Children in care: ‘I felt like an animal, like a piece of rubbish’

One big challenge for the new Education Secretary is the growing number of children in care – with the cost falling to cash-strapped local councils. But growing even faster is the sheer number of these children in care who are being moved miles away from everything they know – their home towns, friends, sometimes their schools and even brothers and sisters.

In England last year, one in five children in care were placed in accommodation more than 20 miles away from their old home. That’s more than 17,000 children – and it’s a number that’s growing – up a massive 62% in the last ten years. Now, Government figures obtained by the charity ‘Become’ and shared exclusively with Channel 4 News shed more light on all this.

They show the average child in care is living further away from home today than five years ago. The average distance in 2018 was 17.3 miles. That rose to 18.5 miles in 2023. The furthest distance a child was sent was a huge 502 miles away from their home.

Although, sometimes  there can be good reasons why a child might be sent further away – for example if they are in danger in their home town. But being put into care miles away from home can have a devastating impact on young lives, as one young woman explained to Ayshah Tull.

Chereece’s story

At just 22 years old Chereece has been through more trauma than most. She grew up in a care system where she was moved eight times in one year, lived out of bin bags and struggled to find a place to call home. As new figures from Become, the national charity for care leavers show more children in England are being put in “out of area” placements, she wants local authorities to think twice about doing so.

Social services were involved in Chereece’s life from birth. Aged eight she moved in with her older sister, but that relationship became strained, and she was placed into the care system at age 15.

In that first year, she was moved around the north of England and Wales. At one point she was put in holiday camps and caravans and told to pack every three days. Speaking about this time in her life, she called it “Dehumanising. I felt like an animal. Like, a piece of rubbish.”

This had a devastating impact on Chereece’s relationships; she felt as if she couldn’t trust anyone. She constantly ran away, even ending up in strangers’ cars, saying she felt “safer” there than anywhere else. She explained, “you learn how to put yourself in dangerous situations, you get in random people’s cars, you jump trains, you walk for miles on end, and you really put yourself in unsafe positions.” This was the only way she felt she could get control of her life. Chereece then started drinking as a way to escape from the unhappiness she felt.

The constant churn of having to move away took its toll on her education. She was on course to get her GCSEs but found it impossible to concentrate on work, she says “I had too much going on. I couldn’t even focus on myself. It was just so chaotic, that lifestyle so chaotic, you don’t have a minute to think.”

In response to the concerns about the availability of placements for children in the care system, the Local Government Association which represents councils, told us: “As record numbers of children have needed to come into the care of local councils in recent years, this has put a real strain on the availability of local, high-quality provision in some areas. We have long raised concerns over the availability of homes for children in care and we want to work with the Government to address these.”

In 2020, Chereece turned her life around, thanks to her daughter. She wanted to make sure the childhood she had, wasn’t passed down to the next generation. Now settled and happy, bringing up her four-year-old, she couldn’t imagine her daughter going through what she went through. By speaking out she hopes her experiences will make authorities think twice about placing children in care away from what they know.

The Department for Education said it was “piloting ways to bring local authorities together to reduce out of area placements.”

It said it would look at what more action is necessary to “make sure every child has a safe, loving home, in a location that is truly best for them.”