Child ‘food poverty’ is just one symptom of a wider injustice: poverty
To truly solve a problem, you must first properly define it. And the problem of child food poverty in the UK today is not down to a lack of food. It is instead that too many families do not have enough income to afford to put food on the table. Child ‘food poverty’ is just […]
Work should free more families from poverty: here’s how we achieve it
One of our great national successes over the last couple of decades has been the sustained rise in employment among parents, especially lone parents and mothers in couples. But rising employment has been overtaken by rising in-work poverty. Work should free families from poverty, but the majority of children in poverty now live in working […]
We need a national plan to eradicate child poverty
In 1999, I set out the government’s path to end child poverty through a 20-year mission. While ambitious, long-term commitments help focus minds, that pledge made clear that we believed that tolerating child poverty was indefensible and it should – and could – be tackled head on. In the years that followed, Labour governments took […]
Tackling the impact of child poverty
The harsh reality of child and family poverty has always had a devastating impact on the wellbeing and life chances of many children in this country. The recent pandemic has turned what was already a crisis into a tsunami of need. In the words of the 2020 ADCS discussion paper, Building a country that works […]
Lockdown, poverty and the disadvantage gap
The events over the last year have not only had a deep and disastrous effect on the lives of disadvantaged young people but have also thrown a new light on the disturbing disparities that already existed. We know that the loss of learning during lockdown disproportionately affects children from disadvantaged groups. The digital divide, with […]
How should policy support family incomes in the coronavirus crisis?
The coronavirus crisis has had a big impact on family finances. More than a quarter of adults saw their incomes fall during the initial lockdown period, and 23 per cent of adults still had lower income as the economy reopened (June-September) than before the crisis. And the longer-term impact of the pandemic, combined with the […]
Learning the lessons from previous recessions – focus on families
One of the small mercies of the Covid-19 pandemic has been how little it has affected children. But our national response has closed the schools, services, and relationships on which they often rely. Vulnerability has been compounded, the poor hardest hit, and new problems have emerged. In the months ahead, to name but a few […]
How we can work with families in poverty
As vulnerable children and their families struggle with isolation, conflict and poverty, we need community infrastructure so that there is no wrong door for them to access the family support they need. The Early Intervention Foundation’s (EIF) new report, Planning early childhood services in 2020, states that ‘it is difficult to think of a more effective […]
Changing the weather: Corona and community
We are all in the same Covid storm, but it is clear we’re in very different boats! It’s a point that is often made. This strange virus is fundamentally unequal in its impact. It has exposed and exaggerated deep inequalities in our society. But our opportunity is not simply to analyse the impact of the […]
Government needs to understand and measure poverty
The Covid-19 pandemic is the most significant crisis of modern times. Since March, we have been bombarded with daily death statistics from this disease. But to focus only on the health implications of Covid-19 obscures its impact on the lives of millions, particularly those on the edge of poverty. We can see with our own […]
A new child poverty target
In 1999, as Prime Minister, Tony Blair committed in a speech at Toynbee Hall to a twenty year project “for ours to be the first generation to end child poverty”. His Government’s approach has often been criticised, but it did substantially reduce child poverty. With the prospect now of a more consensual approach to measuring […]
Child poverty
Archived Content
Pass the parcel: children posted around the care system
“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 […]
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.
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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
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Nurture with nature: Why environmental engagement is imperative for children
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 […]
EU children in Britain
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 […]
Children’s insights
This is the first issue in our regular series of insights into the views and experiences of children in England.
Changes to gambling laws needed as our report into online gaming reveals children’s gambling fears
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 […]
