Should the care experience be made a protected characteristic?

Our guest in this episode, Josh MacAlister, makes the case that it should be. As Executive Chair of What Works for Children’s Social Care and the lead writer on last year’s Independent Review of Children’s Social Care, Josh has learned a lot about what life is like for those who live in care.

Josh says that care-experienced individuals are the most disadvantaged group in society and that we all miss out if they cannot fulfil their potential. Nevertheless, this can change. Josh provides his recommendations for how society, including educators, can better support care-experienced people.

Join us for an important and eye-opening conversation about a group whose stories are rarely told.

About Josh MacAlister

Josh is the Executive Chair of Foundations -the What Works Centre for Children and Families. He is also Co-founder and Chair of SHiFT.

Josh founded the charity Frontline in 2013 and led the organisation for eight years before leaving this role to chair the government commissioned independent review of children’s social care. Josh led the review with a focus on hearing from those with lived experience of and thinking afresh about how we support children to grow up with safety, stability and love. The review concluded in May 2022 and set out a radical plan to reset children’s social care so that it backs those who love and care for children- families, communities and then the care system itself. 

Resources:

• Visit the Foundations website here.
• Review the report published in 2022 here or watch Josh’s Sky interview where he highlights some of the radical change needed in the UK here.
• Download the transcript for this episode here.