This is the speech given by Barbara Forrester, retired Family Court judge, at the launch of the Brighter Futures programme in Barrow on 2 April 2025:
You may be wondering why I have been invited to speak to you – it is because I have made probably more Care Orders than anyone else in Cumbria at present so I have seen how they can change the lives of children and young people.
To explain a bit more, I was born and brought up in Barrow. I qualified as a Solicitor and worked in Barrow for 26 years specialising in crime and childcare. Then I was appointed a circuit judge in Carlisle for 20 years, 16 of them as Designated Family Judge for Cumbria so I was responsible for all childcare work in courts of Cumbria.
The main legislation about children is the Children Act 1989 and s1(1) says in taking decisions, the child’s welfare shall be the court’s paramount consideration. This is often referred to as decisions being in child’s best interests. The child is a party in care proceedings and has their own solicitor and independent social worker called a guardian. The child or young person can take part in proceedings as far as they are able in accordance with their age and understanding, including meeting with and speaking directly to the judge if they want to.
Sadly, the law doesn’t give judges a magic wand – often the decision of what in child’s best interests ends up as being what is the least detrimental option.
Once a care order has been made, the court plays no further part in planning for the child – it will have seen a care plan setting out what Local Authority Children’s Services social workers intend but things can change – the social workers take the decisions about where and with whom the child is to live. The law says decisions by Children’s Services are to be taken in consultation with parents but Children’s Services have the main say. So a child’s life can be turned upside down with it being no fault on the part of the child.
Statistics show that compared to their peers, young people who are care experienced are more likely to have Special Educational Needs, to be suspended from or excluded from school, and are less likely to do well at school, to go to university, or be in employment. But these young people are not statistics – they are real human individuals living here in Furness and Cumbria and have had and continue to have ‘lived experience’ different from many of us. And each of their experiences is different.
All young people today face many challenges as they move through their teenage years into adulthood navigating education, peer pressure, hormone shifts, relationships and social media as they decide what they want to do with their lives – what they would like to do and realistically what their options are.
For children who are care experienced they have more issues to face on top of those. Often, they will have experienced what is referred to as a fractured childhood.
Care proceedings usually start with the child suffering an adverse life event – being the victim of or witness to violence, not being cared for (food, personal hygiene, clothing all of which can lead to bullying at school), rejection by the parents or with the mother choosing her partner over her children. They have not received the nurturing care we would hope a child would receive. Some have brought themselves up and sometimes younger siblings too. They may have been left alone at night or had to forage for their own food. Their life may have been chaotic – appointments not kept, school not attended. Or they may have been a carer for a parent.
All in all, they have a very different lived experience than what we would want for a child.
When the decision is taken to remove a child, it may may be because family not responded to attempts to improve situation or may be sudden – the social workers go to school and take child direct to foster home
Most care experienced children now live in foster homes. There are very few residential homes these days and they tend to be for children who cannot cope in foster care. Often the placement is out of area where the child lived – this is a problem in Cumbria because of the distances between the centres of population. The main areas of Carlisle, Barrow and Whitehaven/Workington have different cultures and different accents. It may mean a new school perhaps with a different curriculum and making new friends. They may be separated from siblings as it is often difficult to find a placement for groups of children. There may be limited or no contact with parents and siblings.
They may need to move between foster homes. There may be different house rules when they move – think back to when you were little and realised for the first time other families did things differently to yours, for example some sit altogether at a table for meals, some eat individually at a table, some graze and some eat on their lap in front of the television. This gets worse if the child has to move several times. Or if previously they have not known where the next meal is coming from to moving to a house with a fridge full of food and biscuits in a tin and fruit bowl on table – many hoard food or eat until they’re sick.
With patient and loving foster care many overcome these problems – sometimes the most difficult thing for a young person is accepting having boundaries set and held, possibly for the first time in their life. To overcome the adversity they have faced, it has taken personal determination and resilience which can now be channelled into their futures.
But more than that, more than physical care – everyone needs to belong, to be part of a group, family, unit whatever you want to call it. To have support – someone you can turn to. Often for a care experienced young person it is difficult to trust after having been let down from the start by their parents, the very people you should be able to rely on and then with frequent changes of social worker – what Brighter Futures are providing amongst other things is consistent support as for them to move into adulthood and into employment. Involvement of employers crucial – it sends the message to the young person that you are important, you are worth it, you are part of this community and have a role to play in its future.
Few years ago I heard Lemn Sissay, the poet, speak. He is care experienced and his memoir ‘My Name is Why’ paints a clear picture of his life in care. When he spoke, he described the emotional isolation using the analogy of playing squash – there are walls to a squash court and you hit the ball and it comes back off the wall and your partner hits it again and so on. It’s like that at family get togethers – someone says, do you remember the day we went to Blackpool and Gran felt ill in the car but ate a huge helping of fish and chips when we got there and everyone laughs and someone else says yes and you had a ride on a donkey and fell off and then someone says about going into a shop selling rock and it being difficult to choose there were so many. And so it goes on, to and fro, everyone adding a bit to the memories. You may not actually remember but it becomes part of family story and repeated, so it becomes like a memory. For someone who is care experienced, Lemn Sissay says it is like playing squash on a court without walls – you hit the ball and it disappears into the distance, with no one to share your memories.
So the question is can you help a young person move into adulthood with the support of Brighter Futures, for them to become a part of your business and our community?