Films/Videos Stolen 2023 Stolen (2023) is a documentary directed by Margo Harkin. It tells the story of how over 80,000 unmarried mothers came to be incarcerated in mother & baby homes in Ireland between 1922 and 1998. The homes were run by nuns. Many of the women were subsequently separated from their babies. Babies were adopted in Ireland as well as abroad. Some became foster children and worked as farm labourers from the age of 6. As many as 9,000 of the babies died. External Website

Television Shows The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling 1997 A dramatisation of the 1749 novel by Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1997) recounts the adventures of foundling, Tom Jones, as he is taken in by the kind Squire Allworthy and then banished from the Allworthy estate and has a number of adventures, eventually ending up in London. External Website

Films/Videos Lilo & Stitch 2021 Lilo & Stitch is a 2002 animated science fiction comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The film's story revolves around two eccentric and mischievous individuals: a six-year-old Hawaiian girl named Lilo Pelekai, who is raised by her older, young adult-aged sister Nani after their parents died in a car accident, and a blue extraterrestrial animal-like creature called Experiment 626, who is adopted by Lilo as her "dog" and renamed "Stitch". Stitch, who is genetically engineered by his mad scientist creator to cause chaos and destruction, initially uses Lilo to avoid being captured by an intergalactic federation, but the two individuals develop a close bond through the Hawaiian concept of ʻohana, or extended family. This bond causes Stitch to reconsider and later defy his intended destructive purpose in order to keep his family together. External Website

This week, two reports and one important apology have put a spotlight on children in care, young people leaving care, and adults who were harmed in childhood. The subjects are difficult. They include death, suicide, self-harm and childhood sexual abuse. Some readers may want to pause before reading on or come back to this later. Please look after yourself and speak to someone you trust. Support is also available from Mind, Samaritans and the NHS. Stop press: Lisa Cherry is hosting a community gathering for care experienced people, supported by the Care Leavers Association on 9th September. You can register here.) Young people leaving care need better support Ashley John-Baptiste, a broadcaster and care-experienced author, co-led the Department for Education review ‘You really are on your own’: a study of the early deaths of young people who were in care with Clare Chamberlain, an experienced social worker. That matters because the review brings together lived experience of care and professional knowledge of how the care system works. The review looks at the deaths of young people aged 18 to 24 who had been in care. It is hard to read. It shows how sudden changes in support can leave young people isolated at a point when they may need help most. The figures are stark. The review looked at 112 deaths of care leavers aged 18 to 24 in 2025. It found that care leavers in this age group were dying at around three to four times the rate of their peers in the general population. More deaths were recorded at age 18 than at any other age in the review. Leaving care should not mean being left alone. Young people need steady relationships, safe places to live, and support that continues as they move into adulthood. That means having someone who notices when things are going wrong, helps with housing and health, and stays involved when life becomes difficult. Survivors of childhood abuse need care that lasts A public apology and position statement from the Royal College of Psychiatrists on non-recent child sexual abuse looked at the long-term impact of child sexual abuse. The College said mental health services have not always given survivors the support they needed, and apologised to people who were harmed when they tried to get help. This statement came from the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the professional body for psychiatrists. It was co-produced with adult survivors of non-recent child sexual abuse, which is important because survivors’ experiences helped shape what the College said needs to change. The scale of this is not small. The Royal College of Psychiatrists says around one in five girls and one in ten boys in England and Wales are believed to have been affected by sexual abuse before the age of 18. Many survivors do not talk about what happened for years. On average, disclosure can take 16 to 24 years. The apology matters because it recognises harm. Survivors who ask for help should be believed, listened to, and supported with care that understands trauma. The Royal College of Psychiatrists said some survivors had experienced avoidable harm when they asked for help, including being misdiagnosed, not being believed, or being re-traumatised by the way services responded to them. The statement calls for better training, better services and care that understands trauma. For survivors, this means support should not just treat symptoms. It should also understand what happened to them, how it still affects them, and what they need to feel safe. Children’s rights in social care need stronger protection The third report, Human Rights of Children in the Social Care System in England, comes from the Joint Committee on Human Rights. It says children in the social care system have rights: to be safe, to be listened to, and to get the care and support they need. This report came from the Joint Committee on Human Rights, a parliamentary committee made up of members from the House of Commons and the House of Lords. Its role is to look at human rights issues in the UK and hold public bodies to account when rights are not being protected properly. This is a large part of childhood in England. The report says around 400,000 children are in the social care system at any one time. Nearly 84,000 are looked after by local authorities. It also shows where the system is not working well enough. Some families find support hard to get. Some children are placed in homes that are not right for them. Some children and young people come into contact with the criminal justice system when their needs have not been properly met. And some young people still lose support too quickly when they become adults. The report says children’s rights should be stronger in law, so they are not treated as optional. Rights should shape everyday decisions about where children live, who supports them, and what happens when they need help. It also points to practical changes. Children should be able to complain when something is wrong, without being passed from one place to another. Disabled children and their families should not face a postcode lottery. Kinship carers should get proper support so more children can stay safely within their wider family network. The report also raises concerns about accommodation. Children should not be placed somewhere unsafe, unsuitable, or far away from the people and places that matter to them. A safe home is not an extra. It is part of what care should mean. What the reports say should happen next The Review says lessons should be used to prevent future deaths. It identifies five broad areas for change: the workforce, better support for young people in custody, supported accommodation for care leavers, health services for young people with medical conditions, and learning lessons after the death of a young person. The wider government response also includes £25 million to expand supported housing models and planned “Staying Close” support up to age 25 through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. The Royal College of Psychiatrists says mental health services must change. It calls for improved training, guidelines, clinical services and care pathways so survivors of non-recent child sexual abuse receive trauma-informed, person-centred support. The College also says it will create a learning module for psychiatrists and work with others to support implementation of the statement’s recommendations. The Committee recommends bringing the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into domestic law in England. It also calls for clearer rights and responsibilities for disabled children’s social care, a single duty to assess disabled children’s needs, national eligibility criteria, better support for kinship carers, stronger complaints routes, action on unsafe or unregulated accommodation, and better support for care leavers as they move into adulthood. What this should mean Taken together, these reports and this apology point to the same simple truth: children and young people need support that stays with them. Not support that disappears at 18. Not services that cause more harm when people ask for help. Not systems that only respond when something has already gone badly wrong. Good care should be steady, kind and human. It should notice risk early, listen properly, and stay alongside people when life is hardest. Behind every statistic is a person. That is why this attention matters, and why it must lead to real, lasting change.

Terry Galloway is a UK social justice campaigner with lived experience of the care system. He spent much of his childhood moving through the care system, living in over 100 placements, and facing trauma, instability, and discrimination. His sister Hazel, who also grew up in care, faced significant challenges and was killed by her partner — a personal loss that deepened Terry’s commitment to systemic change. After leaving care, Terry worked in a range of jobs before dedicating himself to advocacy. To support his campaigning work, he set up his own business and later a not-for-profit providing supported accommodation for care leavers. Norman Galloway Homes is a not-for-profit organisation providing supported accommodation and person-centred jobs programmes for care leavers aged 16–25 to help them build relationships, develop essential life skills and transition into independent living. He also co-founded the Care Leaver Offer comparison website, and serves as a trustee of NYAS (National Youth Advocacy Service). Terry leads a national campaign to have care experience recognised as a protected characteristic  under law, aiming to reduce discrimination and ensure policy makers account for the needs of care-experienced individuals. The campaign aligns with recommendations from the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care (IRCSC) , which endorsed making care experience a protected characteristic under the Equality Act. With national legislative change not yet achieved, the campaign has successfully persuaded over 120 local councils to adopt motions to treat care experience “as if it were a protected characteristic”  in their own policy framework. These motions typically commit councils to: consider care experience in equality impact assessments; involve care-experienced people in policy development; extend corporate parenting principles; and encourage wider bodies to adopt similar commitments. Together, Terry Galloway’s lived experience, service delivery, and policy advocacy have driven tangible change in how care-experienced people are recognised and supported across the UK.

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.