NEWS: Centre for Young Lives proposes big changes

As reported by Centre for Young Lives, a ten-point plan aims to tackle major challenges for children in the UK, with initiatives like mental health recovery and poverty reduction

Its priorities match some of the biggest challenges facing children in the UK, problems that have had little air time during the General Election campaign.

The proposals include introducing a one-off £1bn children and young people’s mental health recovery programme, part-financed by a levy on social media companies and mobile phone providers, and a call on the next Government to commission an independent review into the impact of smart phones and social media on children’s health and development to provide the strongest evidence base for an updated Online Safety Act.

The priorities also include a call to abolish the two-child benefit cap, the establishment of a No10 Poverty Unit tasked with halving child poverty by 2029, and the expansion of Free School Meals to all children with families in receipt of Universal Credit. The Centre urges the next Government to extend Free School Meals to all primary school children by the end of the Parliament.

The Centre proposes the next Government to introduce a windfall tax on children’s social care private providers profits to fund a five-year programme of early intervention and expanded kinship care support, reducing the number of children entering care by 30% by 2029. It also argues that Care Experience should be made a protected characteristic.

On education, the Centre calls on the next Government to reform Ofsted inspections and develop and introduce an inclusion measurement which rewards schools that ensure all their children and young people have access to high quality education, regardless of background and need. It also proposes the introduction of a register of children not in school, something promised by Government in April 2019 but never delivered.

The Centre’s other proposals include:

• Extending Pupil Premium funding to disadvantaged young people aged 16-to-18 and extending Pupil Premium Plus funding to children in kinship care;
• Enabling all schools to offer dawn until dusk support and safe places to play and take part in activities, including during holidays and weekends, financed by National Lottery Community Funding;
• Reducing autism assessment waiting lists by running autism and SEN assessments in primary schools;
• Allocating £1bn from the Government’s Levelling Up Fund to expand the number of Children’s and Family Hubs to all disadvantaged areas by 2029 alongside a roll out of Youth Hubs in those areas most affected by serious violence and knife crime, and a Government-backed review to develop a refreshed Sure Start model.