On June 3rd 2025, Reform’s Councillor Andy Osborn (Roman Bank and Peckover division) stated that Looked After Children were "not just naughty children, they can be downright evil" during a Children and Young People Committee at Cambridgeshire County Council. On June 6th, following national backlash, it was reported he was removed from his committee role. However, Cllr Osborn currently remains a Cambridgeshire County Councillor. 

Under the Social Work Act 2017, all Councillors are legally the Corporate Parents of Looked After Children and Care Leavers, which the Local Government Association's Corporate Parenting Resource Pack refers to as "one of the most important jobs." The resource pack goes on to state "[e]very councillor and officer within a council has a responsibility to act for those children and young people as a parent would for their own child."

Cambridgeshire County Council has additionally passed the motion to act as though being Care Experienced is a Protected Characteristic. 

Looked After Children and Care Leavers are amongst the most vulnerable in our society, with the Independent Review of Children's Social Care describing "[t]he disadvantage faced by the care-experienced community should be the civil rights issue of our time. Children in care are powerless, are often invisible, and they face some of the greatest inequalities that exist in England today." We face considerably worse life outcomes than our non-Care-Experienced peers across all areas of life; 41% of Care Leavers aged 19-21 are out of education, employment and training, only 13% of Care Leavers attend higher education by their 19th birthday, only 22% of Care Leavers aged 27 are employed and those that are have an average pay gap of £6,000, 1 in 5 Care Leavers report feeling lonely always or most of the time, 45% of Looked After Children have a mental illness, Care Experienced people are 4-5 times more likely to attempt suicide into adulthood, 25% of England’s homeless population are Care Experienced, a third of Care Leavers become homeless within the first two years of leaving Care, 25% of prisoners were Care Experienced of any age over 18 and 16% of this number reported having had more than 6 placements whilst in Care and Care Experienced people are 360% more likely to die prematurely and more likely to die of unnatural causes such as violent deaths, suicide and accidents. 

We believe Cllr Osborn may have breached 10.2 of the code of conduct by bringing Cambridgeshire County Council into disrepute amongst the general public and amongst children for whom the Council has corporate parenting responsibilities; 3.3 of the code by not treating at least some looked after children with respect by calling them evil; and 3.4 by failing to exercise reasonable care and diligence in his remarks to the extent that he had to be corrected by Mr Purbrick. We also believe Cllr Osborn’s comments breach Principle 3 (objectivity) of the Nolan Principles, which councillors are required to uphold. We believe Cllr Osborn demonstrated a blatant bias against care-experienced people, and that should disqualify him from holding any decision-making role that affects our lives.

Ultimately, we believe that Cllr Osborn has proved himself to be an unfit Corporate Parent to Looked After Children and Care Leavers; society’s most vulnerable, and therefore unfit to be a councillor. Cllr Osborn owes it to his Corporate Children to apologise and resign.