By Rita Waters, Chief Executive Officer of the National Youth Advocacy Service:

“We are deeply saddened and outraged by the story of Nonita Grabovskyte, as portrayed in Sky’s powerful documentary Unseen: a girl called Nonita.  

“Nonita was a child in need of a loving and caring home, repeatedly asking the adults who were supposed to care for her to look after her as the still-young child she really felt inside. Nonita loved arts and craftwork, she wanted to work with animals and was described by those who knew her as ‘bright, funny and fiercely determined’. However, Nonita was also frightened of becoming an adult. She was well known to her social workers and mental health professionals as having plans to end her own life if she had no-one to care for her, nothing to do and nowhere safe to live when she turned 18. Yet that is exactly the systematic abandonment she faced from social care, education and mental health services, that made turning 18 into the lonely, frightening nightmare she had long-feared.  

“Nonita was special and her story is unique to her, but many of the system failures she experienced are far from unprecedented. Through the work NYAS does in offering support, befriending and advocacy for thousands of children and young people, we see many experiencing similar barriers and system problems to those Nonita faced. These include: 

  • The ongoing scandal of unsafe, unregulated “careless” accommodation and a care system driven by markets, not the needs and wishes of children. 
  • The silent crisis of rising self-harm and suicidal feelings, met with a broken bridge between Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and adult services when young people need help most. 
  • The exclusion of vulnerable young people from education and a sense of purpose – robbing them of hope and possibility. 
  • 18th birthdays that too often mark the day of leaving care and the ‘cliff edge’ of fear and abandonment, rather than a celebration of growth and new beginnings.  

“Most of the rights and entitlements that Nonita should have had, but didn’t get, are already written into law, and all children and young people have the right to expect better. They have a right to an advocate on their side, to help stand up for those rights too. If social care, health and education had upheld all those rights and standards she would at least not have felt so alone and abandoned at Christmas, with no idea where – or how – she would live on in the New Year.  

“The need for radical system change for children in care is urgent but we need to change our societal attitudes and priorities too. Nonita’s tragic death would have gone forever ‘unseen’ if it weren’t for the passion and sense of injustice of her Independent Visitor, and two tenacious campaigning charities (Inquest and Article 39). Ninety-one (91) young care leavers (aged 18-24) died ‘unseen’ last year too. Thousands more face danger, homelessness, exclusion from the services they need, and stigma for having been in care. 

“We believe that care experience must be recognised and named as a 'protected characteristic' in the Equality Act 2010 – a vital step towards how society sees people with care experience and ending the shocking apathy that allowed Nonita’s story not only to happen in the first place, but so many more failures of brilliant young lives to remain ‘unseen’ as routine.

If you are in care right now, or making your way in adult life after leaving it, you don’t have to face it alone. Our free Helpline is here to give you clear advice about your rights and options – and above all – someone who will stand firmly by your side, no matter how hard things feel.”