Carmen Howle

Carmen Howle has appeared in the show since 2010, protrayed by actor, Amy-Leigh Hickman. In one episode, Carmen's Mum appears to take her back. They meet a few times, and Carmen is seemigly warming to her Mum. But when Carmen meets her Mum for the second time, her Mum qutoes 'I'm supposed to be your mother. I mean, how could I do that to you?' as she left Carmen at home with only a packet of noodles to warm up. After a while, their conversation trails off, until Carmen's Mum asks Carmen if she would like to go with Spain with her. Carmen seemed delighted - but she later felt strained, would she rather stay at the Dumping Ground, or to go Spain with her Mum? She creeps to Frank's room in the middle of the night, where Liam, Frank and Johnny are playing cards and asks for their advice. She decides that she would be going to Spain.

The next day Carmen's Mum breaks the news to the care workers when she sees Carmen at the Dumping Ground. She then gets a call from her boyfriend Lee, and Carmen told her to 'just hang up' but Camen's Mum tells Lee about what she was going to be doing - because he'd be 'so jealous.' She then announces that she and Lee are going to get back together again, and he has already agreed that he would be willing to have Carmen in the house. She told Carmen that it would be a few more weeks until she could move in again. At this point, Carmen tells her to 'go away'. When Carmen's Mum goes, Tracy confronts her and says "Do you know what it's like being on the rotten edge of your selfish little games?" and her Carmen's mother replies, 'Selfish? Me?'Tracy replies "Your behaviour stinks. And so do you for putting Carmen through this. You went top Spain with your husband and dumped her. When he left you, you wanted your daughter back again. And what are you doing now? You've dumped her again." to what Carmen's Mum nearly replies "I know, I know, your so right Tracy-" "I don't wanna hear it. And bet Carmen doesn't either. So do us all a favour and shove off back to Spain, ADIOS!" in which point Carmen's Mum exits.

She is best friends with Lily, and is 11 in the first of TBR and 14 in the first series of The Dumping ground. In The Dumping Ground Episode 12, you see her passport which says that she was born in November 1999, which would mean that she turned 13 in November 2012. NB - Also, in episode 12, Carmen says to Esme that her Mum left her alone to go on holiday when Carmen was nine, and, being as her date of birth is November 1999, must mean that she had only been living at the Dumping Ground for a year in the first series of Tracy Beaker Returns. Lily must have come to The Dumping Ground after Carmen, because, in the first episode of Tracy Beaker Returns when Liam tries to get in through his bedroom window, Carmen knows who he is, but Lily doesn't. This doesn't make sense, because, in the second series of Tracy Beaker Returns, in Episode 11 Sapphire says that Lily's Dad had turned up  'a gazillon years later', when it would have actually only have been one year. Also, in series 3, it is mentioned that the last time Lily's Dad saw Poppy and Rosie they were babies, but actually they would have been three or four and five or six the last time he had seen them, and it would have only been between two and three years ago.

Carmen is medium-height with long brown hair and brown eyes and often wears a lot of make-up. She seems eager, kind and caring, but inpatient. Her favourite colour is pink. In episode 9 series 1 (A Day in the Past) of The Dumping Ground Johnny says she gets low marks in her grades and she can only ever be a cleaner.