{"id":807776,"date":"2026-10-19T17:44:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T17:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807776\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T17:44:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T17:44:11","slug":"youth-services-in-parts-of-england-in-state-of-emergency-childrens-commissioner-says-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/807776\/","title":{"rendered":"Youth services in parts of England in state of emergency, children\u2019s commissioner says | Children"},"content":{"rendered":"

Services for children in parts of England<\/a> are in a \u201cstate of emergency\u201d, according to a report that identifies what it claims to be the hardest places in the country for young people to grow up in.<\/p>\n

The children\u2019s commissioner, Rachel de Souza, said in some local authorities individual service failures or systemic problems meant \u201cno child could reasonably be expected to thrive and those that do thrive do so against the odds\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said she had spoken to children on recent visits to schools, youth clubs and young offender institutions around the country and some of the things she had heard and seen had \u201cutterly disgusted\u201d her.<\/p>\n

On a recent visit to Middlesbrough, a 14-year-old-girl had informed her of the crime statistics in her area. \u201cChildren should not have to know those statistics,\u201d De Souza said.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cTheir parents should not have to talk about them over dinner to explain why children cannot play outside. Schools should not have administrative staff dealing with drug overdoses and racist thugs. Nowhere in England should \u2018a chase from the police\u2019 be a primary source of entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Souza said she wanted to shine a light on areas where childhood was hardest. \u201cWe cannot shy away from the fact that indicators such as poor education outcomes, long health waiting lists or simply feeling unsafe converge in particular places,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn some communities, these challenges amount to nothing less than a state of emergency. Not for every child. Not everywhere. But what we see here is a litany of failure. In so many areas of the country, children are being radically failed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachel de Souza is the children\u2019s commissioner for England. Photograph: Aaron Chown\/PA<\/p>\n

Her analysis is based on official data covering more than 160 measures, including child poverty, educational outcomes, community safety, NHS waiting times and access to playgrounds.<\/p>\n

It names a clutch of relatively deprived areas \u2013 Middlesbrough, Hounslow, Bradford, Nottingham, Halton, Peterborough, Leicester, Liverpool, Sunderland and Medway as the hardest places in which to grow up in England.<\/p>\n

By contrast, a series of relatively wealthy areas \u2013 Cheshire East, Merton, Surrey, Richmond upon Thames, Hertfordshire, Cheshire West and Chester, Haringey, Leicestershire, Central Bedfordshire and Wokingham \u2013 are identified as the least challenging places in which to be a child.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat children across the country feel to be true is in fact true. That it simply is harder to be a child in Middlesbrough than it is in Cheshire \u2026 the outcomes are shocking \u2026 an unacceptable failure,\u201d the report says.<\/p>\n

It adds: \u201cWhen areas are unsafe, that is not a point on a dashboard, it is children being the subject of racist abuse and violence on the way to school. When local services fail, it is not a failure to hit KPIs [key performance indicators], it is a child on the phone to their school with their parents dead in the other room.\u201d<\/p>\n

The report, called The Childhood Lottery<\/a>, says a north-south divide exists, with authorities in the south more likely to score higher across the metrics, and those in the north more likely to score lower, with the Midlands in between.<\/p>\n

De Souza said children should be a priority in the government\u2019s devolution agenda and she urged the government to draw up a series of minimum standards for education, policing, health and youth services. A national fund should be created to invest in areas that fail to hit the benchmarks.<\/p>\n

She recommended that every strategic authority should have a deputy mayor for children, accountable for delivering on a \u201cchildren\u2019s test\u201d ensuring that local policies bring benefits and improvements to young people\u2019s services.<\/p>\n

The Department for Education said it was working to improve childcare support and school standards, and it was giving more power to \u201clocal leaders\u201d to shape the future of their education.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Services for children in parts of England are in a \u201cstate of emergency\u201d, according to a report that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":807777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-807776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=807776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/807776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/807777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=807776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=807776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=807776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}