Skip to content

CHLDRN feedback

20 October 2020

We’d love to hear how you’re finding the CHLDRN app, and any suggestions and feedback that you may have to make it better in the future.

Page

Governments have a duty to work together to prevent asylum seeking children from risking their lives

19 October 2020

This summer hundreds of children risked their lives embarking on highly dangerous journeys from France to the UK by boat. After Covid-19 struck in March, child refugees abroad saw their already desperate living conditions deteriorate as support and aid fell away. In Calais, evictions and the dismantling of camps left children without shelter and basic […]

News

Lifting children out of poverty and eliminating child hunger is a moral imperative

13 October 2020

Today MPs from across the political divide will support a Ten Minute Rule Bill introduced by the MP Emma Lewell Buck. The School Breakfast Bill seeks to provide schools in disadvantaged areas with the support required to give a free, healthy school breakfast to children. It would build on the existing National School Breakfast Programme […]

News
Worry

Your voice

7 October 2020

Every year, we speak to children all over England to gather their views on what is going well for them, what isn’t, what needs to change and how. What children tell us influences our work for the coming year. Read our latest business plan consultation. We currently don’t have an open Voices survey.

Page

Government scientists respond with more answers from children’s coronavirus questions

5 October 2020

During a virtual event on the 11th of August, 12 children from across the UK had the opportunity to ask their own Covid-19 related questions covering different topic areas, such as social bubbles, face masks and public transport, which were answered by three government scientists, Professor Brooke Rogers, Professor Charlotte Watts and Professor Russell Viner. […]

News
Zoom meeting

Amid the coronavirus uncertainty, millions of children are back in school

2 October 2020

Now is a good time to reflect on the progress that has been made as children have returned to school after so many months out of the classroom. Schools, teachers and children themselves have worked so hard to adapt to a new normal, from one-way hallways to staggered drop-offs, from classroom bubbles to shorter lunch […]

News

How lockdown affected children’s stress and anxiety

30 September 2020

Children’s lives changed beyond recognition when full lockdown began on 23rd March. With schools shut to the majority of pupils, the regular rhythms of childhood and adolescence – from school runs and playtime, to exams, celebrations and graduation – were put on indefinite hold. Anecdotally, we know that many children struggled with the demands of […]

News
Father comforting sad child

Help at Hand spotlight: championing the rights of children in care under Covid-19

29 September 2020

There are more than 75,000 children in care in England. Although most spent the national Covid-19 lockdown in a place of safety, this stretch of time was not without difficulty. Our ‘Childhood in the time of Covid’ report published on 29th September outlines the many new pressures on social care services during this unprecedented time […]

News
Young person on phone

Childhood in the time of Covid

Six months have passed since the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in this country and we entered an unprecedented lockdown. During this time, I have made it my Office’s mission to highlight the risks to children caused by the pandemic and the measures to contain it, particularly the most vulnerable, and push for their interests to […]

Report
Girl doing work at home

A comprehensive recovery package is needed to tackle rising tide of childhood vulnerability caused by the Covid crisis

Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, has publishing a major new report examining the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on children. The report, ‘Childhood in the time of Covid’ calls for a comprehensive recovery package for children and provides a roadmap for what should be done to help children to recover from their experiences of […]

News
Worry

Stress among children in England during the coronavirus lockdown

A look at what children are worrying about both before, and during lockdown

Report
Father comforting sad child

Post-lockdown experiences: Returning to school life

25 September 2020

Now most children are back at school after 6 months at home, we spoke to children aged 6-13 across England to hear what their experiences have been like. Without exception, every child we spoke to was enjoying the social aspect of returning to school. Sofia, aged 6 told us, “I like seeing my friends and […]

News
Children in art class at school

Archived Content

Pass the parcel: children posted around the care system

24 December 2019

“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 […]

Report
Teenager walking with backpack

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.

News
Teenager walking with backpack

Receive our vacancies by email

29 November 2019

Sign up to receive our latest vacancies by email We will send you an email each Friday if we publish any new vacancies during that week. If we don’t publish any new vacancies, you won’t get an email. Email address Email preferences As well as receiving our latest vacancies, you can also receive our regular […]

Page

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

5 November 2019

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 […]

News

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 […]

Report

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 […]

News

Nurture with nature: Why environmental engagement is imperative for children

4 November 2019

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 […]

News
Girl in park

EU children in Britain

29 October 2019

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 […]

Report
Union flag and EU flag

Children’s insights

This is the first issue in our regular series of insights into the views and experiences of children in England.

Report

Changes to gambling laws needed as our report into online gaming reveals children’s gambling fears

22 October 2019

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 […]

News