Editorial: A better chance for England's 11 million

But behind the gloss of this week's announcement lies a palpable sense of frustration and restlessness at commissioner Sir Al Aynsley-Green's paltry 3m annual budget. This works out at 30 pence per child compared with 90 pence for the commissioner's office in Scotland, 2.10 in Wales and 3.80 in Northern Ireland. The new name underlines the fact that the number of children and young people in England outstrips the entire populations of the other three UK nations put together.

The five-year strategy contains a couple of intriguing policies to try to overcome its funding constraints. First, it is setting up a charitable subsidiary to raise funds, both financial and for services in-kind, specifically to finance large-scale public campaigns to make young people more highly valued by adults, one of the two long-term goals of its five-year strategy (see p2).