Knowledge & Resource Hub

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 the themes in The Big Ambition and will focus on the most important issues that are impacting young people’s lives, with solutions developed with […]

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 the themes in The Big Ambition and will focus on the most important issues that are impacting young people’s lives, with solutions developed with […]

The year ahead – 2025-26 – will be my penultimate year as Children’s Commissioner for England. It will also mark 20 years since the establishment of this office – a milestone that offers an opportunity to reflect on the progress we have made and a reminder about the many urgent challenges that remain. More than […]

I’ve designed a version of my Business Plan aimed specifically for children and young people, sharing the projects and themes that my office will be working on. As Children’s Commissioner for England, it is my job to listen to you and take your voices to decision makers. In my survey, The Big Ambition, only one […]

Every child should have a loving, secure home, but when it comes to housing, children get a raw deal.   Thousands of children are living in temporary accommodation, including many in emergency ‘B&B’ style accommodation for longer than the statutory six-week limit1 – and they are paying the price of this disruption and instability in their […]

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is urgent. The death of Sara Sharif and the recent resurfacing of the crimes by grooming gangs have further highlighted that too many services children rely on are failing – whether that is children missing out on the benefits of school and education, or children living in social care […]

Every night across England hundreds of children are going to sleep in illegal homes where they are often isolated and left without appropriate care. Most of these are run by private organisations which have the least amount of oversight and scrutiny, leaving children at an increased risk of harm. There is no process for checking […]

This report contains new findings on the deaths of children in need. ‘Child in need’ is an umbrella term including looked after children, children on a child protection plan, and children on a child in need plan. This report examines the characteristics of children and young people who die having had social care involvement, and […]

The Children’s Commissioner’s Care Experienced Advisory Board have created a hierarchy of needs based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. It is a visual guide to help professionals working with care experienced young people understand their needs and support them. The different levels of the pyramid consider the basic requirements that care experienced young people need […]

Thousands of children in the United Kingdom are currently deprived of their liberty. They are confined in young offender institutions, mental health wards, or secure children’s homes, but a growing proportion are being deprived of their liberty outside a secure setting, through the use of High Court deprivation of liberty orders. These orders, which are […]

There is a group of just over 400,000 children living in England who are defined as ’children in need’, because they have been identified as needing meaningful intervention from the state to support their development, prevent problems in their home lives from escalating or to help if they are disabled.   Around a quarter of these […]

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 help them meet their own goals. To help […]