THE VOICE OF A 16 YEAR OLD

Before I talk about my care experience, I would like to tell you a bit about me and how I entered the care system.

I am a 16-year-old boy who has had a hard life and have been through some rough times throughout my life. When I was born, my mother was with my father, who was both physically and verbally violent to her and me and my siblings while she was with him. I was living at home up until the age of around about five, and this is when my grandmother become terminally ill.

I preferred staying over her house with my mother’s mother at this time. When I was up to my fathers on the weekends, this is when he would hit me and leave me alone in the home with my siblings. As I got older, my mother meets her second partner, who is the father of my other and last sibling. He also was very rude and threatening towards my brother and me, so at this point, my brother.

We would behave using violent towards each other and my mother’s partner, after he was aggressive with us.

This was the only way we knew how to deal and react to this.

As life went on, I moved to high school after being in trouble a lot as this was also the same in high school in my first year in high school.

I was getting sent out and put on a report a lot due to my behave and my attitude towards the teaching staff. Then one day and this went on throughout the entire time of my high school life.

Now I would like to tell you why and how it was I got involved with the youth offending Services.

I had been in and out of foster care and living between my mothers and grandmothers home, but in 2013.

I was put into a residential unit in Swansea, where I settled in well and got on with the staff and other young people. After being there for about 6-8 weeks, I was told one morning before I was going to education I was not going. My social worker was coming down but little did I know, or anyone knows she was moving me. I then went to another residential unit in Pembrokeshire. After being there a short period I did not like it after all this I had been there for 3 years with a lot of different incident over that time then in early weeks of 2016 I was taken out of school I suddenly was very upset one day after having a wrong time and a lot of stress and other things going on as I was having to decide whether or not to return to Cardiff so one day I came back after doing an mock exam and was stressed very severely so I went to the office and asked for my mobile phone as to when they replied no and I asked why and they refused to answer or tell me so I then asked again and at this point I was upset as I was going through a lot so all of a sudden they had the 2 male members of staff rugby tackle me to the ground which lead to me becoming aggressive and more angry so the only thing I knew and the only way I was able and shown how to deal with anger was to punch and do whatever I could but I blank out so I am not in control and cannot remember anything other than what I’m told and all so all of a sudden I’m pinned down to the floor by to big men so me doing as I would as I was petrified of this as it brought flashbacks to me I kicked out and punched so I had assaulted this member of staff so I was the asked to go in for an interview about 2 months after the incident as the member of team did not report it straight away so now in the meantime I had decide to go back to Cardiff to live after being in Cardiff for 2-3 months there was a knock on the door and it was the police here to charge me and tell me I had to go to court as I was being charged with common assault so I went and I pleaded guilty and I was sentenced in Cardiff then I had a YOT worker for that order but in the past my other YOT worker would not listen to me or even pay any attention to what I had to say.

I am happy to be able to say now I am being listened to and receiving the support I need to change my life.

Therefore, I feel young people don’t get listen to and why I think it’s important to listen to young people in the past. I and other young people that I have spoken to have all said that they and I have at some time been called one of the following words or names:

Trouble

Child

Childish

Kids

Criminals

Immature

Stupid

Irresponsible

Thugs

Evil

Scum

These are some of the names that young people get called.

I think that the YJB should protect the rights of young people by changing the way young people who are in the system are looked upon and called as this do affect young people as just because we are in a system or a number or a statistic on a chart this is not true just because we have messed up or done things wrong okay somethings aren’t good but you just look at one side of things and not the side as to why it happened or what has happened to make young people to behave like that I think it’s time that this change for the benefit of all young people as it’s going to affect them if there’s no change as you wouldn’t like it if young people were rude to you so calling us the names I mentioned earlier to us this is how you are rude to us and this is why young people have no respect for authority as young people look for respect so with you calling us all them as mentioned you lose respect from us so please leave here today and if all you do is refer to us as young people and nothing else it’s a start or go further and look into why young people behave this way or why we react to certain thing in certain ways it could be past problem have made it like that and that young people have not had the right support so please look at how you handle situations and try and communicate with young people the same way you would communicate you own children who are now young people or other young people who are not in the system as this is what young people need before things get worse and it’s inside for life make it so that you’re the ones that help and make a difference and not to make it worse or to put blocks in the way so it’s hard yes we have broken the law and yes it’s not okay but life as a young person is hard enough with any other life affecting issues that have happened or where young people have had a hard past or traumatic events from their life so work with us and not against us and help us get the support and help we need and to stop young people re-offending as this happen and is due to not being able to talk to you or others as young people can’t trust or talk to you as they don’t feel that this is able to do this as they feel that you’re not actually going to help or support just go against and make things harder which means then young people are more likely to re-offend or commit a worse offence than the first one.

So imagine it was the other way around. It was your son or daughter or a family member who was in our positions and how you would feel if they were feeling like this and not getting the support they needed. They got the family to support them because a lot of young people don’t have that support there for them and are on their own so look it like that if you can’t look at it any other way as this might help you to know a bit about how young people feel. About the way that we are treated and looked upon once we enter that system and how much support is there and out there and given to young people to get them to where they want to be in life. To show them that they can change the way they treat others and the way they deal and respond to different situations. Which will get them out of the system and stop them from re-offending or re-entering the system?