‘I never felt I had a home in care’: Former foster child from Lancashire joins Action for Children campaign

21-year-old Emrys Toman from Lancashire will be joining other care-experienced young people at a campaign event for reform of the children’s social care system outside Parliament this morning.

The campaign event comes as a new Action for Children report reveals more than nine in ten (91%) care-experienced adults in the UK felt lonely and isolated during their time as a child in care – with nearly one in five (18%) reporting having felt like this all the time.

Whilst two thirds (66%) of the care-experienced 18–44-year-olds polled said they had a generally positive experience of their homes in care, 28% had a negative experience, 23% said they didn’t feel at home, and one in five (20%) didn’t feel loved by their carers.

What is Emrys story?

Emrys was taken into care at the age of 14 because their mum had health problems and couldn’t look after them anymore.

They then had two foster homes which they struggled to settle in, with Emrys saying:

‘It felt like they were sort of trying to be my parents. There were a lot of rules and control. I had just come out of a home environment that wasn’t great, so it was difficult anyway. But I didn’t really feel cared for.’

One month before Emrys’s GCSE’s, they were moved to a residential children’s home 30 miles away from where they were from and went to school.

They said: “I was told it was temporary for a week until they could find me a foster placement. But I ended up being there for 11 months.”

Emrys found the way things worked in the residential home easier to cope with but says they still never felt at home.

Emery said: “There were always people to chat to and hang out with. We weren’t at the same schools, so it wasn’t like we were forced together all the time.

“The staff in the home weren’t trying to be like parents either. I felt more settled than I did in foster care, but it wasn’t home.  I never felt I had a home in care, just a placement.”

What else did the report show?

The report ‘A Place to Call Home: Understanding placement quality in the children’s social care system in England’ argues that for more children to have positive experiences of care and improved life chances, the system needs to ensure “a good matching of children with homes which can meet their unique needs; and “a warm, caring, and child-centred approach within homes.

However, interviews revealed these elements are too often absent. The report authors held in-depth interviews with six recently care-experienced young people, as well as seven frontline workers from the care system in England and found a consensus that:

• the quality of care provided was inconsistent;

• many children in care are still not being listened to;

• their needs are lacking attention;

• many placements don’t have the ‘family feel’ that helps children feel at home; and that

• there is a huge shortfall in support and training for carers.

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What has Action for Children said?

The government-commissioned independent review of children’s social care in 2022 called for an additional £2.6bn to address the existing crisis in the sector and in February 2023, the previous government published its response, ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love’, which committed to adopting most but not all the recommendations. 

However Action for Children say very little progress has been made, or investment committed.

Action for Children argues that whilst there has been a big debate about a shortage of both children’s homes and foster homes for children in care - as well as a recruitment crisis in the social care sector -there has been very little focus on the quality of homes and the impact this has on the children and young people who live there.

It says there is a risk the government could consign more highly vulnerable children to unacceptably low standards of care, if increased numbers of homes are not of good quality.

Paul Carberry, chief executive at Action for Children, said: “Every child deserves a safe, loving and supportive home. That security gives them the foundations they need to thrive, both in childhood and later life.

“For children in care, the majority of whom have been through the very toughest challenges, this high-quality support is essential to help them recover from trauma. That’s what we strive to provide in the homes we run.

“But we know that too often for children in care, that isn’t happening. We still hear regularly from children who have had poor, or even dire, experiences in care. There simply aren’t enough of the right types of homes for children in care in the right parts of the country, that can meet the needs of those children. 

“We need more, high-quality homes – in both foster and residential care – and a focus on recruiting and keeping brilliant carers that are well trained and properly supported to provide the care that children deserve.

“We want the new government to take steps to make sure the voices of children in care are heard, so they get the support, love and care they need to have safe and happy childhoods.”

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What are Action for Children proposing?

Action for Children is calling on the government to: 

1. Help create more homes for children: the right homes, in the right places, so that every child can grow up in a home that meets their needs. 

2. Boost recruitment and provide quality support for carers, so that everyone looking after children can provide the best possible care. 

By taking steps including:

• providing capital investment for the creation of new, high-quality public and voluntary sector residential placements;

• granting special planning status to high-quality voluntary sector residential care providers, to accelerate the creation of new placements;

• investing in the residential sector to enable staff pay increases and enhanced training opportunities – to aid recruitment and retention;

• ensuring the national minimum fostering allowance always covers the full cost of caring; and

• developing a children-in-care wellbeing measure.