Council backs care stigma campaign

South Lanarkshire Council is supporting a national campaign aimed at challenging the stigma of being in care.

Launched by the Who Cares? Scotland charity, a series of posters are being displayed in workplaces, schools and on social media, featuring nurses, students, office workers, volunteers and a whole range of other people who have been in care.

Everyone featured in the posters is a member of the charity and have used their own successes as positive role models to inspire other young people who are or have been in care. Each poster includes a quote from them about a time when they had experienced stigma as a result of their care status.

And some of the posters were featured at a campaign launch event in Hamilton, attended by the council’s executive director of education, Jim Gilhooly, and Liz Lafferty, child and family manager, along with young people from the area.

Work that the charity does with those growing up in care has shown that some young people have been refused private tenancies because their previous address has been a children’s home; some young people have been asked at job interviews if they are going to be any trouble because they are in foster care; and that entire communities have united to prevent some young people from living in their area.

More than 80 per cent of young people are taken into care because they have experienced abuse and neglect and yet still report feeling judged in school and in their community.

The campaign aims to change those perceptions and show Scotland that young people in care need support from every part of society.

Duncan Dunlop, chief executive of Who Cares? Scotland said: “In communities right across the country, care experienced people still don’t feel able to be themselves.

“It’s time to change that once and for all.”