This week, as hearings for Module 8 of the Covid Inquiry begin, we are reminded once again of the profound and lasting impact the pandemic has had on children’s lives. The Inquiry provides an opportunity to reflect not only on what happened, but also on how we can rebuild: ensuring that the legacy of Covid is a renewed focus on children’s wellbeing, safety, and education.
The truth is, Covid, the accompanying lockdowns and the fracture of wider support services for children, have fundamentally changed the nature of childhood in England. The medicalisation of normal experiences, the increasing tide of mental health challenges, fuelled in part by the increased use and misuse of social media and technology, is a case in point. We cannot attempt to do the same things that worked before 2020. We need to redouble our efforts and commitment to delivering for children.
We talk often of left behind places, but we have left a generation behind. And our response to that is to tell them there is something wrong with them. They’re disordered. They’re the problem. If we want to avoid the disenfranchisement, the polarisation, we’ve got to show children and young people that we can do better. We can deliver. We can keep our promises. We have to give them hope, not give them labels.
When I began my term as Children’s Commissioner in March 2021, I had spent the preceding year of Covid running schools. Spending my days with children. And that’s why I knew the fracture had happened. That more of the same was not enough. That while we had made huge strides towards improving some children’s lives, it had not extended to those children who needed it most. So that meant that recovery from Covid-19 was the unavoidable starting point for my work. Having led a multi-academy trust during the early stages of the pandemic, I saw first-hand how dramatically children’s lives were disrupted – from their education to their friendships, safety, and mental health. The daily rhythms of life that give children stability and joy throughout their childhoods were stripped away.
At that crucial moment, I wanted to hear directly from children themselves about what mattered most to them. It was evident during the pandemic that children’s voices were absent from the decisions that shaped their daily lives, so it became my mission to put their voices at the centre of my work.
In my very first month, we launched The Big Ask – the largest ever survey of children in England, completed by over 550,000 young people, who shared their experiences of lockdown – as well as their ideas and hopes for the future. The message was clear: children were ambitious and full of practical ideas, but they needed to be heard by the adults around them. It became evident through children’s responses just how much they had missed out on the everyday experiences of childhood during lockdowns – with “play” emerging as one of the most frequently used words.
Two years later, with a general election on the horizon, I returned to children once again with The Big Ambition. This time, 367,000 children, parents and carers engaged with the survey, including thousands of children with additional needs, children in care, and those in secure or hospital settings.
Taken together, these surveys – alongside countless visits, focus groups, and advisory panels – mean that I have heard from a million children since becoming Commissioner. Their voices have shaped, and continue to shape, all my work – and all my representations to government.
Children have been clear that the pandemic was a period of profound disruption to their lives. School closures in 2020 and 2021 meant the loss of 575 million school days, widening the attainment gap and leaving many children struggling to re-engage with education once schools reopened.
And despite the efforts of brilliant teachers, schools and parents, we are still dealing with the consequences of the lockdowns today. In Autumn last year, 1.28 million children were persistently absent from school. But school is not just a place of learning – for vulnerable children, being away from school can also mean being invisible to professionals who keep them safe. With children out of school during lockdowns, vital safeguarding opportunities were lost at precisely the time some children most needed increased protection from neglect or abuse. And with one in 50 children continuing to miss at least half of school, the role of schools as a protective factor cannot be over-emphasised.
Unsurprisingly, children have shared how the pandemic and lockdown increased feelings of isolation and loneliness. Routines ended overnight, social lives were curtailed, and more time than ever was spent online – at a moment when protections were not yet in place to keep children safe.
For some, family life provided stability, resilience, and even moments of joy. But for many others, the impact of Covid and lockdowns was devastating. Mental health conditions among children and young people rose sharply: from one in eight in 2017 with a probable mental health condition to one in five by 2023. The sudden loss of familiar routines, isolation from friends and wider family networks and the uncertainty about the future left many children struggling to return to the lives they once knew. In the years that have followed the Covid lockdowns, demand for mental health support has far outstripped supply – with nearly one million referrals to Children and Adolescent Mental Heath Services (CAMHS) in 2023-24 alone.
Children from low-income families, ethnic minority backgrounds, or those with additional needs were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. Government schemes to improve access to remote learning for those without devices at home only tackled around 40% of the estimated 1.78 million children impacted.
Despite these challenges, it is clear that today’s children are not a cynical generation. The Big Ask, and later The Big Ambition, showed us that children are solution focused and brimming with brilliant ideas. They witnessed first-hand during the pandemic how dramatically government action can change lives. That inspired a belief in many that decision makers can and should act to make things better. Yet -only 20% of children told us that they felt their voices are listened to by those in power.
That must change. If one lesson is to be learned from Covid, it is that decisions affecting children cannot be made without them. Their experiences and aspirations must be heard directly, not filtered second-hand. This is why I have launched a number of ways children can share their views with me, including The Big Conversation.
The evidence my office has submitted to the Covid Inquiry set out these impacts in detail: the disruption to education, the safeguarding risks, the crisis in children’s mental health, and the long shadow cast on attendance.
But our job now is not to look back at decisions made at the time – it is to look ahead with a renewed determination to rebuild.
As I have set out recently in The Children’s Plan, schools must remain central to children’s lives. They are trusted, protective spaces, picking up the pieces when wider services in children’s lives have been stretched too thin. But schools cannot do everything alone. The next wave of reform must invest in the wider services that surround children and families: early help, social care, mental health support, and community provision. Parents, too, must be supported – because family, as my Family Review showed, is one of the strongest protective factors in any child’s life.
For children and families seeking support with additional needs, we need to move away from the adversarial systems that pit parents against services – where families have to face tribunals to unlock the vital support their children need. Instead, we must build collaborative approaches that put children’s needs first.
The legacy of Covid for children must not simply be a story of loss. It must also be an impetus for change. We must grip the attendance crisis with urgency, invest in children’s mental health, and rebuild the services around families – only then can we ensure every child has the opportunity to truly thrive.
Above all, we must listen to children. My work has shown the richness and clarity of their voices: ambitious, hopeful, and determined. The best and only way to honour their experiences of the pandemic is to put those voices at the heart of decision making, and to commit ourselves, with seriousness and urgency, to making this the best country in the world for a child to grow up.
