Anne Longfield, Executive Chair of the Centre for Young Lives and
former Children's Commissioner for England, is today (Tuesday)
setting out a ten-point plan to boost children's life chances for
the next Government.
The Centre for Young Lives' priorities match some of the biggest
challenges facing children in the UK, problems that have had
little air time during the General Election campaign.
The proposals include introducing
a one-off £1bn children and young people's
mental health recovery programme, part-financed by a levy on
social media companies and mobile phone providers, and a call on
the next Government to commission an independent review into the
impact of smart phones and social media on children's health and
development to provide the strongest evidence base for
an updated Online Safety Act.
The priorities also include a call to abolish the
two-child benefit cap, the establishment of a No10 Poverty Unit
tasked with halving child poverty by 2029, and the expansion of
Free School Meals to all children with families in receipt of
Universal Credit. The Centre urges the next
Government to extend Free School Meals to all primary school
children by the end of the Parliament.
The Centre proposes the next Government to introduce
a windfall tax on children's social care private providers
profits to fund a five-year programme of early intervention and
expanded kinship care support, reducing the number of
children entering care by 30% by 2029. It also argues
that Care Experience should be made a protected
characteristic.
On education, the Centre calls on the next Government to reform
Ofsted inspections and develop and introduce an inclusion
measurement which rewards schools that ensure all their children
and young people have access to high quality education,
regardless of background and need. It also proposes the
introduction of a register of children not in school, something
promised by Government in April 2019 but never delivered.
The Centre's other proposals include:
- Extending Pupil Premium funding to disadvantaged young people
aged 16-to-18 and extending Pupil Premium Plus funding to
children in kinship care;
- Enabling all schools to offer dawn until dusk support and
safe places to play and take part in activities, including during
holidays and weekends, financed by National Lottery Community
Funding;
- Reducing autism assessment waiting lists by running autism
and SEN assessments in primary schools;
- Allocating £1bn from the Government's Levelling Up Fund to
expand the number of Children's and Family Hubs to all
disadvantaged areas by 2029 alongside a roll out of Youth Hubs in
those areas most affected by serious violence and knife crime,
and a Government-backed review to develop a refreshed Sure
Start model.
Anne Longfield, Executive Chair of the Centre for Young
Lives, said:
“In over four decades of working and campaigning to improve
support and help for children and families, I can't remember a
less impressive Parliament than the one which has just dissolved.
Half-hearted reforms to services and sticking plaster investment
have failed to meet the scale of the challenges brought about by
austerity, the Covid pandemic, and the cost of living crisis.
“While most of our children do OK, millions do not, and whoever
wins the forthcoming General Election will find an in-tray
stacked with serious problems.
“Our levels of child poverty are shocking and shameful. We should
be mortified that a country as wealthy as ours has so many
schools with food banks and clothes banks.
“There is a school attendance crisis. A fifth of children are
still leaving school without even basic qualifications. Our
education system is often far from inclusive.
“There is a children's mental health epidemic affecting one in
five children and young people. The impact of social media
remains largely unknown, and policy is often motivated by
headlines not evidence.
“Special Educational Needs provision can be poor, slow to arrive,
and mired in bureaucracy and stress.
“Millions of children are growing up in families where there is
domestic abuse, addiction, and/or serious mental health problems,
on the edge of statutory services but not receiving any real
help.
“The children's social care system is on the brink and the
Government has not implemented enough of its own independent
review's recommendations.
“And hardly a month passes without a teenager being killed on our
streets. Earlier this month two twelve-year-olds were found
guilty of murder. Something is going badly wrong in our society,
and everyone knows it.
“Too many of our children are falling through the gaps. A new
Government, whoever is elected, offers the chance of a reset and
a new approach to boosting opportunities for all children,
wherever they grow up and whatever their background.
“Today, we are setting out ten policy proposals for the next
Government, whichever party forms it, to help them on their way.
Tackling these issues - and there are many more that could have
been added to the list – is a vital and urgent task for our
country's future prosperity.
“I am always optimistic that with the right amount of political
will and a clear sense of purpose that Government can pull down
the barriers that hold back many of our children and begin to
turn around their lives. These ten proposals are a good place for
them to start.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
The ten priorities are available here: https://tinyurl.com/tenprioritiespdf
