Children's voices must be heard to help fight cuts

Across the UK, the general election and the Queen's Speech have dominated the headlines. During my first month, the nation has been buzzing with debate about what kind of society we want.

Children don't have a vote. This explains how rarely their lives feature in public debates in elections. While there was a lot of talk from most parties about hard-working families, there was little discussion about children whose lives are most hidden from view.

That includes children living in poverty, looked-after children and care leavers, disabled children and those seeking asylum. I heard child poverty mentioned in just one election debate by one leader.

It's a problem we also see here in Wales: too much debate among adults about children and what they need without hearing from children directly. I don't want children and young people to be passive citizens, but enabled to be active, demanding and contributing citizens too. The challenge for us all is to create a country that values children as citizens right here and now. A society that values all children equally needs to recognise the additional assistance some will need to be able to play a full part in society.

As children's commissioner, my role is to be the voice of all children and young people in Wales. But to be an effective champion, I want to know from them about what they feel I should be speaking out about, and where I should best be making use of my legal powers. I want them to help set my priorities and I want them to hold me to account on the things I promise to do with their ideas. I've already met hundreds of children and young people, parents and carers, and professionals to hear about the main issues facing children and young people and I'll be launching a major consultation event in September - "Beth Nesa/What next?" - to gather more children's and adults' views on what they think I should be doing as children's commissioner.

The burden of cuts

Austerity and cuts were also debated in the general election. I would have liked to see more attention from all parties to the uneven impact of cuts on different groups. Children have lost out most in the past few years and young people have been speaking passionately to me about cuts to services that are important to them. Austerity is not just an issue in the UK but right across Europe, as the European Network of Ombudspersons for Children's new online video exhibition "Austerity Bites: Children's Voices" demonstrates.

We can see the impact of cuts on the disposable incomes of families with children, especially when we look at how much money families have after housing costs are paid, and in the rise of food banks. But there are also other ways that austerity affects the quality of lives.

Cuts to youth services, community centres, family support services, libraries and music services all have a greater impact on poorer children and give them fewer opportunities to play a full part in our society as citizens with something to contribute.

Economic and social analysis tells us that when societies make an effort to close the gap between the poorest and richest, everyone benefits in the long run.

The Welsh government and, in turn, our local services have to work with the money made available to them, which will mean more cuts. However, we should all be talking about the unfair burden of the cuts that children have to bear. That is a post-election debate worth having.

Sally Holland is the children's commissioner for Wales