Podcast where Donald O’Neal discusses the lack of Care in the Care Act 2014. Click here.
The Lack of Care Act 2014: Service users’ perspectives of a failing adult social care system I am tetraplegic and an adult social care service user. I wrote this book based on my experience and that of other...
Poor mental well-being is commonly associated with care experienced young people. Their lives of abrupt endings, unreliable stability, loss of connections and adverse childhood experiences can result in poor...
As we lock ourselves down to protect the NHS and save lives, there has been a huge focus on supporting the isolated and vulnerable. Across the UK, a wide range of support groups and community groups have sprung into action. Thousands have stepped...
As we entered 2020, I doubt if any of us imagined the UK caught in a pandemic that is threatening the health of the nation and devastating the global economy. Throw in the recent floods and growing concerns about climate change and it does feel like...
In an “oppressive” education system, children need the release of humour to make the world less frightening, according to the former children’s laureate Michael Rosen. Revealing the winners of the Laugh Out Loud awards, which celebrate the year’s...
I have been a children’s advocate for many years and have represented children where there have been child protection concerns as well as children living within the care system. As a children’s advocate my role is to ensure that...
Leicestershire Cares is a local charity and membership organisation that seeks to connect business with the local community, so nobody is left behind. I have been working for Cares for three years and many of our “simple” truths are ever more...
Imagine you gathered a group of people together and gave them the ingredients and instructions to bake a cake. If they followed the instructions eventually, they should all be able to bake a cake. At a much bigger level if you gathered your top...
Recent events in Birmingham and Manchester are a stark reminder that in 2019 same-sex relationships are still highly contested among some people. I was born in 1975 and there has been a seismic shift in attitudes towards LGBTQ+ people in my lifetime...
(This article first appeared on the website of The Howard League For Penal Reform) A few weeks ago I wrote an article that set out to explain why almost thirty years after the Children Act became operational many care experienced young people still...
Beveridge’s former ‘five giant evils’ – Disease, Idleness, Ignorance, Squalor and Want – are different now (Stephens et al, 2008: 7–8). With the new five modern evils of elitism, exclusion, prejudice, greed and despair, injustice begins to propagate...
Over the last 30 years there have been numerous laws, policy reviews, enquiries and working groups all designed to improve the care and transitional support offered to care experienced young people (throughout the rest of this article I will use the...
