This isn’t love

After a life in care, with both good and bad experiences of the system, Hope knows all too well what the risks are for children in care as they approach adolescence. Lacking any sense of self-worth or belonging, children in care are often dismissed by the authorities as impossible to manage and, worse, perceived as children who have invited sexual abuse by placing themselves in ‘dangerous’ situations. They quickly become invisible to the authorities – too old to be perceived as ‘children’ by the system and yet, far too young to be safe in an adult world. Hope was brought up in care from the age of nine. Until now, she has never spoken about what happened to her once she left the security of her Highgate children’s home at the age of 13 and moved into a ‘secure unit’. It may have been secure but it was never ‘safe’.