Our new Prime Minister must act to safeguard the rights of children

Despite some progress to embed children’s rights across government, the response to the Covid-19 pandemic demonstrated how children’s rights and voices are regularly overlooked in government decision-making.  

As Liz Truss, our new Prime Minister, settles into No 10 and shifts her focus to governing the country, we set out what she must do to protect and promote the rights of children and young people. Next year, the UK government will be examined by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child on its child rights record so there’s no time to lose.  

1. Protect the Human Rights Act 

It’s vital that the government protects the rights and entitlements that children already have, including those in the Human Rights Act. However, the Bill of Rights Bill – also known as the Rights Removal Bill – made clear that Boris Johnson’s government intended to repeal and replace the Human Rights Act which has provided important protections for some of our most vulnerable children such as children in care, child witnesses, children in custody, and refugee children over the past two decades. The widespread concern about the impact these changes could have on children is reflected in the fact that nearly 50 organisations signed up to our second reading briefing on the Bill, which highlighted the devastating impact that it would have on children's rights. 

Although further Parliamentary stages of the Bill have been postponed since Liz Truss took office, it’s crucial that this proposal is abandoned entirely. The Human Rights Act is working effectively for children and there is no fact-based case to amend or replace it. Evidence from across civil society, including the conclusions of the government’s Independent Human Rights Act Review, shows that existing human rights law is working well, and that if changes are needed, they are to attitudes and understanding of human rights and not the fundamentals of our legal and constitutional framework. 

2. Place children at the heart of government decision making 

It’s not too late for the Prime Minister to ensure that children’s rights are placed at the heart of government by appointing a cabinet minister for Children. Alongside this, Liz Truss should ensure that her government produces a cross-departmental Child Rights Action Plan and introduces a statutory requirement to carry out Child Rights Impact Assessments (CRIA) as part of the policy-making process. Despite some progress in this area, including a Department for Education CRIA template for civil servants, the use of CRIAs across Whitehall remains patchy and too many decisions are made where the impact on children’s rights and interests are not considered.       

3. Tackle key child rights issues

In our work, we see police powers being used on children, which are traumatic and damaging. They are also used disproportionately on black children. This includes the use of Taser and strip-searching and holding children for long periods of time, often overnight, in police cells. The harrowing mistreatment of our client (‘Child Q’) by the police has rightly brought the need for urgent action into the mainstream to ensure that when children interact with the police their rights are respected regardless of their ethnicity. A key first action by the Prime Minister must be to ensure that the necessary legislation, guidance, training, and accountability is in place to ensure that where children are in contact with the police, they do not experience harm or mistreatment.  

In recent years, there has been a rise in the number of children being permanently excluded from school and sadly we see in our work that this is disproportionately affecting children from black and minority ethnic backgrounds, and those with special educational needs and disabilities - a trend reflected in official statistics.  

Being excluded from school can also make children more vulnerable to child criminal exploitation (CCE). The Department for Education’s long-awaited revised statutory guidance on school exclusions and guidance on behaviour in schools came into force at the start of the month.  

Regrettably, it missed the opportunity to include sufficient safeguards to protect victims of CCE and omits a key paragraph listing these groups of children which are disproportionately excluded from school. We’re calling on the new PM to show they care about these children by introducing a strategy to tackle the fact that certain groups of children are disproportionately excluded from school and ensure they don’t miss out on their right to education. 

Today’s care system is undoubtedly failing the young people we work with every day, in particular young care leavers who are more likely to become homeless. For example, they can be found to be ‘intentionally homeless’ if they have left accommodation that the local authority deemed suitable, even if they felt unsafe in the accommodation or fell behind on their rent and got evicted. Then when care leavers turn 21, they are forced to jump through additional hurdles to prove their vulnerability whilst in crisis. We were really pleased that the final report of the Independent Care Review included a pledge to “reduce care experience homelessness now, before ending it entirely”. We urge the PM to ensure that the ambitious reforms set out in the report are not lost and implementation is taken forward with urgency.  

But there’s lots, lots more to do 

This list is far from exhaustive – there is a lot more that the Prime Minister needs to do. From tackling child poverty and ensuring children are protected from the cost-of-living crisis, ending child imprisonment, and better mental health support, this goal is not only possible but crucial to ensure that every child has a happy childhood and can reach their full potential. 

Ultimately, the only way we can ensure the UK is able to fully guarantee that all children’s rights are recognised is through full and direct incorporation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) into our domestic law. It is hugely disappointing that, over 30 years after it was adopted by the UN, the CRC has still not been made part of UK domestic law. We urge the new Prime Minister to abandon plans to dilute the rights of children and, instead, take the step which would have a transformative effect on all of our children’s lives for the better. 

Louise King is director of policy and campaigns Just for Kids Law