A Nottingham campaigner who has been spearheading a nationwide fight to get more recognition for care leavers says he has been doing so in memory of his sister. Terry Galloway, 46, was first placed into care with his sister Hazel when he was just months old.
He eventually went on to experience more than 100 care placements in Manchester and later in Devon, before moving to Nottingham at the age of 25. Mr Galloway, who runs his own business, says the case of his sister is an example of what many who have experienced the care system as children and young people face in later life.
Hazel Galloway died in 2008 after being murdered by her partner Andrew Grundy, 33, who was a domestic abuser. Ms Galloway was just 33 at the time and Terry says that he and Hazel came up with the idea of trying to enact change in the care system together.
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He said: "We were at the funeral of somebody else who we both knew and Hazel said to me that she had a horrible feeling she was going to be the next one to die. I promised her that she wasn't going to be and that's when we thought about really trying to change the care system.
"She was always an emotional person whereas I'm not really, so between us we used to say that she had the heart and I had the brains and together we could really make a difference. In the end Hazel was the next one but what happened is an example of the fact that people in the care system are so vulnerable.
"People who have been in care are mostly just looking to be loved and in many cases that can mean that somebody ends up in a gang or associating with the wrong people, in my sister's case it was just boyfriend after boyfriend. So we had both come up with the idea of trying to change the care system before Hazel died, but since that happened I've been determined to carry it on."
Mr Galloway's work in recent years has focused on encouraging local authorities around the UK to pass motions pledging to pay greater attention to the needs and experiences of people who have been in the care system when making policies. Several councils have already done so and Nottingham City Council has now done the same.
The motion, which was passed unanimously by councillors at a meeting on Monday, January 9, was brought by the Labour member for Bestwood, Georgia Power. Speaking at the meeting, referencing a national review on the subject, Councillor Power said: "Many care experienced people face discrimination, stigma and prejudices in their day-to-day lives.
"Public perceptions of care experience centre on the idea that children are irredeemably damaged and that can lead to discrimination and assumptions being made. The stigma and discrimination can be explicit, but it can also be implicit and evidenced in the way care experience is discussed in schools, workplaces and in the media."
The motion now passed by Nottingham City Council recognises the difficulties that care experienced people face in terms of housing, health, relationships, employment and the criminal justice system. It will also mean that the authority treats care experienced people as having a Protected Characteristic, a terms used in equality legislation that makes it illegal to discriminate against someone because of factors such as age and disability.
As well as his work with councils, Terry Galloway is continuing to lobby the Government to amend the Equality Act so that care experience officially becomes a Protected Characteristic across the country. He is also continuing to encourage other Nottinghamshire councils to pass motions similar to that of the city's and Ashfield District Council's, with a vote due to take place at Nottinghamshire County Council on January 19.
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