How do we better support vulnerable children and young people?
I was happy to be able to provide a written submission to an evidence session of the Public Accounts Committee discussing the recent National Audit Office (NAO) report on Supporting Vulnerable Adolescents. “As Children’s Commissioner, I and my office, are able to represent and support vulnerable children and young people holistically, putting the child’s needs […]
Beyond the Labels: A SEND system which works for every child, every time
Foreword by Dame Rachel de Souza “People with disabilities are very intelligent in their own way, we all have a voice if it’s by iPad or by mobile phone or eye gaze or a communication book” – Boy, 17, The Big Ask. This paper is dedicated to all children growing up in England with additional […]
Family Review Part II: Bringing family services together through better data practices
Whatever form home life takes, it is a fundamental pillar of children’s lives, and supports their happiness. In The Big Ask, children told me that if they were unhappy at home, they were far more likely to be unhappy in general. This is why, when I was commissioned by the Government to undertake an independent […]
Focusing on Children’s Health
“The lack of help with mental health has been the biggest thing that has stopped me and my friends from achieving what we want. It is difficult to access as we are not taken seriously, and when we are, waiting lists are so long” – Girl, 17. “There needs to be more of a push […]
Latest statistics on Children in Need in England
Children in Need (CIN) are a group of children assessed as needing help and protection because of risks to their health or development. The latest Department for Education (DfE) figures on CIN show that there were 404,310 children in need as of March 31st 2022. This represents 3.3% of all children, a slightly higher rate […]
Children’s Commissioner’s information request
The Children’s Commissioner for England has written to all Directors of Children’s Services (DCSs) to request information about the education status of children who were looked after by the local authority as of 31 March 2022. The deadline for providing this information is 9 December 2022. The following questions have been submitted by local authorities. […]
Identifying the looked after children missing from education
My Attendance Audit so far has included surveying all local authorities, carrying out a deep-dive in 10 local authorities to get to the root of school absence and a detailed investigation of the daily attendance patterns in autumn 2021. A consistent finding from all this research was that there are children who are known to […]
Publishing our first set of Family Profiles
Tomorrow, we will be publishing Part I of our independent Family Review – a review into contemporary family life in the UK. We asked families to contribute to our research by sharing their Family Profile – a snapshot of what families means to them, their strengths, the challenges they may have experienced, how they like […]
Young Carers Festival 2022
Family life, and what can be done to support families, is a core pillar of my work as Children’s Commissioner. That’s why I was delighted to be commissioned by the Government to undertake an Independent Review of contemporary family life. The Family Review will seek to understand children and families’ perspectives on modern family life […]
All schools should be schools for children with Special Educational Needs
My Attendance Audit so far has included surveying all local authorities, carrying out a deep-dive in 10 local authorities to get to the root of school absence and a detailed investigation of the daily attendance patterns in autumn 2021. A consistent finding from this research was that children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disability (SEND) […]
School – the Children’s Commissioner’s view
All children deserve an education system that matches their ambitions for the future, no matter what support they need and where they are in the country. What children say about School “People don’t realise how much education is important for life in general. […] if they don’t learn in school, they might not be […]
How we can support children and their mental health to attend school regularly
In The Big Ask, children told us about how much they care about feeling happy and well. They were articulate about their awareness of the artificial dichotomy between mental and physical health. In my visits across England, mental health, wellbeing and how we can support children better with their mental health is a subject that […]
Archived Content
School attendance since September
In March 2020 schools across England closed for nearly all pupils. Those allowed to attend rarely did, and even a partial re-opening of schools in July saw a peak school attendance of just 17.5%. By the time schools re-opened in September, 575 million days of school had been missed by children in England. The impact […]
School return: Covid-19 and school attendance
Examining school attendance rates during and after lockdown
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 […]
Requesting details on Government plans to minimise learning loss during lockdown and support for reopening of schools
The Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield has today (6th January) sent a letter to the Secretary of State for Education Gavin Williamson, following the start of the new national lockdown, to request further details on the Government’s plans to minimise learning loss during the national lockdown and support schools to reopen as soon as possible. The […]
Lockdown school closures mean we need to act now to save children’s education and wellbeing
Since the start of the pandemic, I have pushed again and again for schools to be the last to close and the first to open in any lockdown. Yet something that seemed unthinkable only a month ago – a national closure of schools – is now happening as a result of the new, more transmissible […]
Amid the coronavirus uncertainty, millions of children are back in school
Now is a good time to reflect on the progress that has been made as children have returned to school after so many months out of the classroom. Schools, teachers and children themselves have worked so hard to adapt to a new normal, from one-way hallways to staggered drop-offs, from classroom bubbles to shorter lunch […]
Children’s Commissioner warns 420,000 children in England are at risk of eviction unless Government acts
Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, is today warning that hundreds of thousands of children will return to school in two weeks with the threat of housing eviction hanging over their families, unless the Government changes its mind and extends its ban on evictions. Her intervention comes as the Children’s Commissioner’s Office publishes a new […]
Children and schools must come before pubs and shops in planning for future Covid-19 lockdowns
Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, has published a new briefing setting out the key actions needed to ensure children are at the heart of planning for any future coronavirus lockdowns, including making sure all children are back in school in September. The Children’s Commissioner argues that if any local or national lockdown takes place, schools […]
Children’s Commissioner for England creates local area profiles of child vulnerability during Covid-19
Analysis of the extent of child vulnerability around the country, much of which is hidden from sight under lockdown.
How young people are gaining valuable life skills with the police
The relationship between the police and teenagers can be fraught and complex. We often hear from some children that they don’t trust the police. They tell us they feel there is a “them against us” attitude. But at the same time, they also tell us they would like more police visibility to make them feel […]
