This hybrid conference sought to bridge the gap between professionals and those with lived experience and highlight the experience of people growing up in care.
The conference connected social work professionals with three generations of care-experienced people and covered integral topics such as accessing higher education, making care experience a protected characteristic and what it means to give care-experienced people a platform. The event was curated by Dawn Harker, a care-experienced MSc social work student currently studying at Brunel.
Inspired to create empowerment through listening, the event focused on the voices and narratives of lived experience. It generated some fantastic discussions about how professionals can challenge the system, and how better to employ those with lived experience to achieve a system that meets the needs of those in it. The conference was chaired by Brunel’s Social Work MSc Programme Lead, Dr Yohai Hakak and the speakers were David Akinsanya, Rebekah Pierre, Zara Clench, Chris Wild and Keeley Stephenson.
Round and Round in Circles - Campaigning for Looked After Children
David Akinsanya, journalist and reporter, shared both his personal experiences of growing up in local authority care within Essex, as well as the work he has done through fostering, mentoring and community work. David felt that despite a long time campaigning and working with car experienced people the system remains as challenging today as it ever was.
Free Loaves on Friday: Language that Cares - Learning from 100 Care-Experienced Perspectives
Rebekah Pierre, care-experienced writer, campaigner and editor, spoke about her experiences of accessing her records and how the language and content impact her. Rebekah also spoke about how she was inspired to edit an anthology of stories from the care-experience community with a no-reject policy, curating Free Loaves on Friday
Higher Education and the Care Experience
Zara Clench, care experienced activist and researcher, shared her own story of being in care and how it impacted her accessing higher education. Zara talked about how her education experiences inspired her university research project looking at the support available to care experienced across the UK based on their location and made recommendations for how universities can offer care experienced students better support.
Children in Care Are Still Children: Making Care Experience a Protected Characteristic
Chris Wild, author, campaigner and keynote speaker, shared his lived experience of being in care in his youth, and the lifetime impact that has had on him. Chris also talked about how standards for young people remain poor, with conditions around housing and independent accommodation being unacceptable. Chris is part of the campaign to make being care experienced a protected characteristic and spoke on how he felt that but by having this proection care experienced people would be able to use the Equality Act to tackle discrimination the community currently faces.
From Abandonment to Abundance
Keeley Stephenson shared her lived experience of being taken into care when her biological mother struggled to parent her due to issues around mental health. Keeley talked about how the care she experienced impacted her and moving homes numerous times challenged her. Keeley was focused on how to improve the experience of those in care through creative outlets to manage difficult emotions.
The conference was described as “an insightful day. An inspiring way of bringing social work academic research, practitioners and people with lived experience together to inform social work learning, improve practice and service delivery on a key issue”