Children’s Commissioner for England asks for views on adding care experience to list of ‘protected characteristics’

The Children’s Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, is to ask care-experienced people for their views on whether care experience should be a ‘protected characteristic’ under the Equality Act 2010 – “like age, disability or religion currently are”.

In a recent blog, Dame Rachel said: “I want every child in care and care experienced person to be able to achieve all their ambitions. People who have interacted with the care system have often had the hardest start in life, so it is up to all of us in positions of responsibility to ensure that nothing holds them back….

“I want to explore every possible avenue for ensuring that all the barriers that care experienced people face to achieving their ambitions are removed.”

She said that one debate that is currently taking place is about whether care experience should be a ‘protected characteristic’.

“Some people I have spoken to argue that this would provide a way to tackle the discrimination care experienced people face, while others suggest that it could create additional stigma, or simply not be effective. But I don’t want this to be a debate that is held about care experienced people, rather than with them – as is too often the case.”

Dame Rachel said: “That is why I am…. launching an opportunity for care experienced people to tell me what they think about this proposal – whether they believe it would make a difference to their lives, or not, and why. I will read all these ideas and want this to be the start of a rich conversation.

“To all care experienced people and children in care – please share your views. I want to hear directly from you because it is you who have the true expertise that we should be drawing on.”

More information can be found here.

Public authorities must take action to prevent discrimination against those with protected characteristics - for example, by carrying out Equality Impact Assessments which detail how those with protected characteristics would be affected by a decision, the Children's Commissioner noted.