During the summer we started a piece of research across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland exploring people views and opinions on protecting those of care experience under the Equality Act 2010. Following the completion of this initial piece of research we invited Leicestershire County Councillor Deborah Taylor to join our Joining Up Joining In group to share our findings and discuss some of the key issues and themes that came out of the report “Care experience as a protected characteristic?”
Yes, I enjoyed it, it was good to get information we didn’t know about and how the system works in terms of getting councils on board with changes for care leavers.
Peer Researcher
Thank you for inviting me, it was a pleasure to listen to the young people and their research findings. I will ensure that I keep you up to date.
Councillor Deborah Taylor
The session was extremely informative and gave our group the opportunity to understand how different councils work and how we could work together to try and get Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland council to recognise Care experience as a protected characteristic.
Our peer researchers were keen to understand why Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland had not recognised and pledged to acknowledge care experience as a protected characteristic. Deborah explained to the peer researchers some of the challenges they face. For example, care experience isn’t recognised as a protected characteristic nationally. Therefore, there are many legal challenges and barriers to overcome especially within an authority that has a county council and is also governed by 7 districts councils. Deborah said that conversations are currently in place and the district councils are working together to recognise care experience as a protected characteristic.
Thank you so much for joining us yesterday it was a pleasure to meet you. We really appreciated your honesty and ability to engage with the participants involved in the project”
Aidan, Leicestershire Cares
As of October 2023, care experience has been recognised as a protected characteristic 57 councils across England and we hope we can too.
The next steps for the peer researchers include continuing their campaign for change and engaging a wider audience of those of care experience over the coming months.
Our peer researchers will soon be hosting a podcast to discuss and share their findings.
We also hope to get Terry Galloway, national lead for the current campaign to join a session with our group. Terry has created great momentum and is dedicated to influence councils across England to pledge and recognise care experience as a protected characteristic.
Click here to read our report:
For more information about Leicestershire Cares and our work, visit www.leicestershirecares.co.uk or search @LeicsCares on X or Instagram or contact aidan@leicestershirecares.co.uk