Our written evidence on the impact of COVID-19 on education and children’s services has been published as part of the Education Select Committee’s ongoing inquiry in England. Our submission focused on two particular questions.

The first question, “why are we going backwards?” was posed to BBC North West by Charlotte, a care leaver that we work with. We pointed to the 65 losses or dilutions of rights and protections that Statutory Instrument 445 (SI 445) makes to the protection of care-experienced children and young people in England, at a time that we have seen our safeguarding referral rate triple compared to the same period last year. You can read more about this new law in our full submission here.

To answer our hypothetical second question, “how do we move forward?” we provided seven recommendations to the Committee, including increasing funding for children’s services, and the direct involvement of care-experienced children and young people in the decisions made about them.

Rita Waters, Chief Executive, said “We welcome the opportunity to share with the Committee the experiences of the young people we work with, and look forward to seeing what lessons can be learnt from the inquiry. We will not stop campaigning for the withdrawal of SI 445 and for the restoration of rights for care-experienced children and young people in England.”

If you would like to support our campaign to see SI 445 withdrawn, please sign the petition or write to your MP