Sorry – a little bit late in the week to be writing this post, but better late than never, particularly with something so serious as housing for care leavers in the UK. Barnardo’s have have unveiled a spoof B&B website to highlight the terrible housing conditions facing young people leaving the care system in England and are launching the website to support ‘National Care Leaver’s Week’.
At first glance www.carebandb.org.uk looks like a glossy website for tourists booking desirable and comfortable B&B accommodation. However, visitors to the site soon see examples of the disgusting places some young people leaving care are placed in.
The intention is that their site urges people to support Barnardo’s Beyond Care campaign. They are urging campaigners to contact their local councillors to demand better conditions for the country’s care leavers in desperate need of a suitable roof over their head. Members of the public can bring the issue to the attention of their local councillor by simply entering their details on the site. An email will be then issued to their councillor from their own email address, via ‘Carebandb’.
The site will give a clear sense of the harsh reality facing these young people and they are asking supporters to help put pressure on local authorities to reduce use of B&Bs to emergency instances only. Figures previously gathered show that 51% of local authorities are placing care leavers in squalid B&B accommodations for long periods of time, against government guidelines.
Please can you help them by spreading the word further and sharing their posts and tweets?
