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Guest Post: "Post-COVID, we will need a new government commitment to children"

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JuliaMumsnet · 17/02/2021 14:42

In this guest post outgoing Children’s Commissioner Anne Longfield writes about how to reach Britain’s left behind children in post-Covid plans to build back better:

"This month my six-year term as Children’s Commissioner comes to an end. I came into this job knowing that many children in our country miss out. But I also knew that with a little help and understanding even the most vulnerable children can still achieve remarkable things. As Children’s Commissioner, I’ve always said I want to be ambitious for all children – but especially these ones.

During my term I’ve heard people say ‘some children can’t be helped’. It’s untrue. Every child has the right to a good education, to be fed, clothed and kept safe, to have services they can rely on if they need extra help, and ultimately to succeed in life. I believe all these things are possible, but there are huge challenges.

We know there are an estimated 1.3 million children in England with significant mental health conditions but that fewer than a quarter of them receive NHS treatment. We know there are two million children in families affected by severe poverty, domestic abuse, parental mental health issues, parental substance misuse, or where the child is a young carer or a parent is in prison - 800,000 of them not known to social workers or local services.

The terrible thing is, one year into the pandemic we know many of their lives will have got worse.

Even if schools open as planned next month, England’s children will have missed, since the start of the pandemic, 850 million days of in-person schooling. We know the learning gap between better-off and the poorest children has now widened to seven months. Add to that the rise in children struggling with their mental health and the fall in the amount of exercise children have done and it’s clear that the last year has been damaging for many children.

It is time to repay the sacrifices children have made by rethinking how we see children in this country. The Prime Minister’s promises to ‘build back better’ and ‘level up’ sound good but does the Government know the scale of the challenge? Does it recognise how many children are in families that are struggling to support them, or how many are starting school so far behind they’ll never catch up, or how many children with mental health needs or special education needs aren’t getting the help they should be?

Shockingly, nearly one in five children reaches the age of 19 without getting 5 GCSEs, a technical equivalent or an apprenticeship - the basic benchmark for all children to set them on the path to successful adulthood. If a child grows up in poverty, is involved with children’s services and has special educational needs, their chance of passing falls to just 13%. Hundreds of thousands of life chances are being held back every year.

The frustrating thing is we can solve many of these problems. Once Government decides it wants to achieve something, it can focus on the steps necessary to achieve it.

So why isn’t it happening? In America, President Biden is proposing a huge package of tax credits and benefits, aimed squarely at families with children. This is projected to halve child poverty in just a year. Yet in the UK we’re on track to have the highest levels of child poverty since records began and the Universal Credit uplift which has helped so many families get by could soon be scrapped.

It is time for politicians to set clear goals about children’s outcomes, not just the institutions they attend. Instead of talking about increasing the number of children going to a good or outstanding school, I want the government to commit to making children better off. I want them to say within five years we will reduce the number of children starting school with developmental issues by 80% or within five years we will reduce the number of children leaving education without basic qualifications by 60%.

As we come out of this pandemic, stop saying what can’t be done for children and put the full weight of government behind what can be done, with political will.

We should launch a year of opportunity once the virus has been suppressed, enabling every child, from whatever background, not just to learn in the classroom, but also to develop their own interests at weekends and in the holidays.

Finding joy in finding out, with confidence and resilience by forging their own path. I want to see the now-empty school rooms, sports halls, and swimming pools being used at evenings, weekends and holidays to help all children catch up with confidence. They can get a meal, a break from home and more time to play with friends. Libraries open, art galleries and theatres too – free for families. Music workshops, drama, digital clubs to spark interest and grow talent.

Alongside political will, there will need to be significant funding. It would be worth every penny. It would be a national effort to reopen our institutions and country and reboot childhood. To celebrate everything that is good about growing up in this country and begin to make good where things are not - a ‘Covid covenant’ from us to our children that takes children out of boxes marked ‘problem’ and instead sees them as the opportunities they are."

Anne is on Twitter at @AnneLongfield
Find out more in The Children's Commissioner's Building Back Better report.

Anne Longfield will be returning to this thread to answer your questions on the 18th February at 4pm, so if you have questions for her, leave them below.

Guest Post: "Post-COVID, we will need a new government commitment to children"

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AnneLongfield · 18/02/2021 16:31

@TheHoneyBadger

That sounds dodgily like robbing peter to pay paul. There's not enough money in ANY mental health services and adult mental health services likely benefit children too as parents being treated benefits children.

A greater share of a miniscule pie is not a win. I'm sure you know this but I can imagine a spin muppet saying hmm yeah just give kids a greater percentage of the total mental health spend rather than increase actual funding. Children become adults - they'll want funding when they pass 18 too.

True but what I've learnt over time is that children are nearly always at the end of the queue. Yes, we need more investment in all mental health support but children get a particularly bad deal. 1 in 6 children now have a probable mental health condition rising to 1 in 4 for young women 17 - 22 so the level of need is huge. And the majority of mental health difficulties start in childhood. If children have the right treatment early problems are less likely to escalate.