- On Monday the Children’s Commissioner publishes The Childhood Lottery, a new landmark dataset and interactive map, bringing together more than 160 measures to examine the challenges facing children in every area in England
- As England enters a new era of devolution, the Commissioner will use a speech to call on the government to ensure children’s outcomes and life chances are not determined by where they live
The Children’s Commissioner will name the hardest places to grow up in England and warn of a ‘state of emergency’ in some communities.
In a speech on Monday Dame Rachel de Souza will urge national, regional and local government to seize the opportunity of devolution to deliver for young people in every postcode – including with the appointment of a Deputy Mayor for Children in every strategic authority.
The Commissioner will also publish The Childhood Lottery, a new landmark dataset and interactive map, bringing together more than 160 measures to examine the challenges facing children in every local authority in England.
The Childhood Lottery has assigned an overall score to each area showing where life can be more challenging for a child.
The rankings are based on almost 100 scored metrics covering access to health and social care, education and housing, safety in their community, opportunities to play and whether children have a voice in the decisions made by leaders.
Based on these measures, the Commissioner will name Middlesborough, Hounslow, Bradford, Nottingham, Halton, Peterborough, Leicester, Liverpool, Sunderlandand Medway as the hardest places to grow up in England.
Cheshire East, Merton, Surrey, Richmond upon Thames, Hertfordshire, Cheshire West and Chester, Haringey, Leicestershire, Central Bedfordshire and Wokingham are described as the least challenging places to be a child.
The report will conclude that there are unacceptable outcomes and levels of service delivery for children in too many parts of the country. In some areas, this amounts to a state of emergency.
The Childhood Lottery also finds the postcode lottery is real, with vast differences in children’s experiences depending on where they live.
For instance, over 1 million children (1,048,965) had active referrals to children and young people’s mental health services in 2024-25. But there are differences between areas in how long children wait for treatment – from a minimum of 6 median days from referral to second contact in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, to 118 median days in Hampshire and Isle of Wight.
As England enters a new era of devolution, the Commissioner is setting a devolution test for the Prime Minister and is calling on the government to ensure children’s outcomes and life chances are not determined by where they live. She will say good growth in every postcode will only come with good childhoods in every postcode.
In the speech, Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza is expected to say:
“I want this to be an aid to those areas where childhood is hardest. To shine a light on where children need the most rigorous attention. Because we cannot shy away from the fact that indicators such as poor education outcomes, long health waiting lists or simply feeling unsafe converge in particular places. It is also no coincidence that as Children’s Commissioner I have already visited many of them. And let me be clear, every single local area in England has work to do to make lives better for their children.”
“In some communities, these challenges amount to nothing less than a state of emergency. Not for every child. Not everywhere. But what we see here is a litany of failure. In so many areas of the country, children are being radically failed.”
“Devolution represents an opportunity. It offers a clean break. The chance for a line in the sand moment. The problems I have identified are not just at a service level – though sometimes they are – they are utterly systemic. The system change that devolution represents is a unique chance to remove the extreme inequality and unfairness I have found. New powers will mean new structures, and therefore new opportunities to think about, listen to, and deliver for children. Local areas must be provided with support from central government to raise standards for children across health, social care, housing and communities, with urgent action where it falls beyond a set level. This needs to be our response to the emergency.”
In the foreword of the report the Children’s Commissioner will conclude:
“Children care so deeply about where they live – that is why I have undertaken this work. Local, regional and national decision makers need to take a hard look at this data and understand what they need to change so that they can start delivering for children.
“Children are proud of their local area. They are generally proud of where they grow up, regardless of the challenges. It is time that pride was reciprocated. It is time we all ensure that every child has something to be truly proud of.”
In her report and speech, Dame Rachel will make a series of recommendations including:
- Emergency action: There should be a set of minimum standards for children’s outcomes, and where these outcomes are not hit, a national fund that local areas can draw down on to deliver the services that children need, including, but not limited to: education, policing, health, and youth services. Where outcomes fall below this standard, action must be taken to bring together all relevant bodies to deliver for children, to develop a clear action plan for meeting those standards. Local areas must evidence how they will bring in expertise from high performing areas in order to deliver this plan.
- A children’s test: Strategic authorities should adopt a children’s test for the impact of their policies. The outcomes must cover the most significant problems facing children, including their access to good housing, their safety in their local area, or their chances of getting a good job. This will require different departments to take radically different approaches – from planning, housing, transport, police and more – to tackle the challenges and to take ownership of delivering on these outcomes.
- A Deputy Mayor for Children: Every strategic authority should have a Deputy Mayor for children, or designated lead for children. They should be responsible and empowered to deliver key new functions, particularly around the coordination of local authority services and regional delivery as set out below. They should be held accountable against the Children’s Test in their area. That should include setting out how they will meet the agreed set of outcomes for children, what measures they will use, and publishing an annual report of their performance.
The Children’s Commissioner will launch The Childhood Lottery at an event in Westminster on Monday 19 October, alongside her Youth Ambassadors. The young people will put questions to the speakers Professor Peter Fonagy, Chair of the Independent Review into Mental Health, ADHD and Autism, AC Laurence Taylor, Head of Counter Terrorism for the Metropolitan Police, Tim Bowman,Executive Director of Education, Work and Skills, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Joanne McCartney, Deputy Mayor of London for Children and Families, and Georgia Gould OBE MP,Minister for School Standards, about what needs to change to ensure devolution improves children’s outcomes and life chances.
