Care Leaver Stereotypes

"We don’t care if you don’t get the grades, but you have to go to the lessons or we won't get paid for you." - As a Care Leaver these words still affect my self-confidence and self-belief today; the words said to me by my teacher- a role that should push a child to succeed. I attempted to the best of my ability to tell them how I was feeling and how I had lost my way and got behind with work over the Christmas holiday due to a difficult incident with my birth mother. Instead of advising and supporting me, they chose to threaten to throw me off my courses because they did not expect me to pass them anyway. This left me feeling uncared for and unsupported in a place in which every child should be supported to learn.

I decided after the meeting to go to college instead of 6^th form as I felt the school did not support or care for me as a Looked After Child.

I chose to attend Burnley College and I achieved highly, I was supported throughout my time there by my tutors and peers resulting in me achieving a Distinction level BTEC National Diploma. This enabled me to go to university, gain a good degree, work in an amazing job role and also have parental responsibility over my younger brother so he would not enter the care system.

It is quite clear that I am 'able' to achieve, my degree that sits on my living room wall is evidence enough of that and yet my school did not see this. Instead I was stereotyped as a student who couldn’t achieve good grades and was a waste of money to have on their role.

My story has been a 'lucky' one, I had a good support network in my support worker and Leaving Care Team and also my dad and my step mum who I found after 12 years of lost contact the week of my 16^th birthday, not every Care Leaver has such luck.

Everyday Looked After Children and Care Leavers face unfair and unjust discrimination. They have to deal with personal issues of low self-esteem, low self-confidence and low achievement expectations, alongside having to fight against negative stereotypes and avoid the self-fulfilling prophecy of failure. This is a hard call for anyone to do, never mind a young person who is most likely to be in a vulnerable and precarious position in life.

While studying at the University of Leicester I worked as a mentor for the Outreach Team with Looked After Children and Care Leavers. I was shocked that having me there, sharing my experiences had such a positive effect on the young people involved. When I was made aware that a university was recruiting for a Care Experienced Graduate to be a lead officer on their Looked After Children Project, I jumped at the opportunity. I have been in my role for nearly 5 months now, and every day I look forward to coming to work because I know I am fighting the stereotypes of Looked After Children. Not only by doing my job and achieving in life, but also because I am able to positively influence current Looked After Children and Care Leavers by inspiring them to aspire to Higher Education.

For me to succeed it took one person to believe in me, this was my support worker Janet. She pushed and cared for me when I didn’t feel like anyone cared if I succeeded or not, for which I will be forever thankful. It doesn’t take much for a Looked After Child or Care Leaver to believe they are destined to fail, as it is the attitude they are faced with by 90% of the people they come across. However all it takes is for one person to spend the time, believe and push them to succeed for them to turn it around and achieve in life. Is this a hard thing to do? I know it isn't. Like any child, looked after children want to make the adults around them proud, provide them with that positive environment and attitude and they will achieve.