The Office of the Children’s Commissioner for England laid its annual report and accounts for the period April 2024 to March 2025 before Parliament on Tuesday 15th July. Here, the Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza introduces these accounts, a summary of project work, impact and financial activity for the financial year.
This has been another significant year for the Children’s Commissioner’s office (CCo) — a year that placed children’s voices at the heart of national debate and policymaking, while continuing to champion their rights and needs with ambition and passion.
As I begin my fifth and penultimate year as Children’s Commissioner, I remain as determined as ever to deliver on my mission: to make England the best place in the world to grow up. That starts with listening to children — and this year, we have done that at scale and in depth.
The Big Ambition, my nationwide consultation designed to capture children’s voices ahead of the General Election, was the largest of its kind in recent memory, capturing the views of over 370,000 children. Its findings have shaped every part of our work this year, acting as the golden thread running through all my projects, with a particular focus on listening to children.
My youth participation programme has expanded at every level, across every aspect of our work. My first group of Youth Ambassadors brought their ideas and experiences to meetings with ministers, roundtables with experts and huge conference audiences. I was proud to appoint our second cohort of Ambassadors in January; 17 outstanding young people who joined our first ever Festival of Childhood: Our Future Our Voice, a youth-led conference convening children and adult decision-makers from across the country. This Festival will now become an annual fixture, a new space to hear directly from children on the issues affecting their lives and shape national priorities together.
Participation has deepened and diversified — with a new Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Panel, continued input from our Care Experienced Advisory Board, and the launch of The Big Conversation, a new platform for direct discussion between the Commissioner and children in England through podcasts and surveys.
Over the course of the year, I have heard directly from children in custody, in care, in school, in hospital, and at home — through nearly 100 different visits and multiple research projects around England. Their voices have been amplified through digital campaigns like 100 Voices for 100 Days, setting their agenda for those crucial first 100 days of the new government and working in partnership with organisations like BookTrust, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, First News, Sky FYI, Young V&A, Unicorn Theatre, Youth Sport Trust and many more.
In October I launched a practical guide for Higher Education institutions to better support young care leavers going on to university, using input and ideas from my Care Experienced Advisory Board, in collaboration with the John Lewis Partnership with an event at its Waitrose Cookery School. It was a real celebration of young people’s voices and the brilliant, bold ideas they bring to the table, with the Children’s Minister also in attendance to hear from them.
I’ve also used my statutory powers with purpose: investigating the care market to reveal the inefficiencies and injustices in how vulnerable children are supported, as well as the enormous cost to the taxpayer for poor quality care, and capturing data from more than 90% of schools in England through my School and College Survey to get the most comprehensive picture yet of how today’s education system goes beyond its traditional role to provide care and support to its children. The survey was the first time I have used by data powers with schools and the insights gathered will shape our work in 2025–26 and beyond.
Help at Hand, my advocacy service, remains a vital lifeline. This year, we received more than 1,000 new referrals — each one a child needing support, and each one a reminder of why this role matters. From children in unsafe or unsuitable care placements to those navigating homelessness or immigration systems, the small team of child’s rights experts who run Help at Hand has offered help where it is most urgently needed, while highlighting the system-wide changes required to prevent such cases in the future.
I’ve also worked closely with government, Parliament, and regulators to influence the policies that shape children’s lives, establishing solid working relationships with a new ministerial team and new MPs after July’s General Election and building on existing ones with those returning to Westminster. From pushing for ambitious change through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, to advocating for reforms on policing, migration and youth justice, we’ve used evidence and children’s voices to shape better, fairer outcomes. I continue to work with Ofcom to drive the strongest possible protections for children online – this will remain a priority in 2025-26. And our international collaborations, through the British and Irish Network of Ombudsman and Children’s Commissioners (BINOCC) and our global citizenship work, have taken inspiration from overseas best practice on safety, justice and protecting the sanctity of childhood.
Importantly, despite a busy and ambitious programme of work my team has remained agile in response to emerging challenges — from exploring why so many children became involved in the shocking riots that followed the murders of Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King and Alice Dasilva Aguiar in Southport, to pushing for definitive systemic and legal change in response to the unspeakable abuse and murder of Sara Sharif in Surrey.
In these moments, an independent Children’s Commissioner must speak up, stand by children, and advocate for change in their lives — it is my responsibility and my privilege to do just that.
The past year has also been a moment to reflect on progress. Two-thirds of the way through my term, I am proud of what we have achieved: a clearer national picture of childhood and a greater public awareness of the risks children face; new and evolving ways to engage directly with children; a growing digital presence and an effective campaign to influence mainstream media headlines; a comprehensive evidence base from school and college leaders on the many new ways in which they support children and communities; legislation progressing through Parliament that will introduce a unique identifier for every child and a register of children not attending school – the strengthened systems of accountability for which I have called since 2021; and, above all, a louder voice for children at every level of public life.
But our work is far from over. As we navigate a Parliament only one year into its session and a political chapter still emerging, my message remains clear: children must be at the centre of national life. Their ideas, their hopes, and their futures must shape the decisions we take today.
This report shows what is possible when we listen to children — and act with urgency and ambition on their behalf.