In Care Home Kids: Looking for Love (BBC3), Ashley John-Baptiste set out to discover what was missing from the system, talking with children and young people in care and revisiting his own past. Ashley himself had been placed in care as a two year-old and had several foster homes.

He tells his own story interlinked with the stories of some of the other 80,000 children and young people growing up in the care system with no chance of adoption and no permanent home. He said: "The truth is many foster kids are not okay. Many foster kids my age and older are still battling with the demons from when they were five years old."

Tim Dowling in the Guardian said: "John-Baptiste makes for an ideal mentor, a shining exception in a system that sometimes resembles a continuum of incarceration, designed to deliver young people into prison. He clearly cared about the kids he encountered and delivered a lot of forthright, practical advice." Ashley focuses on the importance of stability and the power of education to transform life chances.

A musician and songwriter, Ashley was a contestant on the X-Factor after leaving Fitzwilliam.

Care Home Kinds: Looking for Love was broadcast on BBC3 on 23 July 2012, and is available on BBC iPlayer. (Please note: the programme will be available for a limited time only.)

Posted: 30 July 2012