Love Leeds 💙🤍💛🌸 Leanne.

How can an Equality Impact Assessment recognise the barriers care leavers face, yet fail to offer meaningful protection against them? Identifying inequality is not the same as preventing discrimination. We cannot keep acknowledging the barriers while allowing them to remain. This is why care experience must become a protected characteristic. Recognition is not protection. And awareness without action is not equality.

Incredibly grateful to Roehampton University and Enfield Local Authority for inviting me to speak at their conferences over the last two days. Fantastic turnouts at both events, and brilliant to see so many care-experienced young people, social workers, professionals and educators coming together to celebrate some of the incredible work happening in our communities. For me, this is what it's all about. Creating spaces where young people feel valued, their voices are heard and opportunities are created. That's what leadership looks like. That's what community is about. And that's real social impact.