At New Year, we often think about the least fortunate and most vulnerable members of society. I fear that 2013 will bring more negative change for our weakest citizens: children. It will affect some of those you work with. It will be particularly hard when parts of families’ income rely on benefits, whether or not the parents or carers work. In some English communities, this is to be the year of the forced house and school move, the colder home, the smaller meals, the heightened tension behind closed doors. It is real, and it is now. But it will last longer and its ripples will spread further than 2013 alone.
This year, new legislation proposed in the Children and Families Bill is likely to strengthen my role and my office. In a recent scrutiny report on the bill, the Joint Committee on Human Rights recommended amendments that would provide the children’s commissioner with greater independence and powers, and more closely align us to what the UN considers a national human rights organisation for children should do.
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