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
Education
All children have a right to a good education, and school plays such a key part in children’s lives
Prioritising teachers and other key workers in the children’s sector for Covid vaccination
The four UK Children’s Commissioners have written to the Chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation about the prioritisation of teachers and other key workers. Dear Professor Lim As the UK’s Children’s Commissioners, we are writing to urge you to reconsider prioritisation of teachers and other key workers in the children’s sector as […]
Routes to citizenship
Data gathered by the Children’s Commissioner’s Office on children’s routes to British citizenship
Good schools
Exploring the feasibility of creating a new ‘good schools index’ for secondary schools
Independent review of children’s social care
Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, responding to the Government’s announcement of an independent review into the children’s social care system, said: “I have been calling for a widescale review of children’s social care for a long time and I am pleased this will now begin. I welcome the appointment of Josh MacAlister. “This is […]
Building back better: Reaching England’s left behind children
Watch live on YouTube Anne Longfield’s tenure as Children’s Commissioner for England ends at the end of February 2021. In her last speech as Children’s Commissioner, she will argue that children should be at the heart of the country’s efforts to rebuild following the Covid crisis. Date: Wednesday, 17 February 2021 Time: 10:30 am – […]
Requesting details on Government plans to minimise learning loss during lockdown and support for reopening of schools
The Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield has today (6th January) sent a letter to the Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson, following the start of the new national lockdown, to request further details on the Government’s plans to minimise learning loss during the national lockdown and support schools to reopen as soon as possible. The […]
Advisory board
The Children’s Commissioner’s Advisory Board challenges and advises the office and meets four-six times a year. The Advisory Board, a requirement of the Children and Families Act 2014, is made up of representatives from across children’s and wider sectors. The Advisory Board advises on how the powers of the Children’s Commissioner can be used to […]
Lockdown school closures mean we need to act now to save children’s education and wellbeing
Since the start of the pandemic, I have pushed again and again for schools to be the last to close and the first to open in any lockdown. Yet something that seemed unthinkable only a month ago – a national closure of schools – is now happening as a result of the new, more transmissible […]
Statement on new EU ePrivacy rules and the implications for children
Yesterday, new EU ePrivacy rules came into effect which introduced new limits on the way in which technology companies can use messaging and calling data. The rules undermine the ability of companies to use established, privacy-preserving tools such as PhotoDNA to identify child sexual abuse imagery and grooming on their platforms. These tools work in […]
Statement
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