Hello, my name's Liam and I am 19. I want
to tell my story so that I can show that
people's idea of teenagers in care isn't
always right.
Despite what people think, kids don’t always come into care
because they are bad. In fact, in my experience, care is what
happens to kids whose parents aren’t up to the job.
I have never met my mum. She left my dad when I was very
young. To be honest, I don’t really know what happened. She
was very young when she had me – she was only 18 – and she
suffered from mental health problems.
A long stretch
My dad brought me up for the first few years of my life, but
when I was six he got into trouble with the police and ended
up going to jail. I don’t really want to go into the details, but
he got quite a long sentence which meant that I was put into a
long-term foster placement.
Even though I found it really difficult to begin with, I think care
was a positive experience for me. I was placed with really nice
carers and they looked after me for the whole time I was in
care. They are still there for me now, even though I’m living in
my own place.
15