The Big Ambition for Children’s Social Care
Children in care and those receiving support from children’s social care share the same hopes and dreams as their peers: they want to be supported to reach their aspirations in the same way as any other children. Like all children, they want a loving, stable home, a brilliant education and grown-ups who love them into […]
Child victims’ access to advocacy
In a world designed by – and mainly for – adults, children’s voices are very often not heard. It is for this reason that the role of the Children’s Commissioner was established in 2004 – to ensure children’s needs and best interests are advocated for at a national level. The Children Act 2004 gives the […]
Thousands of child abuse victims forced to navigate criminal justice system without support
Thousands of child victims of domestic or sexual abuse are being forced to navigate complicated and often traumatic criminal justice processes alone, without being offered specialist support. New figures from the Children’s Commissioner for England show that the vast majority (92%)[1] of cases involving child victims of sexual violence or domestic abuse are receiving no […]
The Big Ambition for Education
As Children’s Commissioner, I have spoken to hundreds of thousands of children, parents, and carers, hearing about their experiences of school, and the barriers that sometimes prevent them from getting a good education. After a period where schools were closed for most children, children and young people repeatedly spoke about their desire to return to […]
Deputy Director, Projects and Delivery
Salary: Grade 6, from £68,743 per annum Hours: Full-time Do you want to make a tangible difference to the lives of children across England? Can you use your skills to be a catalyst for creating meaningful change? Are you ready to join a committed team dedicated to giving children and young people a voice on […]
The Big Ambition for Health
The physical and mental health of our children and young people is of paramount importance as it lays the foundation for their overall wellbeing and sets them up for future success. As Children’s Commissioner, I want all children to grow up feeling happy, healthy and well, with access to support quickly and locally when they […]
Policy Adviser
Salary: HEO £35,733 – £39,369 per annum Hours: Full-time Do you want to make a tangible difference to the lives of children across England? Can you use your skills to be a catalyst for creating meaningful change? Are you ready to join a committed team dedicated to giving children and young people a voice on […]
Policy Adviser (FTC)
Salary: HEO £35,733 – £39,369 per annum Hours: Full-time Do you want to make a tangible difference to the lives of children across England? Can you use your skills to be a catalyst for creating meaningful change? Are you ready to join a committed team dedicated to giving children and young people a voice on […]
The Big Ambition for Families
Family is central to all of our lives, particularly children. The concept of family comes in many forms. For nearly every child we’ve spoken to it includes people outside of our traditional ‘immediate family’. This is an important distinction – because it isn’t how a family is made up that makes the biggest difference, it’s […]
The Big Ambition: Children’s views on school
As a headteacher and former trust leader, with over 30 years of experience in education, I have proudly been involved in the movement to raise standards in schools and to improve the educational outcomes for children across England. I have seen how children’s lives have been transformed by the improvements to schools over the last […]
The Big Ambition and quality family time
“To make children’s lives better they should make sure every child has a place to call home and parents who love and care for them.” Over the three years the Children’s Commissioner has heard from a million children, parents and carers, exploring how they experience family life. In The Big Ask the vast majority – […]
Business Plan 2024-25: a critical year for children’s rights
I am now half-way through my term as Children’s Commissioner, and this coming year will be a critical juncture for children’s rights. There will be a general election, and a new government – whichever party or parties form it – will have a new mandate to set out an ambitious vision for what childhood can […]
Archived Content
Gaming the system
The overwhelming majority of children (93 percent) in the UK play video games. Yet despite its popularity, the culture of ‘gaming’- its rules and its rituals, the varying profiles of players, the risks they face – tends to be spoken of by adults, whether they be policymakers or parents, as if it were an alien […]
The state of child poverty and how we can tackle it
On the United Nations Day for Poverty Eradication we should never fail to be shocked that we are talking about child poverty when are one of the wealthiest countries on earth. Yet as all of us here know, the number of children living in poverty has been steadily increasing in recent years. There are around […]
EU children in Britain
If you are an EU citizen living in Britain, Brexit will affect your rights. This means you will need to apply for what the Government calls ‘settled status’ in Britain. What is settled status? Settled status is a special immigration category for EU nationals who have made Britain their home. Once you have settled status […]
Children’s Commissioner for England response to CQC report on the state of care
Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, responding to the CQC annual report into the state of care
Almost one in five children left education at 18 last year without basic qualifications
Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, has published research looking at the number of children who leave the education system at 18 without reaching Level 2 attainment (five GCSEs grade A* to C, or equivalent technical qualifications). These are children who will have spent 14 years in compulsory education, often having more than £100,000 of […]
Children’s manifesto calls on political parties to back six pledges to transform life chances for all kids
Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, has published ‘Guess How Much We Love You: A Manifesto for Children’ ahead of any upcoming General Election.
A Manifesto for Children
The manifesto, published ahead of any upcoming General Election, calls on Britain’s political parties to include a six-point plan in their election manifestos to transform the life chances for disadvantaged children and to help all of England’s 12 million children to thrive. The manifesto sets out some of the key issues that children have told […]
Anne Longfield responds to Government Spending Review
Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, responding to the Government’s Spending Review
Children’s experiences of online harm and what they want to do about it
In April this year the Government set out their plans for a world-first: a system of regulations that they argue will make the UK ‘the safest place in the world to be online’. The Online Harms White Paper, produced in collaboration between the Home Office and Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), maps out […]
Bleak houses
Tackling the crisis of family homelessness in England