Skip to content

Over a quarter of a million children still waiting for mental health support

15 March 2024

Shocking new statistics show that more than a quarter of a million (270,300) children and young people are still waiting for mental health support after being referred to Children and Young People’s Mental Health Services (CYPMHS) in 2022-23, the Children’s Commissioner for England has revealed today. New figures sourced from NHS England using the Children’s […]

News

Children’s mental health services 2022-23

14 March 2024

Since I came into post in 2021, I have spoken to over a million children and young people across the country. The vast majority of children are happy, and feel supported by their family, school and wider community. However, there is a growing group of children who are struggling with their mental health. This generation […]

Report

Tips on how to help a young carer, from a young carer

13 March 2024

As Children’s Commissioner it is my mission to make England the best country for children to grow up. This means the ambitions of every child must be matched with the support they need around them to help them succeed.  I am determined that we achieve this vision for all children especially young carers as we […]

News

The Big Ambition for Children’s Social Care, reflections from a care leaver

11 March 2024

Today I am sharing a blog post written by a care leaver in my team. Benita wanted to share some thoughts after attending The Big Ambition for Children’s Social Care roundtable. A few weeks ago the Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza co-hosted The Big Ambition for Children’s Social Care with her recently appointed Ambassadors. […]

News

‘Inspire Inclusion’ – International Women’s Day 2024

8 March 2024

A Better World. That’s one of the founding pillars of my work as Children’s Commissioner, ever since launching the Big Ask three years ago. Thousands of children have told me they want a safer, fairer, more inclusive world for themselves and their families and friends – and I am continually impressed by their efforts to […]

News

Urgent change is needed in England’s young offenders institutions, says Children’s Commissioner

7 March 2024

I am both shocked and appalled by the details in Chief Inspector of Prisons Charlie Taylor’s report yesterday about a girl in a young offender institution (YOI) who had her clothes removed twice under restraint, by an all-male team of prison officers.  The same inspection report that failed Wetherby on the grounds of safety and […]

News

Statement from the Children’s Commissioner on strip searching of young offenders

5 March 2024

In response to findings of intrusive and traumatic strip searching of girls living at Wetherby Young Offenders Institute by HMI Prisons, Children’s Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza said: “As Children’s Commissioner, I am appalled by the findings in HMIP’s report. Strip searching is an intrusive and potentially traumatic power, as I’ve shown in […]

News

Children on Child in Need Plans: Huge regional variation uncovered for some of England’s most vulnerable children

As Children’s Commissioner, I have a statutory duty to promote and protect the rights of all children, but to have particular regard to children who are living away from home or receiving social care services. Children’s social care works with children who cannot live at home and who are taken into care, children at risk […]

News

Huge regional variation in support from children’s social services for some of England’s most vulnerable children  

Over 100,000 of England’s most vulnerable children who are on social service plans are getting a postcode lottery of support with huge regional variations dictating the level of protection they get, previously unseen data from the Children’s Commissioner has revealed.  In worst case scenarios, these inconsistencies and lack of consistent early intervention can prevent children […]

Report

New statistics show a huge increase in the number of children completely missing education

29 February 2024

Almost 120,000 children of compulsory school age were recorded as missing education at some point in 2022/23 which is up by almost 25% from the year before, according to new statistics published today. The figures from the Department of Education also showed a surge in the number of children home educated in the same year. […]

News

Auditory Verbal therapy: supporting deaf children to thrive at school and beyond

28 February 2024

Anita Grover, Chief Executive at Auditory Verbal UK Meet 11-year-old Louis from Cambridge. His parents were first told he had hearing loss at 18 months old. They wanted to do everything they could to ensure he had the same opportunities in life as hearing children. Keen for Louis to learn to listen and talk, they […]

News

The Big Ambition for Online roundtable: reflections from youth Ambassadors 

27 February 2024

As part of The Big Ambition, I co-hosted the latest roundtable with some of my recently appointed Ambassadors focusing on online safety. The roundtable brought together representatives from Google, Meta, TikTok, Ukie – the UK video games trade body – and X to discuss the theme: “What more could platforms do to keep children safe […]

News

Archived Content

Pass the parcel: children posted around the care system

24 December 2019

“I feel like a parcel getting moved around all the time, getting opened up and sent back and moved on to somewhere else.” Teenage girl, in care over 100 miles from home There are over 30,000 looked after children living ‘out of area’ in England. This is 41% of all children in care and has […]

Report
Teenager walking with backpack

Thousands of children in care passed around the system like parcels and living miles away from family and friends

Shining a light on the experiences of children in care who are moved ‘out of area’ – away from their home boroughs where family and friends live.

News
Teenager walking with backpack

Receive our vacancies by email

29 November 2019

Sign up to receive our latest vacancies by email We will send you an email each Friday if we publish any new vacancies during that week. If we don’t publish any new vacancies, you won’t get an email. Email address Email preferences As well as receiving our latest vacancies, you can also receive our regular […]

Page

Marking 30 years of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child with call on political parties to put the spotlight on children during election campaign

5 November 2019

Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, is calling on the political parties fighting the General Election to put the spotlight on children’s issues, as she joins the Children’s Commissioners for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, in publishing an assessment of the UK’s progress on children’s rights. This month marks the 30th anniversary of the UN […]

News

UK Children’s Commissioners’ UNCRC mid-term review

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, a landmark agreement by governments around the world on the rights of children. As Children’s Commissioners it is central to our mission to make sure that those rights are made a reality for all children. The United Nations […]

Report

Response to the Home and Foreign Secretaries regarding British children in Syria

Earlier this year Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, wrote to the Home Secretary and Foreign Secretary regarding the safety and welfare of British children who have become involved in the conflict in Syria. The following is the Children Commissioner for England’s latest response to Dominic Raab, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Office […]

News

Nurture with nature: Why environmental engagement is imperative for children

4 November 2019

We know that the health of the environment is one of children’s greatest concerns, as outlined in Issue 1 of our Children’s Insights reports. The word ‘environment’ is likely to stir a very different reaction amongst children than it used to. Many children face the incompatible situation of a lifestyle divorced from nature, and mounting […]

News
Girl in park

EU children in Britain

29 October 2019

This page was published in 2019 and may contain out of date information.  Know your rights to stay 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 […]

Report
Union flag and EU flag

Children’s insights

This is the first issue in our regular series of insights into the views and experiences of children in England.

Report

Changes to gambling laws needed as our report into online gaming reveals children’s gambling fears

22 October 2019

Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, has published a report, “Gaming the system’’ which looks at the experiences of children who play games online. The Children’s Commissioner’s Office commissioned the research company Revealing Reality to speak to groups of children who play online games like FIFA, Fortnite and Roblox about what they love and what […]

News