I was abandoned twice as a baby - children in care deserve more

When Sarah Cooper-Lesadd was just a tiny baby, she lost her mum to postpartum psychosis.

At six months, her dad gave her up and she was put into care.

"Before I was old enough to understand the world, I'd already been let go of twice," said Cooper-Lesadd, who went on to be adopted when she was seven and is now a Reform MS.

She has tabled a Senedd debate calling for looked-after children in Wales to have the same protections as in England - but the Welsh government argued the law already goes further.

In a speech in the Senedd last week, Cooper-Lesadd said she had grieved her mum for her entire life despite never knowing her.

"I have two photographs, and never once heard her voice," she said.

Cooper-Lesadd said her mum "fell through every gap the system had, and the highest price was paid by her and by a three-week-old baby, me, who entered care because the mother who loved her could not be saved".

Cooper-Lessad fell behind at school while in care, but was adopted aged seven.

"I grew up housed in a family yet always somehow a guest in it, tolerated more than wanted, my place forever something I had to earn and feared I could lose," said the MS for Pen-y-bont Bro Morgannwg.

"Adoption did not end my trauma, it gave it a new shape."

She acknowledged many people helped her to become the person she is today, saying: "I do not stand here as someone who has failed, because others did not fail me."

She grew up in Newport and went on to study at Cambridge University and worked in the civil service before being elected for Reform UK.

"Along the way there were people, a family friend, teachers, others who simply took the time to listen, who saw past the file to the person and showed me that the world was wider than the one I'd been given," Cooper-Lesadd told BBC Politics Wales ahead of her debate motion calling for laws protecting children in care to be strengthened.

"We have a moral obligation in society to tell care leavers we care about them enough to give them those iron-clad protections that someone who would be living with their birth family would get right through their lives."

In England the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 strengthened the obligations on public bodies to consider the needs of care-experienced children.

In Wales, only local authorities are legally considered "corporate parents" to those children, and the motion calls for more bodies, such as health boards, to take on that responsibility.

There is a voluntary charter that public bodies can sign up to, but there are no legal protections for young people if they fall short of that charter.

"Although 70 organisations have signed up and that's brilliant, actually there is nothing statutory embodied in law to actually say that this is this is what care leavers expect to receive when they leave care and when they're living in care," said Cooper-Lesadd.

Her proposals would mean, she said, that if a child in care turned up at A&E, the health board would be "obligated to have due regard to mitigating their disadvantage" and it would have to be "at the forefront of their mind" when considering ongoing treatment.

Crucially, she says, the child would have legal protections "if the health board doesn't live up to expectations".

"It's all very well and good having this voluntary charter, and that's amazing, but it leaves care leavers absolutely without any recourse to hold that body to account if they don't do the right thing," she said.

A spokesperson for the Welsh government said: "Government, key agencies and communities have a vital role in supporting care-experienced children navigate childhood and the transition to adulthood.

"We have a collective responsibility to ensure everyone is given a fair chance at life.

""The Corporate Parenting Charter in Wales has been developed with care-experienced young people. Unlike the legislation in England, it goes further - covering not just public sector bodies, but private and third sector organisations too."

Cooper-Lesadd claimed members of the opposition signed in support of her motion but then withdrew their signatures - and she suspected it was because it was from a Reform member.

"I found it absolutely astounding that the government didn't want to debate this idea," she said.

"This should transcend party politics but it's just been reduced to such a zero sum game and people can't get together on issues that would make the most vulnerable children in our society better off."

The debate takes place in the Senedd on Wednesday afternoon.