.O.B or place of birth. I was questioned multiple times about why I couldn’t contact someone to find out this information I became embarrassed and felt ashamed that I didn’t know and that I was being judged for being in care. In the situation with my passport I would’ve wanted a system or even the person dealing with my application to just understand I chose not to associate with him and growing up in care I chose others to be my parents biological or not.”Source: The Collective Residential, 26th January 2019

“My boiler broke during winter two years ago – my landlord told me ‘Ask your social worker to replace it for you’.”

Source: WC?S Discrimination Workshop, 7th February 2018

“A teacher found out I was in care and as a result she constantly questioned me about cheating on essays and then had an invigilator stand over me for most of my higher exam. Now I’m doing a PHD but her prejudice could easily have put me off my education.”

Source: Response to consultation on Draft Statutory Guidance Standards in Scotlands School etc. Act 2000 November 2016

Attitudes “On one occasion my friends and I drank at the weekend a few of us had became sexually active. My children’s unit shared that information with the school all because I had asked my key worker to take me for the morning after pill.

I don’t think school had any reason to become involved. My keyworker had no need to tell the school. This cost me friendships at school. It made me consider not being responsible for my sexual health and saying when I needed contraception.”

Source: The Collective Residential, 26th January 2019

“When going to GP and specialists to tell them I was in pain I was told it was because I had a 'difficult past' or 'reliving past psychological trauma' and was not given pain relief until I was 28. By this stage my condition was too advance to treat and I now live on morphine full time.”

Behaviours: 'the way in which one acts or conducts oneself, especially towards others…'

Why are people's behaviours important?

Behaviours matter because these are the actions taken by a person to something or someone because of the values they hold or the attitudes they express.

Analysis of Jobseeker’s Allowance ('JSA') data for the six months ending September 2016 found that care leavers were over five times more likely to be sanctioned than other claimants.Source: The Children’s Society, 2018 “I got a criminal record for throwing a boiled baby carrot in my own home. Now I have an assault charge that employers can see when I go through disclosure checks.”

Source: WC?S Corporate Parenting Video

Behaviours Advocacy Case Study: A care experienced young person, who had been out of care for several years, had spent less than a year on remand in a young offenders’ institution for a serious crime following several years of homelessness and chaos due to a poor transition out of the care system. The young person was ultimately found not guilty and released from remand.

On their return to the community they moved to a new local authority and registered with a GP practice. At their first appointment with the GP, the young person disclosed that they had spent time on remand for a serious crime. The GP, despite understanding that they had been found not guilty, refused to accept the young person as a permanent patient within the practice due to their period of time spent in prison.

Source: WC?S, Rights Abuses as Experienced by Young People During and After Care - October 2014

“My friend went for a private tenancy and was asked for previous addresses – she gave 12 over a very short time. She explained she was care experienced and was told ‘There’s not a property for you here’.

She became homeless.”

Source: WC?S Discrimination Workshop, 7th February 2018

Behaviours

Advocacy Case Study: In 2014, a Who Cares? Scotland advocate was approached by a looked-after young person who was experiencing discrimination in their mainstream education placement. The young person had recently moved to a new placement within a residential children’s unit and had requested a place at the local school. The Head Teacher chose to deny this young person a place at the school solely based on their care status. He based his decision on his power as a Head Teacher to have the final say.

Source: WC?S, Rights Abuses as Experienced by Young People During and After Care - October 2014

Four Decades of Care Experienced Voice The Collective explained how it felt to connect with Care Experienced people across generations.

“I connected with someone with the same story of care who is 50 years old, with my story, as a 30 year old and also with someone else with the same story of only a few years ago of care.”

Who Cares? Scotland believes every Care Experienced person needs to feel like they belong.

Whilst everyone's experience of care is unique and hugely personal, the feeling of difference has been shared across decades...

1979 Source: SpeakOut Magazine from 1979

1987 Source: SpeakOut Magazine from 1987

1996 Source: SpeakOut Magazine from 1996

2001

Source: SpeakOut Magazine from 2001

2018

Source: Photos of the WC?S Love Rally in the Daily Record, October 2018

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