Commissioner pledges to use full extent of powers over coming year
Janaki Mahadevan
Friday, July 22, 2011
The children's commissioner for England has vowed to ramp up efforts to promote and protect children's rights by taking the first steps to strengthen the role in light of John Dunford's review.
Earlier this month, the Office of the Children's Commissioner published its business plan which proposed what the organisation intends to achieve in the coming year.
Introducing the plan, Maggie Atkinson said it had been developed in "the spirit of the recommendations made by Dr Dunford".
Kicking off the first major inquiry for 2011/12, Atkinson announced that for the first time she would invoke the commissioner's powers to summons people to give evidence to investigate the issue of inequality in school exclusions.
Challenging exclusions
"There are times when you can ask people about sensitive and difficult matters where people withhold information," she told CYP Now. "The charitable sector has been asking for a long time why these powers have never been invoked. Our statutory remit is for the child and we know from figures that the department openly publish about exclusions that there are particular children that are far more likely to be excluded than their peers for reasons that deserve to be investigated. It is not a matter of cold statistics."
The office's "standstill budget" of £3m since its establishment in 2005 has resulted in a real-terms decrease of 8.5 per cent. In 2010/11, the budget was reduced by five per cent to £2.85m and from 2011/12 the office is expected to make 30 per cent savings over four years.
While Atkinson admits this is a challenge, she is keen to stress that her office can still hold sway when it comes to influencing the decisions that impact upon children.
"The joy of the job is for a tiny organisation on a minute amount of money to make a difference through influence, networking, publishing and briefing behind closed doors," she said.
Despite uncertainty over who will be picked for the commissioner role once the legislative changes are introduced, Atkinson said she is optimistic that the changes that are being made will be positive for children.
"We are very closely involved and very up for it," she said.
THE COMMISSIONER'S PRIORITIES
- Two formal inquiries will be held: one into inequality in school exclusions, and the other on gang-related sexual exploitation
- The commissioner will work on promoting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) and increase partnerships with other organisations
- The office will report on progress in implementing a selection of UNCRC articles
- Merge the work of commissioner and children's rights director to examine complaints systems available to children living away from home
- Develop performance indicators to measure the commissioner's work
- Continue to invest in the children and young people's advisory group Amplify
- Examine the role of schools in child protection and their ability to work with children's services
- Investigate how older children and young people access child protection services
- Further work on children and young people's experience of GPs
- Work on the issue of parental substance misuse
- Improve society's perceptions of young people
- Investigate the likely impact of the child poverty strategy in reaching the 2020 targets set in the Child Poverty Act
- Publish a report into teaching quality and work with others to influence new skills tests for teachers, ensuring involvement of children
- Promoting and protecting children's rights in secure settings through visits, interviewing staff and involving children and young people
- Monitor the end of detention of children and families for immigration purposes by visiting accommodation settings