A motion to support people who have been in care has been tabled by an Isle of Wight councillor.
Cabinet member for adult social care and public health Cllr Debbie Andre put forward the proposal to be discussed and voted on at today’s (Wednesday's) full council meeting.
The motion is to support “care experienced people” who are those that, at any point in their life and for however long, were in care, according to Local Government Association (LGA) guidance.
Cllr Andre’s motion says:
“Care experienced people face significant barriers that impact them throughout their lives.
“Despite the resilience of many care experienced people, society too often does not take their needs into account.
“Care experienced people often face discrimination and stigma across housing, health, education, relationships, employment and the criminal justice system.
“The Public Sector Equality Duty requires public bodies, such as councils, to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment, and victimisation of people with protected characteristics.”
It goes on to propose seven measures of support.
These include recognising care experienced people as a group ‘likely to face discrimination’ and that councils have a duty to put the ‘needs of disadvantaged people’ at the ‘heart of decision-making’, assessing the council’s ‘future decisions, services and policies’ through Equality Impact Assessment to ascertain impacts on care experienced people and treating care experience ‘as if it were a Protected Characteristic’.
Cllr Andre’s motion also calls for care experience to be included in the ‘publication and review’ of the Isle of Wight Council’s Equality Objectives, aims public bodies are required to adopt by law.
Protected Characteristics are those such as age, sex, religion or disability.
Cllr Andre has been approached for comment.
Comments