Help at Hand annual report 2023
As the Children’s Commissioner for England, my statutory duty, as set out in the Children Act 2004, is to promote and protect the rights of all children, with particular regard to children who are living away from home or receiving social care services. In 2014, under section 2D of Act, the Commissioner’s powers were extended […]
Protecting children from serious violence
‘I think in certain areas we ain’t provided with lots to do and that makes kids fend for their own type of fun and most of us just end up hanging out on the street. This causes knife crime and stuff like that’ – Girl, aged 14 (The Big Ask). Recent months have been heavy […]
Tackling the attendance crisis: A service of whole family support practitioners
By Jaine Stannard, School-Home Support CEO During the past few years, we’ve seen how the attendance crisis in the country is getting worse, not better. According to official statistics, 1.8 million children are persistently absent from school. That’s too many children. Too many children that could be left behind if the national attendance crisis is […]
Briefing on school attendance in England
Improving school attendance is an absolute priority for the Children’s Commissioner. Children are offered the best start to further their ambitions, relationships and learning when they are in school. However, despite the importance of being in school, following the pandemic school absence rates have become stuck at crisis levels. Last year, over 1 in 5 […]
Empowering Young Ambitions: The Benefits of Part-Time Jobs for School-Aged Children
Are you a young dreamer, eager to make your mark on the world and achieve success in your future career? Well, you’re not alone! In The Big Ask, children across the UK said that jobs were a top priority. They expressed that they want to get on and do well. They want to work hard, […]
Missing Children, Missing Grades
Since becoming Children’s Commissioner, I have made tackling school absences one of my top priorities. I first came into this role in March 2021, after 30 years of experience in education as a multi-academy trust leader and headteacher. The nation was emerging from successive lockdowns and children’s education had been immensely disrupted. I sensed that […]
Celebrating the Civil Service Care Leavers Internship scheme at Number 10
Benita is on the Civil Service Care Leavers Internship Scheme working at the Children’s Commissioner for England’s office as a Digital Engagement Assistant. In this blog we share her experience of attending an event to celebrate the internship scheme during National Care Leavers’ Week. At the start of National Care Leavers’ Week, I attended an […]
Help at Hand’s work with care leavers
“This year, it’s impacted me so much, with the cost of living crisis and everything I’ve been going through with the local authority, […] and honestly [Help at Hand ] came in and just managed to solve the situation, and you know, just literally tell people what’s right and wrong” – Care leaver, 23. The […]
Who are ‘children in need’?
New statistics published yesterday show that the number of young people classed as ‘children in need’ because they have been assessed as needing support by social services are holding steady at around 400,000. The latest statistics, which show 403,090 children in need on March 31st 2023, equate to about one child in every class (1 […]
‘Make, Bake and Create’ with your Corporate Parents: a constructive experience for care leavers
P Benita is an intern working at the Children’s Commissioner for England’s office as a Digital Engagement Assistant. In this blog we share her experience visiting a baking and craft event for young care leavers and foster carers. I recently had the privilege of representing the Children’s Commissioner’s office at a baking and craft event, […]
Should care experience be a protected characteristic?
Earlier this year, the Children’s Commissioner launched a survey asking all care experienced individuals to share their views on whether care experience should be made a protected characteristic. Have your say! The Children’s Commissioner wants to hear as many of you as possible whether you think care experience should be a protected characteristic, you can […]
Care leavers week
Today marks the beginning of Care Leavers Week, a chance to celebrate all care experienced young people. As Children’s Commissioner for England it is my mission make sure that every child can access the love and stability they need to thrive. This week is an opportunity to amplify the voices of young people who have […]
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