Children need action and support now against sexual harassment and abuse
The growing number of children revealing they have been sexually abused or harassed at school is alarming, and a reminder that #MeToo does not begin at 18. Nor is this a problem limited to just independent schools. Many children are harassed from a young age – it could be a sexual comment from a stranger […]

Business plan 2021-22
As I take up my position as Children’s Commissioner for England we are at a watershed moment for our country. The Covid pandemic has had a dramatic impact on all our lives, but especially for children who have spent so much time out of school, and missed out on many of the things we now […]
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The Childhood Commission
A commission to re-set the social contract between the generations

We’re launching a once in a generation “Beveridge Report for children” with an ambitious call to rebuild childhood after the Covid-19 pandemic
Dame Rachel de Souza, Children’s Commissioner for England, is today (Tuesday) launching a once-in-a-generation review of the future of childhood by the Children’s Commissioner’s Office. ‘The Childhood Commission’ will be inspired by the ambition of William Beveridge’s pioneering 1940s report, which laid the foundations of the post-War social security system. ‘The Childhood Commission’ will identify […]

The Big Ask – Survey 13-17
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Welcoming the return of children to school after lockdown
This is a big, positive week for children. It is brilliant to see schools reopening, and to see the Government keeping its promise that schools would be the first to reopen. While there are bound to be a few bumps along the way, I know how pleased and excited most children, parents and teachers will […]

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Dame Rachel de Souza’s first message as she begins her term as Children’s Commissioner for England
Read Rachel’s first blog as Children’s Commissioner for England

Archived Content
Expenses and hospitality for 2020-21
The following are expenses and hospitality expenditure between 1 April 2020 – 31 March 2021 for staff members of our senior management team, audit and risk committee and advisory board. 1 April – 30 June Nil 1 July – 30 September Nil 1 October – 31 December Nil
Child poverty: the crisis we can’t keep ignoring
Child poverty will continue to rise during this Parliament unless the Government commits to a bold, broad response. We are one of the most prosperous nations yet the number of children living in poverty is shocking and it is a cause for national shame. Child poverty has long been a fundamental problem facing Britain, and […]

Politicians must take child poverty out of the ‘too difficult box’ and come up with a big, bold plan to fix it
Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England, is today (Thursday) publishing a call from a cross-party collection of politicians and campaigners calling for urgent action to tackle the blight of child poverty. The set of short essays includes contributions from Robert Halfon MP, chair of the Education Select Committee, DWP Select Committee Chair Stephen Timms […]

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 […]
