My Journey through the Care System
My childhood was in many ways great - I have some fantastic memories and it is those days really do shape who you are as an adult. I also have many sad, painful and traumatic memories - and nothing could be more traumatic than being removed from your parents, and growing up in children's homes and foster homes. I consider myself very fortunate - I ended up in a foster home with two amazing people (Norma and George) - they were in their 50s when they took on a troubled, emotionally stunted and reckless 12/13 year old boy....a child who had troubled behaviours, problems at school and attachment/emotional issues - and it was those 3 or 4 years that followed that really changed who I was - that effectively moved me from one likely road I was destined to take, and onto another that offered balance, self awareness, learning, a degree of resolution - and above all hope.
This section provides an account of my own reflections, memories and experiences of the state care system. From memory, pictures and conversations with those around me, this began with little 'holidays,' or respite periods for my mother, and led to me being a full time resident of a state children's home (The Willows). Further down the line I lived in two foster homes, before being placed at a 'half way house' at the age of 16 years by Children's Services....in a strange twist of fate I ended up living back with my biological mother at 18 years of age - something deep down I had always hoped would bring me something - being part of my own biological family, perhaps softening or resolving feelings of rejection and abandonment and capturing and bottling a degree of normality.
The images to the left capture some of those times within state care - in this instance my time in the Children's Home - along with some of the other 'residents.' The tiles below provide my own personal experiences of state care, the official records held on me by Children's Services (the state) and the legislation and policies that essentially dictated what happened to me as a child.
The care system in focus
My care experiences
Read about my experiences of growing up within children's homes and foster homes
My official Children's Services records
At the age of 18+ I was able to apply for those documents held by Children's Services on me - read here about what they were and what they said.
Here provides an outline of the key legislation in place at the time I was taken into state care
Legislation & the care system
