Knowledge & Resource Hub

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 […]

In 2024, we would never imagine that children in this country are being told they cannot access their education because there is no suitable school for them. We would not expect that some children are non-verbal and wearing nappies well into the primary school years, because they haven’t been able to get the help they […]

Every child has a fundamental right to an education, yet more than 100,000 children each year are being denied this basic right. These children, many of whom have slipped through the cracks of our education system, are not just numbers—they are young lives at risk of being forgotten. I am deeply concerned about this situation, […]

In light of the shocking case of Child Q, a 15-year-old Black girl who was strip searched while at school in Hackney nearly four years ago, I wanted to use my statutory powers as Children’s Commissioner to investigate the practice of strip searching children by the police. Child Q’s case was so extreme that I […]

In a world designed by – and mainly for – adults, children’s voices are very often not heard. It is for this reason that the role of the Children’s Commissioner was established in 2004 – to ensure children’s needs and best interests are advocated for at a national level. The Children Act 2004 gives the […]

As Children’s Commissioner it is my job to promote and protect the rights of children, and to make sure their voices are heard. That’s why in September 2023, I launched The Big Ambition to hear directly from children, young people, and parents across the country. I wanted to hear about what they wanted for the […]

Over 100,000 of England’s most vulnerable children who are on social service plans are getting a postcode lottery of support with huge regional variations dictating the level of protection they get, previously unseen data from the Children’s Commissioner has revealed.  In worst case scenarios, these inconsistencies and lack of consistent early intervention can prevent children […]

Every child should feel that their voice is heard, and their wishes and feelings are taken into account by the adults that care for them. At the heart of all my work as Children’s Commissioner are the voices of children. I hear directly from children about their experiences of their home life, school, their friendships, […]