How would you feel if your child or a child you knew was taken into care and placed in a B&B, hostel, or even forced to sleep outside?
The care system is the safety net we would rely on if we were incapable of caring for our children.
A few of the tales have stunned me.
In an hour-long, nearly three-year-long documentary, I interviewed young people who have been through the care system in Wales and England, where record numbers of children are in care.
My question is whether the care system always “cares” for children who are unable to live with their parents.
“I know for a fact that prison would have been preferable to where I was placed,” Niall stated in the ‘Lifting the lid on the care system’ documentary.
Between the ages of 14 and 18, he was in and out of care, and after placement in a children’s home fell through, he was placed in a bed and breakfast.
“People who had just been released from prison and such moved there,” Niall explained.
“Therefore, I was robbed multiple times there. Daily, you would observe individuals kicking down doors, shattering windows, and carrying knives.”
Niall informed me that he was then relocated to what he calls a hostel, although his council insists it was supported housing as they attempted to find him a permanent residence.
“A punch woke me up,” he recalled of one incident.
“Consequently, I had to begin barricading my door, which they breached eventually. It was as if they gathered all of the troubled adolescents under one roof.”
Niall’s caretakers stated that they made every effort to find him a new residence and that his case was not straightforward, but the Caerphilly council did not comment on the threats and violence.
I felt so alone and disoriented.
Hope was taken into care at age 14, but she ran away at age 16 after her foster placement failed.
Hope, who is now in her early 20s, told me, “When I was a child, I slept in a tent with an adult older than 18 years old, and nobody knew where I was.”
“I was technically a state-born citizen. It was not okay… I was in danger.”
Those responsible for Hope’s care stated that they could not comment on individual cases, but the Wrexham council stated that its services had been transformed and that it would use Hope’s feedback to make further improvements.
In 2016, I presented the Welsh government with a petition to end the practice of placing children in B&Bs and hostels.
Ministers vowed to “eliminate” it, but six years later, it is still occurring.
Dozens of adolescents like Niall and Hope are still placed in this position.
Freedom of information requests to all councils in Wales revealed that at least 50 young people were placed in B&Bs, hostels, and budget hotels during the previous fiscal year, and at least 285 were placed in other housing not regulated by the care regulator.
I do not wish for this to appear as an attack on social workers, as it is not.
It is their responsibility to care for these children, but according to a report released last year by those in charge of social services, there is a “crisis” in finding suitable housing for children.
While the majority of children placed in such temporary housing are 16 or 17, our investigation revealed that a few are even younger.
In one instance, an 11-year-old was placed in temporary housing with council employees because they had nowhere else to go.
