The Who Cares Trust

acknowledgements

The Government asked The Who Cares? Trust to help them produce this booklet. We would like to thank the following young people and staff for their valuable contribution to the way the booklet has been written and designed:

East Moor Regional Secure Unit, Leeds
Education Action Team, Hampshire
It’s My Life! Young People’s Forum, Essex
Young People’s Response Group, Hackney, London
Essex Children’s Rights Service
Hackney Children’s Rights Service
Leeds Children’s Rights Service,
Scope

FOREWORD BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR HEALTH, Frank Dobson, MP

This booklet explains what the Government is doing to make sure that you, and all other children living away from home, are looked after properly.

In November 1997 we published an independent photo.gif (4301 bytes)

report which said that many children like you had been let down by the system. Some had not been protected from abuse. Some had not received the care and attention they needed.
So I got together a group of Ministers and experts, including someone who had been in care herself, to look at what we could do to sort out these problems and change things for the better.
Children living away from home have the same right as any other child to be looked after properly and get a decent start in life. So I asked the group to judge everything by asking ‘would this have been good enough for me when I was a child?’ or ‘would this be good enough for my children?’
This booklet spells out how we are changing things to make sure you get a better deal.

Best wishes
Frank Dobson