A council has agreed to give more support to some of its most vulnerable young people in a move aimed at protecting them against discrimination.

Medway Council voted last week to enshrine care experience as a “protected characteristic” when making policy decisions.

It means the experience of those in care must be considered as part of equality impact assessments - a tool used by councils to assess how different people will be affected by its decisions.

Characteristics protected by the Equality Act 2010 also include age, race, disability and sexual orientation – but so far it does not include people who have been raised in care.

Councillors unanimously voted to approve the move to add it to the list at a full council meeting held last Thursday (July 18).

Introducing the report for the proposal, portfolio holder for childen’s services, Cllr Adam Price (Lab) said: “It’s widely reported that care experienced young people have poorer outcomes than their peers and they continue to face discrimination across housing, education, relationships, employment, and the criminal justice system.

“Medway Council will be demonstrating a commitment to address these inequalities faced by this marginalised group, thereby helping to reduce discrimination.”

The Conservative group, which sits in opposition on the council, also voted in favour of the plan.

Shadow cabinet member for children's services and education, Cllr Mark Joy said: “Our care leavers are judged from the day they go into care and far beyond that, and normally they go into care at a young age, so it is something which grows over time and the stigma that goes with it stays with them.

“The unconscious bias that children and adults who’ve been through the care system experience is not fair an as a collective we should be getting behind this and then hopefully government will listen and put this in as part of the Equalities Act.”

Data has shown people with care experience are more likely to face greater life difficulties.

According to research from children’s charity Barnados, four in 10 young people with care experience are not in education, training, or employment compared to one in 10 for young people without care experience.

The authority joins 78 councils across the country which have adopted the care leavers protected characteristic motion.

But Medway Council is the first local authority to do so in Kent, and the ambition of councils up and down the county enacting this policy is to have the characteristic put into law.

In 2022, the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care recommended that care experience should be enshrined in law as a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010 - but this move was rejected by the previous Conservative government.

Medway Council’s proposal was first suggested in a motion presented at full council in April which received cross-party support.

It then went through the overview and scrutiny committees for consideration before being referred to cabinet on July 9 who recommended it for approval.

The proposal received unanimous support from all parties and was approved.

Medway Council currently has 167 young people with care experience currently accessing the authority’s children’s service and 475 children in care.

In the report presented it says there may be a financial cost to the move if the council’s adult services offer to act as mentors for all people who have been in the care system, however no specific cost estimations are given.