Campaign
Breaking the Cycle
A national inquiry into intergenerational care involvement
The Birth Companions Institute and NYAS (National Youth Advocacy Service) are working with the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Care Experienced Children and Young People to lead a national inquiry into the intergenerational cycle of care involvement in England.
Birth Companions and NYAS’ own services show that many care-experienced young women and girls face social care assessments – and often infant removal – when they become parents themselves.
Recent research from King's College London found that women who had been in care as children were 17x more likely to have contact with children's social care during pregnancy than women without this history.
Our online call for evidence is now open. We want to hear from people with lived, learned and professional experience of intergenerational cycles of care involvement, about what’s working, what’s not working, and where we should be focussing our efforts for meaningful change in order to break the intergenerational cycle of care involvement, and ensure that all care-experienced girls and young women are appropriately supported to give their babies the very best start in life.
We have two online forms available – please complete the one most relevant to you:
Later this year we’ll be hosting oral evidence sessions, in parliament and online, to explore key themes of the inquiry in more depth with invited experts with lived, learned and professional experience. If you would be interested in taking part in one of these sessions, there will be a chance to let us know at the end of each form.
Care-experienced girls and women should have appropriate support as mothers and be able to give their babies the very best start in life. With this inquiry, we are putting the issue of intergenerational cycles of care firmly on the national policy agenda and working to drive meaningful change for mothers and babies. We hope you’ll join us.
For any questions about this inquiry, contact katherine@birthcompanions.org.uk or phoebe.white@nyas.net.
