Press Notice: Landmark census reveals schools picking up the pieces as other services neglected
A blueprint for the “next great wave of education reform” will be unveiled today by the Children’s Commissioner, to transform children’s lives by redefining how schools and communities consider the full range of children’s needs. Dame Rachel de Souza’s report, The Children’s Plan: The Children’s Commissioner’s School Census, finds schools are doing a lot to […]
The Children’s Plan: The Children’s Commissioner’s School Census
Read The Children’s Plan: The Children’s Commissioner’s School Census in full. Read the Summary version. For the first time as Children’s Commissioner, I have used my statutory powers to ask all schools, and colleges, a set of questions. A census in response to what children told me they wanted and needed to attend, engage, attain, […]
Visiting children living in Secure Children’s Homes
A Secure Children’s Home accommodates children aged 10 to 17 that have been deprived of their liberty by a court order. Some children are placed in a secure children’s home because they have been remanded or sentenced by a criminal court and others because a family court has decided it is necessary for their welfare. […]
Screen Free Summer: Digital Diet Guidance, Dr Kaitlyn Regehr
Dr Kaitlyn Regehr, author of Smartphone Nation, is an Associate Professor and the Programme Director of Digital Humanities in the Department of Information Studies at University College London. As part of Screen Free Summer, she shares guidance for having a healthy digital diet and prioritising screen consumption. In a previous guest blog she discussed how algorithms […]
Research with children to inform the Government’s Child Poverty Strategy
Research with children to inform the Government’s Child Poverty Strategy On 17 July 2024, the Prime Minister announced the creation of a new Ministerial Child Poverty Taskforce to devise a Child Poverty Strategy. This taskforce is supported by the Child Poverty Unit in the Cabinet Office. The Strategy will address systemic drivers of poverty, including […]
The Big Conversation Podcast: ‘Children are attacking children’ – Professor Martin Griffiths CBE, Trauma Surgeon & Clinical Director Violence Reduction
The Big Conversation: In conversation with the Children’s Commissioner and her youth Ambassadors is my podcast series where I share the voices and views of England’s children. The podcast draws on the themes in The Big Ambition and will focus on the most important issues that are impacting young people’s lives, with solutions developed with […]
Highly Effective Age Assurance must keep children safe
Earlier this week I published my second report on children’s exposure to pornography, ‘Sex is kind of broken now: children and pornography’. It was written to capture the state of play just before new rules under the Online Safety Act 2023 to protect children from pornography came into force. It showed that when it comes […]
Screen Free Summer: Helping children reconnect with nature this summer
As part of the ongoing Screen Free Summer series encouraging healthier habits and digital detox during the summer holidays, I am sharing a guest blog from the National Trust. Today’s contribution comes from Amber Potter-Merrick, Public Engagement Producer at the National Trust on the importance of reconnecting with nature. At the National Trust, we believe […]
GPC spend over £500: 2025 – 2026
1 April 2025 – 30 June 2025 Transaction date Transaction amount Entity Details 2/4/2025 £950.00 OCC Staff Voucher Scheme 5/6/2025 £787.08 OCC Travel 5/6/2025 £4,615.24 OCC Hotel accommodation 5/6/2025 £793.90 OCC Hotel accommodation 5/6/2025 £2,899.69 OCC Travel 12/6/2025 £1,089.15 OCC Social Media Services All figures shown are gross amounts paid inclusive of VAT (where applicable).
Press Notice: Children see violent pornography by accident, via social media and as young as six – new research from the Children’s Commissioner reveals
More children report seeing pornography online than two years ago, with more stumbling across it by accident and some aged as young as six – new research by the Children’s Commissioner finds. New data from children aged 16 to 21 proves that despite major efforts to hold tech firms accountable for the content served up […]
Youth Voices
As Children’s Commissioner, my job is to hear from children about what is going on in their lives, and to tell people in power what they should do to make children’s lives better. I have heard from a million children, and I want to ensure all children’s voices are heard and taken into account on […]
Youth Voices: Child poverty
Between January and March 2025 we spoke with 128 children and young people aged between 6- and 18-years-old. Below we share what children and young people have told the Commissioner about living in low-income households and concerns around poverty. I have heard from a million children, and lots of them have told me that they […]
Archived Content
Improving the living situation of children living in secure accommodation
Anne Longfield, Children’s Commisioner for England, has written to Vicky Ford MP, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families, Lucy Frazer QC MP, Minister of State, Ministry of Justice and Nadine Dorries MP, Minister for Patient Safety, Suicide Prevention and Mental Health regarding concerns about children in living in secure accommodation, particularly those […]
Children in custody during lockdown
Since the start of the Covid pandemic, the Children’s Commissioner’s Office has investigated and highlighted concerns about the treatment of children in secure settings. Our briefing in May used data collected from the Youth Custody Service (YCS) alongside a series of interviews with children to shine a light on conditions for children in custody during […]
Help at Hand annual report 2020
Our 2020 annual report for Help at Hand, our advice line for children in care.
Response to the DfE’s announcement on unregulated accommodation for children in care
Anne Longfield, responding to the DfE’s announcement on unregulated accommodation for children in care, said: “The Government’s ban on unregulated provision for under-16s in care is very welcome, but needs to go further and include all under-18s. There are too many teenage children in care living in completely unsuitable and sometimes dangerous accommodation, including hostels […]
Five things you need to know about SEN in schools
How children’s needs are met (or go unmet) in schools, and the implications of these for the SEND Review and other reforms
Building back better
When I became Children’s Commissioner for England six years ago, I set out an ambitious vision for a nation where childhood is understood and celebrated and where the voice of all children is listened to at the heart of Government. I had in mind a particular group of children who, in my experience of working […]
Building back better – Anne Longfield’s final speech as Children’s Commissioner
Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, has delivered her final speech in post with a challenge to the Prime Minister to show he is serious about children by putting them at the heart of his post-Covid plans. Her speech warned that the Prime Minister’s promise to ‘level up’ will be ‘just a slogan unless […]
Speech
Characteristics of children entering care for the first time as teenagers
Last year, research from my office showed that even before the pandemic, there were 120,000 highly vulnerable children in England who were falling through the gaps in education and social care. This group of children – equivalent to 1 in 25 13-17 year olds – all had significant additional needs and vulnerabilities but were not […]
Spend over £25,000: 2020 – 2021
We publish details of all spending over £25,000 on a quarterly basis. 1 April 2020 – 30 June 2020 Nil 1 July 2020 – 30 September 2020 Transaction date Merchant name Transaction amount Entity Details 14/08/2020 National Audit Office £33,600.00 OCC External Audit Services 1 October 2020 – 31 December 2020 Nil 1 January 2021 […]
Still not safe
The public health response to youth violence
