COM0009

Written evidence submitted by the Save Childhood Movement

1. The Save Childhood Movement would like to address points 1, 3 and 5 of the Commissioner’s commitments i.e. Understanding and celebrating childhood, Seeing sustained action to reduce inequalities for children and Seeing a machinery of Government that best helps children flourish.

2. We believe that:

1) the role of the commissioner should be substantially strengthened and that, as recommended by the 2015 Joint Committee on Human Rights[1] its independence and powers should be compliance with the Paris Principles;

2) there is an urgent need for the establishment of a new, ideally cross party, cabinet role/Ministry for Children overseeing the rights of children and families and supported by the work of the four children’s commissioners;

3) there should be coherent implementation of the UNCRC across all government departments with Child Rights and Wellbeing IMPACT Assessments for all new policies; and

4) the school starting age should be raised with comprehensive provision of play-based education and care for children between 3 and rising 7, and a commitment to funding for families so children can be cared for within a secure, predictable domestic environment between birth and three.

3. Children in the modern world are subject to unprecedented cultural and environmental tensions. From the commercial influences of the media, the downward pressures of the schooling system, the changing nature of their local streetscapes and the extraordinary advancement of digital technology, their rights and freedoms have been progressively and substantially eroded. The 2011 Bailey Review reported that 88% of parents believed that children are under pressure to grow up too quickly.[2]

4. The last 30 years have witnessed some of the most profound economic and social changes for families in the UK; changes to the way we work, care, learn and play that have been set against a backdrop of equally profound changes to family structures and dynamics. We have entered 2015 as members of a society that is still deeply unequal. According to the charity 4Children one in four children are living in poverty; over one million young people aged 16-24 are not in employment, education or training; and many children and young people have low aspirations and low self-esteem. “A staggering 500,000 families – one in ten - in this country are ‘just coping,’ dropping in and out of crisis with little hope of escape from the vicious circle they are caught up in”. [3]

5. When compared with our European neighbours, the UK performs poorly on almost every preventable social problem – crime, mental ill health, family breakdown, drug use and obesity. The 2014 analysis carried out by Action for Children revealed that the UK has to spend a third more in addressing the consequences of its social problems than the next most troubled nation. But the costs are not only economic. The prevalence of these social problems has a direct impact on how children experience their lives and on the cohesiveness of our communities. This means that the UK has some of the lowest levels of child wellbeing when compared with countries of similar economic wealth, and across social and psychological dimensions. Our 16–24-year-olds, for example, record the lowest levels of trust and belonging in Europe.[4]

6. Child wellbeing in the UK has been the subject of increasing concern. Currently one in ten children is being diagnosed with a mental health disorder,[5] one in three is clinically obese,[6] one in 12 of our adolescents deliberately harm themselves and nearly 80,000 children and young people currently suffer from severe depression including 8,000 children aged under 10 years of age.[7] With cuts to services charities throughout the UK are reporting that child mental health support services are currently inadequate and failing children at an unprecedented level and we believe this is a deeply worrying situation that needs to be tackled head on.

7. One of the factors substantially implicated in England’s poor levels of child wellbeing is that of its exceptional testing and high-stakes accountability system that puts pressure on children from an ever-younger age. Children in England currently start school at an earlier age than most other countries in the world and are exposed to ‘readiness’ agendas that compromise the depth and value of their learning and that score and label them in ways that undermine their natural motivations and dispositions. The current imposition of Baseline Assessment on entry to reception is a prime example of such a potentially harmful policy that has been implemented without the appropriate evidence and against expert opinion and advice.
    
8. Decades of research in the behavioral and social sciences have produced substantial evidence that children who do well despite serious hardship have had at least one stable and committed relationship with a supportive parent, caregiver, or other adult. Children who experience relational instability simply won’t be as confident and resilient as those that experience high quality loving care from others and the effects of this can be felt throughout life. Fifty years ago children lived within strong family units embedded within established local communities. Over the past few decades, however, changes in marriage, divorce and cohabitation have contributed to the growing number of new types of family. Two in five of all marriages are now remarriages, which makes stepfamilies one of the fastest growing family forms in Britain, currently making up one in ten of all families.[8] In the decade to 2006, the number of single parent families also increased to 2.3 million, making up 14% of all families.[9]

9. The pressure on mothers to participate in the workforce has also been considerable. In recent times, changes in society including improved educational access for women, legislative change, and shifting social attitudes towards gender roles, have all paved the way for women’s mass entry into the labour market. Between 1971 and 2008 women’s employment rate increased from 59% to 70%[10] and, with growing economic pressures in the UK, we have now reached a situation where most mothers have to work in order to make ends meet. This has resulted in the political focus on providing ‘universal childcare’, without, we would argue, an accompanying concern about the importance of quality, or an appropriate and unbiased investment in research as to whether such policies are genuinely in the best interests of the child. Nor are policymakers taking sufficient note of the considerable evidence that shows that what matters most to parents is being able to provide their children with loving, caring relationships, and that when asked a significant percentage of parents would, if given the economic choice, like the opportunity to send more time with their children.

10. Measures of health and social problems in other countries have revealed that it is not poor material conditions that necessarily imply that richer countries do better than others, but the scale of material differences between their citizens.[11] In other words it is how we compare ourselves to others. Child wellbeing is strongly related to inequality and the sense of inequality begins in early childhood. The single most effective investment that governments can make is to ensure that all children are given the same early support, but this does not mean a ‘one-size-fits all’ system, but, instead, one that is highly responsive to the diverse needs of individual children, families and communities. Countries that do well on indices of child wellbeing have invariably invested heavily in the importance of family life and early relationships and we know that social inequalities in early childhood are entrenched long before the start of formal education.

11. Investment in early childhood therefore does more than just pay significant returns to children. They also benefit taxpayers and enhance economic vitality. Economic research, by Nobel Prize-winners and Federal Reserve economists, in economic studies in dozens of states and counties, and in longitudinal studies spanning 40 years, have demonstrated that the return on public investment is substantial. In fact there are significant economic arguments to say that we should be reversing funding curves to prioritise investment in the early years over any other societal issue. As the economist James Heckman has shown, every pound or dollar invested in quality early childhood education for disadvantaged children results in a 7-10% return on investment, per child per year, through increased productivity and the reduced need for social spending.[12]

12. We believe that the Children’s Commissioner should be able to play a key role in the protection of English children’s rights and that her position should be strengthened and supported in order for her to do so.

October 2015