Ealing Council have passed a proposal to give protected status to young people in care at a meeting on Tuesday 25th April. 

The proposal to give protected status to young people in care was first broached at the care leavers summit during March, where Ealing Council Leader Peter Mason pledged to put forward the motion at the next meeting, and last week it was passed. 

Protected status means that it is illegal to discriminate against people on the grounds that they have experienced care, joining age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion, belief, sex, and sexual orientation on the list. 

Mason said: "Making experience of care a protected characteristic helps us improve the way that we approach this challenge. It helps us to honestly acknowledge the additional barriers that being part of the care system can throw up. 

"Our aspirations as corporate parents, as a council and for every organisation involved in raising the young people in our care, is to be a modern parent. To make sure that young people have their practical needs met, yes, their emotional ones too. 

"But to do this, we have to listen to young people. We have to empower them to make sure that their opinions and insights will not only be listened to but acted upon also.  

"This has to build on the work that we have already done on the Corporate Parent Panel, where young people themselves have selected councillors to take on those responsibilities. 

"By making experience of care a protected characteristic will help us embed this approach right across the council and with our partners.  

"It is the next step in our work to ensure that every child and young person in Ealing has a fair start in life, where they can lead happy and healthy lives, or purpose and belonging and pride."