Independent voice a must for commissioner Anne Longfield
Laura McCardle
Tuesday, November 25, 2014
The next children's commissioner for England Anne Longfield must stand up to the government if she is to champion the rights of children and young people and allay concerns over the role's independence.
4Children chief executive Anne Longfield will take over as children's commissioner for England in March 2015 after coming through a four-month selection process that culminated in Education Secretary Nicky Morgan appointing her in early November.
Becoming the third person to hold the post since Sir Al Aynsley Green became the first commissioner nearly a decade ago, Longfield will be expected to champion the needs of the most vulnerable, ensure their rights are upheld and challenge the government on new policies and legislation that adversely affect children and young people.
But some believe being appointed by the secretary of state will make that hard to do.
Although funding for the Office of the Children's Commissioner for England (OCC) has fallen (from £3m) since current commissioner Maggie Atkinson came into post in 2010, Longfield will still be responsible for a budget of around £2.8m and 31 full-time equivalent members of staff. She will have to submit an annual report to parliament detailing how she is using her budget and what she is doing to help young people.
Atkinson's most recent report, published in July, reveals that in 2013/14 she was responsible for a £2.72m budget, most of which - £1.6m - was spent on staff costs.
Despite the loss of funding, the role and office still has significant influence in protecting the rights of all children and young people, and those most vulnerable in particular.
Those who have concerns about Longfield's appointment - a petition was set up to protest against her nomination - point to the role 4Children has played in delivering the national early years programme for the Department for Education as evidence she is too close to government. The charity - established in 1983 as The National Out of School Alliance - is the DfE's strategic partner for early years and childcare, and works closely with the government to co-produce policy.
The dissenting voices have echoes of criticism raised when current commissioner Atkinson was appointed by the then Children's Secretary Ed Balls in 2009, and serve to highlight concerns some have over political influence in the appointments process and whether this undermines its independence.
Independent voice
During her pre-appointment hearing with the education select committee, Longfield told MPs that she would take a pragmatic approach to relations with government, using the nature of the issue and its impact on children and young people to dictate whether she worked with policy makers or challenged them.
"There will be areas where there will be agreement," she said. "There will be areas where there will be a joint vision - some of that may be joint vision with the local government sector, the voluntary sector and it might be government."
However, results of a CYP Now poll suggest children's professionals are still to be convinced: of the 300 votes cast, half said they do not think Longfield is the correct choice as the next commissioner.
Anna Edmundson, policy and programmes manager at the Children's Rights Alliance for England, says to overcome the concerns, it is vital that Longfield establishes herself as independent of government and is led only by the evidence presented to her, not party policy or pressure from above.
Edmundson hopes that extra powers to champion children's rights handed to the OCC under the Children and Families Act in April, will strengthen the independence of the commissioner's office.
The legislation axed the role of the children's rights director, incorporating the duties into the role of the children's commissioner. It also extended the commissioner's primary function from representing the "views and interests" of children to "promoting and protecting" their rights.
Edmundson says: "Obviously, the key thing is leadership from the top, and the commissioner themselves is critical in setting the tone. One of the things that has been slightly concerning in the past is that candidates have had to have strong experience of services delivery, but less so on the advocacy and public affairs side."
"We think that now, following the act and the status it gives the office to promote and protect children's rights, one of the key things for the commissioner to work out is how do they make that a reality."
Atkinson has regularly proved herself by publishing a number of influential reports, including the Child Rights Impact Assessment on Legal Aid report in September.
"It was very critical," says Edmundson. "It had an immediate impact in that Simon Hughes (justice minister) brought it up in his own department - that's the kind of thing we would like the OCC to do more of."
Natasha Finlayson, chief executive of The Who Cares Trust?, says the sector must support Longfield to challenge the government. "The commissioner has to feel not just able but actively encouraged to challenge government and to hold it to account when that is the right thing for children and young people," she says.
"It will take a very strong person to do that when they've been personally anointed by the Secretary of State."
Standing up for children
Longfield's appointment was rubber stamped by the Secretary of State after she had gained the backing of ministers and MPs on the education select committee.
However, the petition set up against Longfield's appointment questioned the involvement that young people had had in the selection process.
An appendix to the education select committee's Appointment of the Children's Commissioner for England report shows that the majority of the process (see box) was handled by an independent selection panel and that shortlisted candidates were asked to meet with a group of eight young people before the final round of interviews.
According to the document, the panel - which included Olive Grant, chair of the Office of the Commissioner for Public Appointments, and government adoption adviser Sir Martin Narey - considered the views of the young people before making its final recommendations to Morgan.
Hannah Kentish, the Scout Association's UK Youth Commissioner, says that the requirements of the post means that it is vital that young people's views were considered during the appointment process.
"The person appointed for this role will promote and protect children's rights by listening to what young people say and making sure adults in charge take their views and interests into account," she says. "It is therefore right that young people are involved and heard throughout the appointment process."
But Finlayson says young people should have been central to the process. "They should have a significant and demonstrable role in the decision-making process rather than just inputting," she says. "How much weight in percentage terms was given to their views?"
Speaking on services
Perhaps, unsurprisingly, many in the sector are reluctant to comment on the qualities that Longfield will bring to the role - maybe a result of her rising status and influence.
However, Kathy Evans, chief executive of Children England, says that cuts to local authority funding make it even more important for Longfield to quickly establish herself as a champion for vulnerable children.
"With the impact of continuing deep cuts hitting millions of children through welfare reforms and cuts to local authority services, it will be essential that they have a strong, vocal champion over coming years," she says. "With a stronger empowered range of functions, and a new leader, the sector will be looking to the OCC to give a powerful voice to the urgent need to protect children in every way, including from the impacts of austerity."
Regardless of how Longfield goes about carrying out her new responsibilities, Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC, says that the difference she makes to the lives of vulnerable children over her five-year term is the only thing that really matters.
"The ultimate test is whether the children's commissioner can bring about some concrete changes so that England's most marginalised children, those who are let down by adults, who are in distress, taken into care or in trouble with the law, are treated in a more human, civilised and just manner," he says.
THE JOB OF CHILDREN'S COMMISSIONER
The remit of the children's commissioner for England includes:
- Gathering and promoting awareness of the views and interests of children;
- Advising central and local government and those who work with children on children's rights, views and interests;
- Monitoring the implementation of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child in England;
- Investigating any matter relating to the rights of children, including the adequacy of complaints and advocacy services for children;
- Carrying out and following up on children's rights impact assessments on new policies and legislation that affect children; and
- Providing advice and assistance to children who live away from home or are in receipt of social care services.
Source: Department for Education
WISH LIST: CHILDREN'S LEADERS' VIEWS ON WHAT SHOULD BE AT THE TOP OF LONGFIELD'S 'TO DO' LIST
During her pre-appointment hearing with the education select committee, Anne Longfield highlighted early intervention, child sexual exploitation, children in care and joining up services around vulnerable children as her priorities.
Here is what the sector would like her to champion in her new role.
Carey Oppenheim, chief executive of the Early Intervention Foundation
"We'd like Anne Longfield to champion a rounded view of child development that puts equal emphasis on children's social and emotional development as their cognitive skills. It is the combination of these capacities that set children up for life."
Alan Wood, president of the Association of Directors of Children's Services
"An increasingly joined-up approach will be critical in terms of the provision of early help and preventative services in the future, breaking down the barriers between government departments at a national level, and health, education and the police services at a local level is the only way to make real progress on issues such as child sexual exploitation."
Peter Wanless, chief executive of the NSPCC
"The children's commissioner has the opportunity, and some powers, to bring about change for children, but only 2,200 days to make a difference. So she must resist setting long and unachievable to-do lists or simply adding to the chorus of those already raising concerns about children in our society. The focus must be on ensuring the most vulnerable children in our society get a better deal."
Natasha Finlayson, chief executive of The Who Cares Trust?
"It's important that the commissioner has a deep understanding of the particular experiences and vulnerabilities of children in care, especially as the Office of the Children's Commissioner took over the children's rights director's remits. If they don't put promotion of these children's rights high on their agenda, we'll be slipping backwards."