Government must put children’s rights at the heart of Covid recovery

A recent report to the United Nations (UN), led by the Children’s Rights Alliance for England and endorsed by 90 children’s charities, assesses how well the UK government has respected children’s rights since 2016, including during the pandemic. Launched to coincide with Human Rights Day, the UN submission is the first step in the UK government’s examination under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). Sadly, our findings conclude that children’s rights have regressed in many areas, and Covid-19 has only made the situation worse.

Increasing child poverty

The report finds that child poverty is increasing and likely to worsen in 2021 due to the significant economic downturns expected because of Covid-19 and Brexit. In total, 4.2 million children are already living in poverty in the UK and families are now living in deeper poverty than five years ago, despite rising employment before the pandemic. During the pandemic, there was only limited targeted financial support for families with children in poverty, including free school meal vouchers during lockdown and over the summer holidays, and some temporary funding to local authorities to help families in crisis. Given the expected increase in child poverty in the coming 12 months, it is extremely disappointing that there is still no child poverty strategy since the last one was abolished in 2016.