Young lives, big ambitions
BACP Children, Young People and Families, September 2024

Jeanine: Our readers will recognise you from the six years you spent as the Children’s Commissioner for England. What are your proudest achievements from your time in the role?

Anne: I’m very proud of the work that the Office did to produce the first ever annual estimate of the extent of child vulnerability in the UK. As we asked at the time, how can you tackle the problems of child vulnerability if you have no idea of the size of the problem? We also designed the annual Stability Index for children in care, which shone a light on the extent of placement moves within the children’s social care system, and produced the first annual report on the state of children’s mental health services. The latter came at a time when the then Government was sticking to the line that there wasn’t a huge problem with the provision of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). We were also at the forefront of looking at ways of protecting children online, and campaigning for the legislation that became the Online Safety Act.  

Most of all, I’m particularly proud of the voice that we gave to vulnerable children in the corridors of power. I made this our priority during my time in the role, and I think we were particularly effective during the COVID-19 pandemic in raising awareness of the huge challenges and consequences that lockdown and school closures would bring. It meant the Government were much quicker in opening schools again after the second national lockdown 

What does your current role as Chair of the Centre for Young Lives entail? 

We launched the Centre for Young Lives in February 2024 to give a dedicated voice to children and young people’s policy, innovation and delivery. While there are a lot of different organisations looking at education, or social care, or safeguarding issues, it is important to understand and represent young people’s lives in the round. As a founder of the Centre, it’s my job to be the public face of the work, help build our team, be involved in devising projects, and boost our profile and influence. 

BACP Children, Young People and Families, September 2024

Can you tell us a bit about your new book: why did you decide to write it and what is it about? 

I wrote it because I think our society is failing too many children, and I believe that we can do better. Many of the vulnerabilities that can disrupt childhood, like a difficult home life, a missed diagnosis, or falling in with the wrong crowd, can lead to children falling through the cracks in services, and becoming victims of a destructive cycle that can end in exploitation, violence and lost life chances. As Children’s Commissioner for England, I saw and heard so many stories of the devastating effects of this cycle on vulnerable young people who were being failed by systems that are underfunded and overstretched. I wrote the book because I wanted to put forward an action plan to fix these broken systems, and give every young person a better chance of succeeding in life. 

In your book, you describe several tragic deaths of young people who fell through the gaps in services. You say that we all have a responsibility to ‘notice and intervene when something is wrong’ and that we ‘are all capable of making an impact’. As counsellors and psychotherapists working with CYP, what should we look for and how can we make a difference? 

I think we have a duty as professionals to intervene when we see problems, and we should not be afraid of the word ‘intervention’. It isn’t meddling, it is safeguarding and supporting – being there for individuals and doing what it takes to help them succeed. I think one of my biggest frustrations in recent years is the move away from early intervention in the early 2010s, and the disastrous consequences that has had for many vulnerable children. I think we are now moving towards a recognition that early help and support are crucial, and that it saves governments money too. For professionals in schools, that means not just focusing on the academic, but also the pastoral and relationship-building. For healthcare professionals, it’s about creating environments where children feel safe and comfortable.

In social work, it means a workforce that isn’t swamped and is able to spend time building relationships. For all of us, it means much more joined-up working, sharing information, good practice, innovation, and working with families to prevent problems escalating into crisis. Government’s role is not to nanny, but to support professionals to intervene early. Most want to, but many are currently working within a system which is firefighting, without the capacity for the early intervention work that they know can make a huge difference. 

How do you explain the alarming statistics, cited in your book, about young people involved in gangs (13,000),¹ being victims of sexual exploitation (18,700) and at risk of serious violence (200,000)?² 

One of the saddest and most frustrating things about hearing the stories of children and families who have become the victims of serious violence, or criminal or sexual exploitation, or children who are locked up in prison as perpetrators, is how similar their life stories are: serious problems at home, usually not in school, often dealing with undiagnosed or unsupported special education needs or disabilities (SEND), developmental problems before primary school, mental health problems etc. Very often, these children and families haven’t had the right kind of early help they needed. We are allowing thousands of young people to fall through gaps in the education and care systems. We don’t have a CAMHS system that can cope with the demands placed upon it, the care system is broken, and sadly putting some children at greater risk of harm. Too often, services are not joined up. There are hundreds of thousands of families battling serious problems in the home – on the edge of care or support but not receiving anything at all. Sadly, there are some extremely cunning and nimble people, and criminal organisations, who are adept at spotting children who are vulnerable and exploiting them. A young person excluded from school with an unstable family life can be easy pickings for gangs and criminal organisations. 

There has been a 95% increase in adolescent care proceedings, and this is the fastest growing demographic of children being taken into care.³ Why do you think this is?

It is a consequence of systems that are underfunded and constantly battling crisis, and a dismantling of youth services and early intervention projects. There are many reasons why more teenagers are going into care – insufficient support for parents, poverty, poor housing, schools that don’t stick with children who are struggling, and the rising number of teenagers at risk of exploitation or harm. The whole system now is geared towards trying to manage crisis – and so children, who for years have been struggling with different challenges without support, reach their teenage years with multiple adversities, then boom… they hit crisis point. It is a self-perpetuating mess. The more we spend on crisis, the less we stop crisis happening. It’s a circle of doom, and we need to break it. 

You describe families as ‘one of our country’s greatest assets’. What do you mean?  

Families come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. I’d never tell anyone what the ‘best’ kind of family should be in terms of marriage or one or two parents, but I do think families are our biggest assets because a strong family provides stability, love, support, guidance, care and encouragement to children. Some families aren’t always able to provide those things, but most want to be able to. Often, they just need a little bit of extra help to do it. We have neglected family support over the last few years, and many of the problems we’re seeing now are a direct result of just leaving families with very serious problems to deal with them on their own. Strong families lead to strong communities, which leads to a stronger country and society. We need to do all we can to support families to thrive.  

Why do you think that SEND children and those from ethnic minorities are more likely to be excluded from school? And what can be done to change that? 

Our SEND system is overstretched, underfunded and relies on late intervention too often. We can’t hope to provide children with SEND with all the support they need, while we have long waiting lists and assessment processes that are mired in bureaucracy. I think there is a positive role for schools and nurseries, and family hubs, in helping to identify SEND much earlier in a child’s life. There are too many children who fall out of school with either undiagnosed SEND or unsupported SEND. Poor Alternative Provision (AP) is making the situation worse. There are also disproportionate numbers of children from ethnic minority backgrounds being excluded – again, this goes back to a failure to tackle poverty, to provide an education system that is inclusive of all communities, mental health support services that meet the needs of all communities, and a lack of trust in statutory services that has built up over generations. 

What do you think/hope the UK COVID-19 Inquiry will tell us about the impact on children and young people? What lessons do you hope will be learned? 

I hope it agrees with my view and the evidence submission I made to the Inquiry – the Government treated children as an afterthought, it did not prioritise their needs, and it did not consider the impact of numerous policies on children’s welfare, wellbeing or education. I hope the key lesson learnt is that children need to be given extra consideration in an emergency so that we do everything possible to support and minimise the disruption to children’s lives. In short, children should be at the front of the queue, not the back. 

I like the description in your book of an analogue education system in a digital world. Can you elaborate and say what you think the impact of that is on CYP? 

I think our education system has been slow to keep up with the development in work, technology and children’s lives. It can also be backward-looking, fixated on a golden age that never existed. All of us want high standards and great outcomes for children. It’s self-defeating for society and our economy that we have allowed a system to grow that sees one in five young people leave education without the most basic qualifications, which is still excluding too many children, and which fails to reward inclusion. Good exam results should be the foundation of our education system but achieving that should also include providing a good education to every child, being responsive to different needs, and wrap-around support to those who need it. Loads of schools are already doing this, and are often penalised by Ofsted with a lower rating for going the extra mile for taking on vulnerable children, who other local schools do not want. Our education system needs to set our children up for a changing world in the future. It doesn’t do that now. 

With clinical thresholds to access CAMHS seeming so high, and waiting lists so long, what message would you give to young people waiting for support, who (as you recount in your book) may turn to attempted suicide as a way into services?

It is heartbreaking to hear stories of teenagers trying to take their own lives to get treatment, yet it is happening. It’s very difficult to know what to say to a child and family who are desperate for support but unable to find anything, or even to get on a waiting list. It is a postcode lottery. I hope that the next Government will prioritise rolling out mental health support teams to every school, and look seriously at opening youth hubs that can provide safe and welcoming environments for children. We are storing up huge problems for the future by failing so many children. 

The UK ranks a woeful 27th on UNICEF’s global list of children’s wellbeing and life satisfaction.⁴ Why do you think that is and what can be done to change it? 

We have shocking levels of child poverty, an education system that doesn’t always meet the needs of children and puts a lot of pressure on young people, a postcode lottery for mental health support, stretched SEND systems, and we don’t do enough to encourage children to play, participate in sport, or eat well. We’ve fallen way behind many other countries who rightly see children’s health and wellbeing as crucial to building a healthy society. As COVID-19 showed, children come way down the list of priorities for many politicians in the UK. If we don’t support vulnerable children from cradle to career, then we can’t really be surprised if a sizeable number of young people struggle with their wellbeing.  

Your ‘wish list’ for young people includes social prescribing, guaranteed health and educational psychology assessments, guaranteed treatment and emergency appointments, mental health support in schools, drop-in mental health hubs, parent support, integrated services, knowledge and data sharing, and a diverse and culturally competent workforce. I think we all share your wishes – but how realistic are they in the current economic and political landscape? 

I’m firmly of the view that these ambitions are all possible if there is the political will to do them. We saw child poverty falling a couple of decades ago. We need to keep hammering away at politicians, reminding them that today’s children are voters of the future, and their parents can vote now. We need a real change of mindset towards recognising the crucial role young people play in building a better society. It’s our job to be relentless in putting forward deliverable and affordable change. 

How do you remain hopeful?  

In am, by nature, a very optimistic person. I remember decades ago, very few politicians had an interest in boosting childcare or paid parental leave – times do change, and if you’re persistent, then you can change minds and policy.  

What are you currently involved with and what is next for you professionally? 

We launched the Centre for Young Lives in February – a new independent think tank and delivery unit dedicated to transforming the lives of children, young people and families. I think we’re uniquely placed as the only think tank in the UK focusing exclusively on the issues and challenges facing children. We’re here to provide informed and expert insight, producing quantitative and qualitative research and analysis, and campaigning for change by bringing together research, policy development and delivery. We’re already in partnership with the N8 universities, producing a series of reports which put forward evidence-based recommendations for tackling issues like the autism assessment crisis, child poverty and poor SEND provision. We are also about to launch the Raising the Nation Play Commission, a year-long project in partnership with the social entrepreneur Paul Lindley, which will set out recommendations to Government for how to encourage children to spend more time playing.  

What is your final message to our readers? 

Be optimistic, keep making the case for change! 

We will. I think child and adolescent counsellors and psychotherapists are an optimistic bunch! Thank you so much for speaking with me, Anne, and sharing your valuable insight and optimism with our readers.