Mindhouse Productions, the makers of the award-winning radio series and podcast
Grounded With Louis Theroux
, is teaming up with BBC Radio 4 and Drive Forward Foundation’s Trustee, Tony Simpson to explore life in the British care system.
Before too long (like everything else we were hindered by Covid-19), this pet project turned into a 6-part podcast series hosted on the Barnardo’s website. In it we visited the very building that Tony was born in (then a Salvation Army Mother & Baby Unit, now a Thai Buddhist Temple), the former stately home in rural Oxfordshire (that had been donated to Barnardo’s) in which he spent the first six years of his life, and the much smaller community based group home in Solihull (also run by Barnardo’s) where he spent the rest of his youth whilst in care. We also traced his transition away from care and into the world of work and looked back on the legacy that care had left in him (and what impact it had had on his family).
We took it to BBC Radio 4 who partly agreed but wisely said we should also talk to care experienced people who had been looked after away from home much more recently. This is where Drive Forward Foundation came up trumps – helping us find five young interviewees, now all in their 20s, who are at different stages of coming to terms with their experiences of care.
In talking to the five young people that the Drive Forward Foundation helped find, we were both struck not just by their generosity in the time they gave us, but also their willingness to share their stories and their experiences… and to do so with such openness and honesty. And their stories were shocking – not just because of some of the extreme experiences they endured, but also because the feelings of isolation, guilt, self-doubt, uncertainty and
a neverending fear that at any moment things will be taken away, were always with them (and in many cases still are).
As someone who is not care experienced, my conversations with Tony taught me that some who have been looked after away from home can develop a sort of superpower (we called it resilience) to tackle whatever is thrown at them. Growing up in an environment where the only person you can rely on unconditionally is yourself, can create a sense of self that few young people growing up in families don’t learn until much later. Sadly, not everyone in care is able to develop that resilience, but all five of our interviewees have done so (or seem to be doing so). Although honest enough to also talk about their vulnerabilities, I was struck by both the strength of character and determination they show, as well as their willingness to share their experiences in the hope that others might learn from them… and that the system might be improved.
