Knowledge & Resource Hub

The devastating murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, and the suffering faced by all the girls who survived the attack in Southport in 2024, will never leave me. I think about the victims, their loved ones, a town coming to terms with the trauma. But I also think about […]

Updated August 2026 | Originally published October 2024 As Children’s Commissioner, I have had the privilege to hear from many brilliant and inspiring care experienced young people about their lives now and hopes for the future. Care experienced young people are rightly ambitious for their futures and have told me what support they need to […]

My first act as Children’s Commissioner was to listen to children. My 2021 survey of over half a million young people, The Big Ask, found that children of all backgrounds and abilities, right across the country, were happy, optimistic, and determined. But it was undeniable that some children – particularly many disabled children – face […]

As I enter my final year as Children’s Commissioner, one thing is clear: before we make decisions that affect young people, we need to listen to young people. Children’s mental health is no exception. I am in no doubt that we are facing a crisis in young people’s mental health. The number of children with a referral […]

As Children’s Commissioner, I have a statutory duty to protect and promote the rights of children – that includes all children who arrive in this country, no matter how they get here or what their asylum status is. I have always been clear that it is for government to determine the right rules and levels […]

In the time I have been Children’s Commissioner, the online world has changed rapidly, as have the ways in which children interact with it. Perhaps the single biggest change is this: we used to speak about the differences between children’s offline and online lives. But over the time I have served as Commissioner, the walls […]

As Children’s Commissioner, I have a statutory duty to ensure that children’s views are heard. And so I want to begin, as I always try to do, with something that a child told me. I was working with a group of children, and I asked one of them what they wanted from their support service. […]

This is a written response by the Children’s Commissioner to the Ministry of Justice Consultation, A new victims code, on the proposed update to the Code which outlines how victims of crime should be supported through the criminal justice system. The Children’s Commissioner, Dame Rachel de Souza, has a statutory independent role to protect and […]

The Big Conversation: In conversation with the Children’s Commissioner and her youth Ambassadors is my podcast series where I share the voices and views of England’s children.  The podcast draws on themes children and young people have said are most important and will focus on the most important issues that are impacting young people’s lives, […]

Few issues have defined my tenure as Children’s Commissioner so sharply as the strip searching of children by police. As a former teacher and headteacher of 30 years, I thought I was hardened to the vast spectrum of failures in children’s rights, but the case of Child Q in Hackney five years ago shocked me […]

The Children’s Commissioner supports the extension of the franchise to 16-year-olds. Extending voting rights to children not only gives them a tangible say in the democratic process, but also has the potential second order impact of ensuring greater consideration of children in the decision making of political parties by providing a greater incentive for them […]

Tens of thousands of children are spending long chunks of their childhoods in unsuitable shared accommodation – sharing bathrooms with strangers, often in unpleasant conditions and cramped together in one small space without privacy. Since my research into the experiences of children living in poverty last summer, I have been pushing for an end to […]