Who are they? Where are they? 2020
Last year we produced our first annual report on children living in secure accommodation. ‘Who are they? Where are they?’ set out, as far as possible given limited available data, how many children in England are ‘locked up’ in many different kinds of institutions. The report found a relatively small group of children – 1,465 […]
Children’s experiences in mental health wards
As part of our research into the experiences of children admitted to inpatient mental health wards, we carried out visits to four different Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) inpatient wards, including: two general CAMHS wards, one Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and one Specialist Eating Disorder Unit. The primary focus of the work […]
Mean streets
 Teenagers are consistently presented in the media as ‘trouble’, as perpetrators of crime and anti-social behaviour, alarming knife-wielding creatures lurking in groups in hoodies, mobile phones clamped to their ears. Some shopping centres even ban hoodies or use high-pitched ‘mosquito’ devices to prevent teens hanging around. But we have become concerned at the level […]
Anne Longfield presents her vision for a better care system
 On Tuesday, 24 November the Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield OBE, presented a speech online where she reflected on what she has learnt from children and young people in the 6 years she has been Commissioner, and how they have felt about the care and support they have received. Drawing on new research conducted by […]
Statement on today’s ruling by the Court of Appeal on removing safeguards for children in care
Anne Longfield, responding to today’s ruling by the Court of Appeal on removing safeguards for children in care, said: “I am delighted that the Court of Appeal has recognised the vital importance of the voice of the child in care in decisions taken that affect them – including, and I would argue especially, during a […]
Statement
Amplifying the voices of care leavers: the IMO podcast wins gold
The IMO (“in my opinion”) project, backed by the Children’s Commissioner, amplifies the voices of children in care and care leavers. We share stories, experiences and advice directly from young people with care experience in the form of blogs, videos and animations, to change the narrative of the UK care system. Just over a year […]
Gambling act review
We’re submitting this briefing as evidence to the Government’s consultation on loot boxes in video games
The children who no-one knows what to do with
This paper summarises the findings of three years of work by the Children’s Commissioner’s Office and provides context for two further reports the Commissioner is publishing today (‘Private provision in children’s social care’ and ‘Stability index 2020’). The report explains the failure of local and national government to take responsibility for these children, and sets […]
Private provision in children’s social care
The care system contains many talented and tireless staff who provide excellent care, but the unfortunate reality is that the system still fails some children. The yearly Stability Index for children in care produced by this office shows that 1 in 10 children in care experience two or more home moves during a year, and […]
Thousands of children in care being ‘failed by the state’ because of a broken residential care home market
Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, has published a set of reports showing how the children’s residential social care system is broken and is failing many of the most vulnerable children, in particular those who are most at risk of falling through gaps in the system and becoming victims of criminal or sexual exploitation. Today’s reports […]
Stability index 2020
This analysis contains the 2020 update to the Stability Index: the Children’s Commissioner’s ongoing project measuring levels stability for children in care. This update focuses on the cohort of children who were in care on 31 March 2019. In previous years, this work has examined rates of stability for children in care across three domains: […]
What are children happy and concerned about since returning to school?
We asked 1,500 children about their experiences of returning to school
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