1. One of the few advantages of being older is the capacity to look back at earlier times & compare. In my case to look back at care, the care experience & those who have travelled that road over nearly 70yrs.>

< 2. Way back in the 50:s =60:s, there was no Internet, no social media, limited awareness or sympathy for people from care & @careleavers as a concept did not exist - but there were people from care striving away to make changes, usually alone & unheralded.>

< 3. I am reminded of a hero of mine, Ian Brown, the care experienced Children Officer in Manchester, who closed the big institutions in the face of real opposition & tried to introduce family centred care in the city. Nobody has heard if him. >

Brown & others coming later quietly tackled the pressing injustices of the time - widespread corporal punishment in care settings, kids excluded from their own reviews, buying clothes on council order books, kids not being able to shop for food, etc >

<4. The hard battles of the invisible 50's, 60's & 70's offered a foundation for the more optimistic 80's & 90's & the emerging identity & fledging empowerment of #careleavers, & a growing national identity, linking or inspiring the local group & individuals across the UK. >

<5. Yet still care experienced people nationally were ignored & I would argue their collective identity suppressed by the overweaning control of the professionals who controlled the care narratives & defined what & who were good & bad in the struggle for good care practice.>

< 6. In recent years we have witnessed the emergence of a sense of identity & a collective voice for ALL care experienced people of all ages, of all heritages, in all settings, in all our diversity. It is forming, but not yet formed, & may take years yet.>

< 7. Still we see the professionals, the decision makers, the civil servants, the vested interests, controlling the narrative & giving an impression of consultation with the care experienced community which does not withstand close scrutiny. It has moved little in a generation >

< 8.Yet there is room for optimism. Social media & the nascent sense of belonging & identity allow care experienced people to see the work of great writers from the care community. Great poets, great artists, painters, visionaries writing a new history from a fresh perspective >

<9. Now I can see wonderful works of art by care experienced people, & read accounts of care from so many young writers. There are campaigners who'll not allow the lid to be nailed on the box of inequality, stigma & discrimination without shining a light on it. Change is coming>

< 10. I don't write for the care sector. One if their people told me the other day that my criticising the increasing role of the private sector in the care system was "unhelpful to children". I write in the hope care experienced folk can be optimistic that change will come.>

<11. I think it is time for another conference for care experienced people of all ages. Gov't, DfE & the care sector simply ignored the last one & its recommendations & carried on as usual. But the genii is out of the box. Time perhaps to shake the bag & shout loudly again? >

<12. I am retired & determined to stay so but I sincerely hope that all those wonderful creative care experienced people out there will join hands as a single community & press once more & harder to be heard. It is more urgent now than ever.