Leading charities demand young people are protected in any future crises as children’s module of Covid Inquiry begins hearing evidence

The Children’s Rights Organisations (CROs) comprising of five leading children’s rights groups are calling on the Covid-19 Inquiry to deliver justice, strengthen safeguards, and put children first - after systemic failures during the pandemic caused devastating harm to countless young people.  

Module 8 of the Inquiry, which opened today, will focus on the impact of pandemic policies on children across the UK, including disabled children, those with special educational needs, growing up in poverty, in contact with the criminal justice and mental health systems and from diverse backgrounds

The Centre for Young Lives, Child Poverty Action Group, Save the Children UK, Just for Kids Law, and the Children’s Rights Alliance for England are represented as Core Participants, bringing their expertise on children’s rights, inequality, and discrimination. 

The group is calling for the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child to be incorporated into UK law and for there to be a mandatory requirement to properly consider children’s rights in decision-making. This would safeguard children’s rights during any future emergency, ensuring they are not overlooked when governments make rapid decisions. 

Over the next four weeks, the Inquiry will question key decision makers, including former Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, on their roles in pandemic decision-making and its impact on children. 

Steve Broach KC who is representing the CROs said in his opening submission today;

“The rights and interests of children and young people were routinely overlooked or deprioritised throughout the pandemic. This lack of focus on the rights and interests of children was systemic. It was not an unfortunate oversight but resulted from a failure to embed the rights and interests of children in the centre of the machinery of government.  

“It is important to take stock and to reflect that it is clear beyond doubt that many children suffered unnecessary harm from the governmental response to this civil emergency - not least in part due to the reduction in public funding over many years in children’s education, health and social services. 

"The CROs have set out our preliminary position on the key recommendations needed to address the structural invisibility of children within government. These recommendations include legislative change, to ensure children’s rights impact assessments are completed and published before all relevant decisions are taken, and to incorporate children’s rights in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child into domestic law across the UK - as mandatory obligations, not just matters to which decision makers must have regard"

“The CROs therefore reiterate that the Inquiry’s central focus for this module should be on understanding how this could have happened, and what can be done differently next time.” 

Baroness Anne Longfield, former Children’s Commissioner for England during Covid and Executive Chair and founder of Centre for Young Lives, said:   

“Children were not given the priority or adequate protection they needed during the Covid 19 pandemic and were often overlooked when important decisions were made.  

“The consequences for many of the Covid generation of children are devastating, with an unprecedented rise in anxiety and poor mental health, huge losses in learning and poorer job and life chances as a result. Those children who were already vulnerable before the pandemic have been hit the hardest. 

“We owe it to this generation of children to help them recover from the mistakes Government made at the time and ensure children are never forgotten and overlooked again.” 

Dan Paskins, Director of UK Impact at Save the Children UK said: 

"Extensive evidence has exposed the devastating toll of the Covid-19 pandemic on children. It particularly affected children living in poverty, from racialised communities, or in institutional care. For too long, the children who faced the biggest challenges were rendered invisible in the eyes of the UK Government. 

“The Inquiry must confront this failure head-on – finding out why children’s rights were overlooked, and why their voices were ignored. It must issue bold, clear recommendations to learn lessons so that we can protect children better in future crises, and so that children who suffered during the pandemic now get the help they need to flourish.” 

Alison Garnham, Chief Executive of Child Poverty Action Group, said: 

“Low-income families were all but shipwrecked during the pandemic – with neither a robust social security safety net to keep them on an even keel nor targeted emergency support from the then government. Flat-rate payments of the temporary uplift to universal credit failed spectacularly to take account of children in a household. And children in struggling families were big losers, cast adrift from their education in households without money to replace the learning resources normally supplied by schools. 

"This inquiry is a much-needed opportunity to examine the shortfalls in provision for children during coronavirus and a chance to change tack for the future. The inquiry’s interrogation must lead to substantive improvements in social security support so that low-income families with children will never again have to weather storms with such inadequate support”

Louise King, Co-Lead, Just for Kids Law, including the Children’s Rights Alliance for England said: 

“A wealth of evidence has already demonstrated the devasting consequences of the pandemic on children, which was particularly acute for certain groups, including those in poverty, from racialised communities or living in institutions. 

“It’s crucial, therefore, that the Inquiry scrutinises why children were so invisible to the UK Government during the Covid crisis and the reasons behind the failure to adequately consider their rights. Clear recommendations to ensure that children are placed at the heart of Government decision-making processes are also imperative so that the harm caused to them during the pandemic is never repeated.” 

Notes to Editors 

For further comment or interview requests please contact [email protected] 

For out of hours please contact [email protected] 

Social media handles:

@savechildrenuk, @justforkidslaw, @CRAE_official, @CPAGUK, @CfYoungLives