Interview: Ashley John-Baptiste, BBC journalist and presenter

As a BBC broadcast journalist, Ashley John-Baptiste has become a household name, working as a presenter on The One Show and hosting documentaries including Being Black at Cambridge.

Baptiste has also been vocal about his time growing up in care, creating a documentary in 2022 titled Split Up in Care - Life Without Siblings, where he discovered he had half-siblings – despite being told by social workers growing up that he didn’t.

Most recently, he has released a book about his care experience, titled Looked After, published by Hodder, which documents his experience within the care system. Alongside this, he has worked on an investigation with BBC News & File on 4 into the rising use of deprivation of liberty orders.

What inspired you to write Looked After?

My documentary Split Up in Care - Life Without Siblings led to me meeting one of my siblings for the first time, and sparked a curiosity about how children in care are supported in their sibling relationships. I realised many siblings were estranged from each other in the care system, and the documentary led to the opportunity for me to write a book about my time in care. The book is a memoir, but in my head it isn’t. It’s more than me shining a light on myself – it’s shining a light on the care system. I’m not making a political point, but by talking about my experience readers can make up their own minds about the care system.

What was your experience in care like?

I was moved five times, living in four different foster homes and a residential care home. For a long time, I didn’t have aspirations, and was dealing with the trauma of navigating the care system, feeling rejection and not knowing my birth family. You’re not taught the skills to navigate these emotions while being a kid at school. I was fortunate to succeed in my GCSEs and got an offer to study history at the University of Cambridge. I think it’s important to highlight the fact that it’s possible as a looked-after child, if you’ve got the ability, to go to Oxbridge or an elite or high-performing university. When you look at me there is this narrative of accomplishment, but that is only really scratching the surface. While getting ready to leave university, I was getting ready to leave care, budget, and co-operate with my local authority and social services.

Why is it important for you to share your story?

A lot of people don’t know what it’s like to be a looked-after child. So, Looked After is for people who don’t know about the care system. I didn’t want it to be an inaccessible policy book. It’s a very human story – it’s my story. It’s representing a community of children, though I don’t claim to represent the whole community. It’s very rare for a mainstream publisher to publish a book about the care system, written by someone who is looked after. I do think that any care-experienced person who tells their story uplifts others from that walk of life.

While writing the book, my family and the BBC were very supportive. I didn’t give myself a deadline as I wanted to write authentically. I tried to forget about publishing or audiences, and almost found my inner child again while writing. It was a nine-month writing process, and I focused on particular moments that I felt comfortable writing about and gave myself permission to take space if I wrote about something traumatic.

What changes need to be made to the care system?

I don’t think anyone would disagree there are inadequacies in the care system. I find a lot of people currently navigating the system go through what I went through in my teens. We’ve had the Care Review, which is now two years old, and had some clear recommendations, including that the sector needs billions in order to be adequate. That still hasn’t materialised. Josh MacAlister also called for more foster carers, and there still aren’t enough in England and Wales. The cost-of-living crisis has also put a strain on children’s services across all local authorities. Hopefully, we can see a care system where the opportunity for looked-after children to have consistent adult relationships rooted in love becomes more prominent and is more normalised. I often wonder how I would deal with leaving the care system now as an 18-year-old – it was tough for me over a decade ago, and I can’t imagine what it would be like now with the current climate we’re in politically, economically, and socially.

What did your deprivation of liberty orders investigation reveal?

I spoke to six young people who have had experience of being deprived of their liberty, where they’ve been detained in care homes or controversial unregulated accommodation in a bid to keep them safe. But there’s concern about how restrictive these orders are. The children I interviewed said they were worse off because of these orders, often being placed far away from their families with little internet or phone access.

What are the next steps following the investigation?

The use of these orders has increased twelve-fold in the past five or six years, and it is alarming children’s social care leaders. The Children’s Commissioner for England, Rachel de Souza, has said that therapeutic care homes are the right alternative. A lot of leads have come from this story, so hopefully there will be other things to look at. I’m happy I can use my lived experience in such a profound way and have an interaction with the communities that I come from.