麻豆约拍

Is it a good thing that we're taking more children into care?

Last year social workers applied to take 320 children away from their parents - compared to only 89 children in 2008. Are these children lucky or unlucky? If you grew up in care you can probably answer that question. Was it the best thing or worst thing that ever happened to you?

Did you grow up in a children's home or in foster care - maybe you eventually got a new family? Did care work for you or did it ruin your life? Can you have a normal childhood in care?

Nationally up to 10,000 children are predicted to be placed in care this year.
Last year just 15% of children who had been in care for at least a year left school with five GCSEs grades A*-C, or , compared with 70% of all children.

The Who Cares Trust which tries to improve the lives of children in care did an interesting study this year - about how children and young adults leaving the care system feel - a quarter said they thought their lives were worse than they would have been because they were taken into care.

Do you look after children who are not your own? As a foster carer, or a grandparent or aunt or uncle - why do you do it - what is it like to turn a child's life around?

Do you feel that you have been ripped off by your dentist?

The Office of Fair Trading says half a million people every year are paying for private dental treatment after being told - wrongly - that they cannot have the work done on the NHS. The consumer watchdog suggests dentists are keeping back information about prices and in some cases misleading patients into choosing expensive private treatment.

We speak to David Cocker, spokesperson for the British Dental Association.

We hear your views and stories.

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