Conversations with care leavers: the importance of trusting relationships
Next week is National Care Leavers Week, a vital time for us to focus on care leavers, and how we support them in transitioning from care into adult life. Next week I’ll be focusing on this, and my team’s work to bring about these changes. Ahead of that, I wanted to focus on what we […]
Evidence
Over half a million children responded to The Big Ask survey. The Big Answer report shares their responses and our answer. Here we share supporting evidence.
The Big Ask: Family
This year, the Children’s Commissioner’s Office conducted the largest ever survey of children in England. A record-breaking half a million responded – the voice of a generation. The ‘Big Answer’, published this September, is our first response to this outpouring of children’s voices as we emerge from the Covid pandemic. We were overwhelmed by the […]
Data protection impact assessment for Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs)
The Big Ask: Mental health
This World Mental Health Day is an excellent time to reflect on children’s views about their mental health as identified in The Big Ask – the largest ever survey of children in England. Over half a million children responded to the survey and it is really good news that despite everything they have gone through […]
Dame Rachel de Souza DBE responds to an announcement on exams from the new Head of Ofqual Dr Jo Saxton
The half a million children who answered our Big Ask survey this year were very clear no matter where in England they lived and what background they came from. They were resilient, valued supportive family life, glad to be back in school, happy in the main, but were honest and authentic about specific issues that […]
The Big Ask: The Big Answer
Over half a million children responded to The Big Ask survey. The Big Answer report shares their responses and our answer. The Big Answer page shares more information.
The Big Ask: Big Answers
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The Big Answer – Resources for schools
As you know, earlier this year, The Children’s Commissioner asked all the children in England to complete a survey, to show the true voice of this generation. We now have the results – and we want to say thank you. Over half a million children responded – the largest survey of its kind in history […]
The Big Answer
Foreword by Dame Rachel de Souza DBE ‘Listen.’ The day I began my tenure as Children’s Commissioner for England, that was my first task. To listen to England’s children. Throughout the pandemic, the nation has been speaking to itself, to find healing, solace, and hope for recovery. As we took our first steps out of […]
Interim findings on Government’s commission on online peer-on-peer abuse
Introduction by Dame Rachel de Souza DBE I began my term as Children’s Commissioner in March this year, shortly before the Everyone’s Invited website went live. Since then, over 50,000 stories have been shared on the website by brave young people, mostly girls, describing their experiences of sexual harassment and abuse – often perpetrated by […]
Back to school guide
A guide for children to tell them some of the changes they might see when they go back to school this September as well as providing tips on how to cope if they’re feeling worried or nervous and helpful resources to stay safe.
Archived Content
Children will keep dying on our streets until there is a joined up public health response to gangs
Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, is today (Saturday) publishing a report assessing how effectively existing infrastructure within local authorities is being used to deliver a public health approach to preventing gang involvement and youth violence. The Children’s Commissioner concludes that two years on from her last report into this issue and a year after […]
Detention of unaccompanied children arriving in Kent during 2020
This briefing looks at the immediate conditions unaccompanied asylum-seeking children faced after travelling to the UK, usually via boat, during 2020. Specifically, it focuses on the children who arrived at the Kent Intake Unit, where children’s identities are checked and their initial asylum claims are processed before they can be accommodated by local authorities. After […]
Our joint call on the government to include a statutory duty on local authorities to fund community-based services in the Domestic Abuse Bill
The Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield, the Victims’ Commissioner, Dame Vera Baird QC, and the Domestic Abuse Commissioner, Nicole Jacobs, are jointly calling on the government to include a statutory duty on local authorities to fund community-based services in the Domestic Abuse Bill. In a joint statement, the Commissioners say: “It is vital that the government […]
Feedback
Children’s Commissioner’s podcast: Lockdown, school and football
In the second episode of the Children’s Commissioner’s podcast, Anne Longfield visits a school in South London where she talks to students about how the first coronavirus lockdown affected them, both at home and at school and what impact it had on their education and relationships. She also hears about a programme called Football Beyond […]
The state of children’s mental health services 2019/20
This is my fourth annual report on the state of children’s mental health services in England, and my last as Children’s Commissioner. I started this series of briefings because of the torrent of stories I was hearing from children about needing mental health services that weren’t there for them. I wanted to examine the data […]
Damage to children’s mental health caused by Covid crisis could last for years without a large-scale increase for children’s mental health services
Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, is today (Thursday) publishing her fourth annual report on the state of children’s mental health services in England. The analysis examines the progress that has been made over the past five years as well as looking at the impact the Covid crisis has had on children’s mental health. The […]
Roadmap to reopening schools
Policy briefing Ever since last August, the Children’s Commissioner has said “Schools must be the last to close and the first to reopen.” This is now a well-used phrase as parents, teachers, scientists, politicians and the media all recognise the massive impact that the lockdowns are having on children’s education, and even more importantly, on […]
Our joint letter with Solace urging the PM to set-out a roadmap to reopen schools
The Children’s Commissioner and Solace have written a joint letter to the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, urging him to set-out a roadmap for the reopening of schools to all pupils. *** Dear Prime Minister, We are writing to urge you to set-out a roadmap for the reopening of schools to all pupils. We welcome your personal […]
Too many at-risk children are still invisible to social care
Since March 2020 when schools closed at the start of the first national lockdown, more families have fallen into poverty and all the major risk factors to children – domestic violence, poor parental mental health, and alcohol/substance abuse – have heightened. At the same time there has been a significant fall (by 10% compared to […]