The Centre for Young Lives welcomes the Government’s focus on putting vulnerable children and young people at the heart of its opportunity mission. For too long, these young people have been sidelined and not enough political will has been dedicated to addressing problems like school absence, the children’s mental health and wellbeing crisis, and criminal exploitation. It is very encouraging to see a King’s Speech which sets out plans to boost children’s life chances, safety and wellbeing. We look forward to working with the Government and others to achieve these aims.  

Children’s Wellbeing

The Centre for Young Lives strongly welcomes the government’s commitment to breaking down the barriers to opportunity so that every young person has the best chances in life, and the recognition that boosting and supporting children’s wellbeing is crucial.  

We have long called for a register of Children Not in School and after five years of delay it is very good to see a legislative commitment to introduce one in today’s King’s Speech. By creating a duty on local authorities to have and maintain Children Not in School registers, we will have a much better understanding of where children are, and how best to support their needs and ensure they are receiving a good education.

The introduction of breakfast clubs in every primary school is an important step towards ensuring all children can start the school day with a healthy meal.  We know the added value of extended school time to support working parents and to give children the best start to their day. We hope to see the Government build on this first step during this Parliament by extending Free School Meals to all children on Universal Credit.

Measures to support young people’s mental health have a welcome prominence, including commitments for mental health support teams in all schools and mental health hubs.

There is a growing consensus that our education system needs to be more inclusive and supportive of children with additional needs, including children with SEND. We are pleased the Government will introduce new requirements on all schools to cooperate with their local authority on school admissions, SEND inclusion, and ensuring admissions decisions account for the needs for communities. This is an important start ahead of much bigger challenges of reforming the SEND system, cutting assessment waiting times, ensuring children with EHCPs receive the support they need.

Criminal exploitation

Without the right care and support too many vulnerable children and young people are slipping through the cracks, at risk of exploitation and involvement in serious violence. The Young Futures programme, developed from the central recommendation of Anne Longfield’s year-long Commission on Young Lives, will be transformative in helping to prevent young people from being drawn into crime. We welcome the commitment to introducing prevention partnerships to ensure agencies work together to halt the cycle of criminal exploitation, and to strengthening the law to crack down on those who exploit children for criminal purposes. To ensure the success of the programme it will be vital for Government departments to work together to address the overlapping drivers of child criminal exploitation, including poverty and poor life chances, poor mental health, domestic and sexual abuse, and exclusion from school.