Free Hybrid Seminar – The ‘Human Rights Issue of our Time:’ Arguing Discrimination Against Care Leavers in Court

This seminar will highlight the discrimination faced by care-experienced people and how legal practitioners can bring Article 14 HRA (in conjunction with Article 8) legal challenges in the face of this discrimination. . The event will cover the ways in which care-experienced people are discriminated against both directly and indirectly, as well as by not being treated differently when they ought to be (Thlimmenous discrimination).

Lucy Barnes will speak on the importance of challenging the discrimination of care-experienced people and the urgency and need for these legal challenges to help her care-experienced community. Nicola Braganza KC will speak on her experience of bringing these legal challenges. Kate Aubrey-Johnson will speak on direct examples of discrimination from her experience in the criminal courts and Amanda Meusz of her direct experience of discrimination in the family courts. Kathy Evans from NYAS will then speak on how, in tandem with legal strategy, a human rights culture approach for care-experienced people is integral to achieving this cultural shift. We will hear multiple anecdotes of lived experience, showing to practitioners the types of cases ripe for challenge. Terry Galloway will be adding to the conversation on discrimination in relation to the stigma, as well as speaking on his campaign to make care experience a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010.

Speakers

Nicola Braganza KC, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Nicola is recognised as a leading barrister specialising in Equality and Discrimination Law, Public Law and Human Rights. Her broad practice spans the areas of Employment, Education, Community Care, Immigration and Asylum Law. She has considerable experience in bringing complex and large-scale challenges against the state, including civil claims for damages on behalf of individuals and groups. She has particular expertise in representing highly vulnerable adults and children, including victims of trafficking and modern slavery, and those held in immigration detention. She also sits as a fee-paid Judge in the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) and in the Employment Tribunal. Nicola is a member of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s preferred panel of counsel. She regularly provides training and workshops on Equality and Discrimination law and has been an invited speaker at the European Academy of Law on  EU Directives on Equality and Anti-Discrimination for many years.

Lucy Barnes, Lawyers Who Care
Lucy Barnes is a care-experienced Pupil Barrister at East Anglian Chambers. She is also a TEDx speaker, keynote speaker and advocate for social mobility and inclusion. She is passionate about bringing trauma-informed law to England and Wales, having passed a Scottish accreditation course in 2023. She most recently spoke on BBC4 Women’s Hour on CEP in higher education. Lucy wrote on care experience for the Bar Council in June 2024 titled ‘Raising the Bar: Care-experienced people belong here.’

Kate Aubrey-Johnson, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Kate is a youth justice specialist barrister and mediator at Garden Court Chambers with experience as a criminal defence practitioner and public lawyer. She is a convenor of the Garden Court Children’s Rights Team. Kate is co-author of the leading textbook Youth Justice Law and Practice (LAG, 2019), consultant editor for Halsbury’s Laws of England, Vol 27, Criminal Procedure (5th Edition) on proceedings involving children. She is a lead facilitator for a forthcoming Inns of Court College of Advocacy course for ‘Advocacy for Children in Conflict with the Law’ and she chairs the Ministry of Justice/Youth Justice Board’s Quality of Advocacy Working Group.

Amanda Meusz, Barrister, Garden Court Chambers
Amanda’s practice focuses on all areas of the law relating to children, including the provision of services to children and young people. She has extensive experience in public law matters and is regularly instructed in cases of the most serious and complex nature including cases involving fatalities, catastrophic injuries, poisoning, FII and sexual abuse. Amanda is often instructed in Deprivation of Liberty (DOLS) cases and other cases where the inherent jurisdiction is invoked, in particular those involving hospital trusts where medical treatment and/or end-of-life treatment and care are at issue. Amanda has undertaken extensive training on the impact of trauma and, in turn, regularly provides training on trauma-informed practice and how to best represent vulnerable clients.

Kathy Evans, National Youth Advocacy Service
Kathy Evans was appointed as NYAS Director of Policy and Influencing in March 2025, and is part of the charity’s senior management team, leading on, and supporting NYAS relationships with government, efforts to influence better policy and practice, and campaign for systems change with and for children and young people. Kathy is an experienced charity campaigner and policy specialist in the voluntary sector for children and young people, having worked in the sector for over 30 years. For the decade up to early 2024 she was the CEO of Children England, the national charity membership body for children’s voluntary organisations, in which NYAS was a high profile, active member. Her work at Children England included the pioneering youth-led ChildFair State Inquiry, in which young people researched and developed new policies to reform and improve the welfare state, successful campaigning to ban the private sector from child protection social work, and to challenge the ‘market’ approach to children’s services. She was Policy Director for The Children’s Society for a decade, having got into policy work after starting her career as a practitioner with young people in care, and particularly secure care. She has also held positions as Trustee of the Children’s Rights Alliance for England, Advisor to the Crown Representative for the Voluntary and Community Sector in the Cabinet Office, and a special adviser to the Independent Commission on  Youth Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour. Kathy was also named “Children and Young People’s Champion” in the 2018 Children and Young People Now Awards.

Terry Galloway, Norman Galloway Homes CIC
Terry Galloway is a care-experienced campaigner, entrepreneur and housing reformer, known nationally for championing the rights of care-experienced people. He is currently driving the campaign behind making Care Experience a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, which has already seen over 100 UK councils pass motions of support. He is also the founder and CEO of Norman Galloway Homes CIC, pioneering innovative supported accommodation services for care leavers. He is also co-founder of the Care Leaver Offer. Terry has played a pivotal role in forming the first cross-party group in Parliament comprised of care-experienced people and MPs. Terry is a trustee of NYAS and the Gold From the Stone Foundation. A two-time organiser of the Coach Convoy to Alton Towers for children in care and care leavers, Terry was recently named one of The Big Issue’s Top 100 UK Changemakers of 2025.

Reserve your in-person or online ticket
In-person tickets are limited by the venue’s capacity. After you have completed the form, we will be back in touch to confirm whether a place is available at the event.

If you have booked an online ticket, we will send joining details to all those who have signed up on the day of the event. Please check your junk inbox if you have not received the link by Thursday 17th July. If you have not received the link by 3pm on Thursday 17th July, and it is not in your junk inbox, please email webinars@gclaw.co.uk.