In my case, I wanted to make a difference. As an Educational Psychologist, I work with children and young people from 0 to 25 years old from different backgrounds and with diverse strengths and needs. However, my first professional introduction to working with children with care experience was as a seconded Probation Officer in a Youth Justice Service in London. On my first observation of a colleague, we went to
visit a young person who had recently been accommodated by their Local Authority. To say, that I was disturbed by the living conditions of this young person would be an understatement. At the time of our visit, the property was sub-standard and the care and attention the young person was receiving by professionals was inadequate.

Prior to this experience, my childhood friend had taken me to his semi-independent home following the breakdown in his stay at his foster parents’ home. In those days, I was naïve to the arrangements made for children in Local Authority care. As a child, I was less aware of the challenges that came alongside having care experience. But the effects of trauma and loss that preceded my friend’s entry into the care system were clear to see in his behaviours at school and in the community. It was through these types of experiences that I started to understand that children can communicate in a variety of ways to express their distress.