I am now halfway through my term as Children's Commissioner, and next year marks an important milestone for children's rights. Whichever party emerges from the general election, the new government will have a new task of setting out an ambitious vision of what childhood will look like and children's rights at its heart.
So, in September 2023, big ambition Hear directly from children, young people and parents across the country. I wanted to hear about their hopes, dreams, and aspirations for the future. More than 367,000 children and adults participated. I am particularly pleased that this includes many children who have social workers, who live away from home, who need additional support and who are not in education. Ta. A truly ambitious vision for children must put children, who are too often overlooked, at the center.
from big ambition, big question, and with all the focus groups and research I've conducted, I've now engaged with over 1 million children and adults. I used this to create a plan consisting of 33 recommendations, based on what my children told me they wanted the government to do. This recommendation is therefore ambitious. Because children are ambitious and this is not the time for gradualism. These recommendations will make the rights of children a reality. They offer a positive vision of what childhood could be like if it were reimagined through a child's eyes.
These cover the seven pillars of my work: children's social care, communities, education, health, families, jobs and skills, and a better world. In each pillar, I have a special duty to children who have a social worker, who live away from home, or who have a care background. What I care about most are my children. This plan only works if it works for them.
I also outlined a more fundamental overhaul of the functioning of government and civil society that will be needed to ensure the individual changes that children want. We need a child-friendly workforce with child-appropriate funding, clear central and local accountability, a valued and empowered workforce, and a data system that makes it easier for children to navigate the nation. We need to look at systems built around core outcomes. , parent or professional.
Publishing The Big Ambition's findings and recommendations is just the beginning. The voices of one million children will be my driving force for the rest of my time as Children's Commissioner, and I will work hard to make each recommendation a reality. That's why this business plan sets out what I will do next year to drive change in each area that my children have told me they want to see. It sets out how I will use the powers available to me as Children's Commissioner to obtain data and information about children and to go to all the places where children live away from home.
But the most driving force for me throughout the year is the trust my children have placed in me. They have told me their ideas, their frustrations, and the changes they want to see, and I want to repay that trust. When I first saw the results of “The Big Ambition,” there was one number that stood out above the rest. Only 22% of children agreed that the people running the country should listen to them. At first I was disappointed by this. This is a generation that has completely lost trust in leaders and politicians. However, as I read through the responses to the survey and reflected on the words the children used, I realized that the message was actually quite different. This generation is not one that has become a cynic who believes that nothing will change. This is a generation that is frustrated that their opinions are not heard. Because they fully believe that politicians can and will change their lives for the better if they are listened to.
They are right to believe this. I believe that too. I will dedicate the remainder of my time as Children's Commissioner to ensuring that the hopes that one million children have placed in me are heard and carried out.
