Former Children's Commissioner calls for review into impact of smart phones and social media

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