Chris Wild - Activist & Campaigner

Chris Wild is a UK-based activist, author, speaker, care system consultant, national advisor, and charity supporter advocating for children and young people impacted by the care system. Drawing on his own lived experience of growing up in care after the death of his father, Chris speaks publicly about systemic failures, trauma, and the long-term barriers faced by care-experienced individuals. His work includes public speaking, media engagement, policy advising, and partnerships with organisations focused on trauma-informed support, equity, and youth empowerment.

Chris returned to the care system as a care worker, hoping to make a difference. Instead, he found a system largely unchanged, still failing the very children it was meant to protect. In Damaged, Chris shares his own harrowing experiences alongside the stories of the boys, girls, men and women he met along the way, exposing a broken system and demanding urgent action to protect Britain’s forgotten children. The State of It: Stories from the Frontline of a Broken Care System extends this analysis to the wider impacts of systemic failures and offers insights on what must change. Through his writing, Chris amplifies the voices of those often unheard and frames care reform as a social justice imperative.

In addition to his writing and advocacy, Chris works with other campaigners such as Terry Galloway on efforts to have care experience legally recognised as a protected characteristic under the UK’s Equality Act 2010. This campaign seeks to ensure that discrimination linked to care background is treated with the same legal seriousness as other protected characteristics, and has seen growing support from local authorities and civil society groups across the UK. Parliamentary debates have acknowledged the joint work of activists including Chris and Terry on this issue, which aims to embed care experience more firmly into equality policy and decision-making processes.