Charity wants care system changes

The charity wants children in care to have better lives

An urgent review of the system of children in care in Wales is being called for by a charity.

Voices From Care Cymru wants progress on six-year-old recommendations by its patron, Sir Ronald Waterhouse.

The cross-party group of AMs dedicated to improving lives of children in care, are due to meet for the first time.

The assembly government said the care issue was a "key priority" and said it was developing a detailed strategy for improving services.

Ministers said £1m was going to local authorities to help achieve support for children in care.

Young people in the care system are entitled to the same opportunities as their peers Deborah Jones, Voices from Care Cymru

Sir Ronald, a former High Court judge who presided over the investigation into child abuse at north Wales children's homes in the 1990s, wants the recommendations made in his report entitled Lost in Care, to be reviewed and has welcomed the new group.

Voices from Care Cymru - the only independent charity in Wales representing looked after children - wants a comprehensive package of measures in the next assembly term to improve the lives of looked-after children.

Alma Duckworth, 20, from Colwyn Bay, was in care from the age of 10. She spent most of that time with foster families, and said she remembers it as an unsettling time.

"I just remember moving about a lot and going here there and everywhere and just being all over really, moving in with people and moving out," she said.

She said the families she stayed with were good to her but the authorities could have done more to help her make the transition to life after care.

"I think they could have made me more settled, and given me more advice for when I left care," she added.

'Mental health'

"I left care on my 16th birthday and that was it really. I moved in a taxi to a house down the road and that was it.

"They're meant to help you look for a flat and help you move and help you live in the flat and help you manage your bills and things like that, but they don't."

Voices from Care chief executive Debra Jones told BBC Radio Wales that the group would not be a "panacea" but would raise the issue the political agenda.

"We've got very major concerns around the outcomes that young people face when they leave care, particularly around education [and] health," she said.

'Happy homes'

"There's a lot of young people who leave care who end up in mental health systems and the criminal justice system, which I feel is unacceptable."

Conservative AM David Melding who will chair the first meeting of the all-party group said; "We would expect people in the care system to achieve the same number of GCSEs as the general population, that roughly the same number will go to university.

"Now those are the positive things - that people will be able to maintain their own lives in supported housing¿and set up happy homes themselves.

"The negative things are a huge number of people in prison have been in the care system, and very grimly, the majority of street prostitutes have been in the care system.

"That's what happens when we fail these children."