Care Day 2022
Published on Exchange Chambers, February 2022.
Care Day is the annual celebration of the lives of care-experienced people across the UK and beyond — a day to listen to and amplify the voices of those who have grown up in care. Children and young people who, through no fault of their own, have been separated from their families and placed under the care of the State.
As a public law family barrister, I spend much of my professional life in the Family Court — in proceedings that determine whether children should be removed from their families, where they should live, and how they should be supported. Care Day is a vital reminder that behind every file and every set of proceedings is a child, a person, whose childhood and whose whole life will be shaped by what happens in that court.
It is also a reminder of our collective obligations — as lawyers, as a profession, as a society — to ensure that the care system we are sending children into is one that genuinely nurtures them, supports them, and gives them the best chance of flourishing. The evidence suggests we still have a very long way to go.