Children’s Commissioner calls for national Children’s Emergency Fund after finding “enormous disparities” in levels of support across country

In ‘The Childhood Lottery’, Dame Rachel de Souza called for the establishment of a national Children’s Emergency Fund to bring services above a minimum level where they are found to be “below par”, and the appointment of a Deputy Mayor for children in every strategic authority.

The report outlines the most challenging places to be a child - with Middlesbrough, Hounslow, Bradford, Nottingham, Halton, Peterborough, Leicester and Liverpool being named as the hardest places to grow up in England.

Meanwhile, Cheshire East, Merton, Surrey, Richmond upon Thames, Hertfordshire, Cheshire West and Chester, Haringey and Leicestershire are described as the least challenging places to be a child.

Highlighting examples of “vast differences” in children’s experiences depending on where they live, the report notes that over 1 million children (1,048,965) had active referrals to children and young people’s mental health services in 2024-25.

However, the wait for treatment varied from a minimum of 6 median days from referral to second contact in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, to 118 median days in Hampshire and Isle of Wight.

Looking at Education, Jobs and Skills the report found that:

• 8.3% of children in Blackpool are known to be missing from education, compared with just 0.03% of children in Lambeth.
• The proportion of children who get a good pass (5 or better) in their English and Maths GCSEs, ranges from 70% in Richmond upon Thames to 31% in Knowsley.
• Access to post-16 educational provision varies from 2.2 settings per 1,000 children in Sutton, to 0.1 in Portsmouth.

In light of her findings, Dame Rachel de Souza made the following recommendations:

• A set of minimum standards for children’s outcomes, and where these outcomes are not hit, a national fund that local areas can draw on to deliver the services that children need, including, but not limited to: education, policing, health, and youth services.
• Strategic authorities should adopt a children’s test for the impact of their policies. The outcomes must cover the most significant problems facing children, including their access to good housing, their safety in their local area, or their chances of getting a good job. This will require different departments to take radically different approaches – from planning, housing, transport, police and more – to tackle the challenges and to take ownership of delivering on these outcomes.
• Every strategic authority should have a Deputy Mayor for children, or designated lead for children. They should be responsible and empowered to deliver key new functions, particularly around the coordination of local authority services and regional delivery. They should be held accountable against the Children’s Test in their area. That should include setting out how they will meet the agreed set of outcomes for children, what measures they will use, and publishing an annual report of their performance.   

Dame Rachel de Souza, said: “Giving power to local decision makers should lead to more responsive public services. This data shows that no two areas are the same. Local policy makers and those delivering services must be able to react to the challenges their children face to improve their lives. For that to work, mayors and local decision makers must be given the right tools to improve children’s lives, including access to centrally held data, funding to accompany new responsibilities and clearly defined minimum standards.

“[…] The extent of failure is too great. I cannot see what I have seen, here and over my six years as Commissioner, and see the status quo as anything less than a national emergency. As such, I firmly believe that a national Children’s Emergency Fund must be established, to bring services above a minimum level wherever they are found to be below par.

“[…] We cannot tolerate the status quo.”

Responding to the report, Cllr Natalie Oliver, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Children, Young People and Families Committee, said: “Every child deserves to thrive, wherever they live, and we know that there are many children all over the country who are doing just that.

“As this data shows, every area has different challenges which no single organisation can tackle alone. It is important that local partners work together to address those, and to make sure that all children and families get the support they need, when they need it.

“The Government’s plans to ‘rewire the state’ need to make sure public services have the right resources, duties and powers at the right levels, to deliver the best possible outcomes for and with their communities.”

Lottie Winson