This week we celebrate the first anniversary of the Centre for Young Lives. We’ve come a long way, very quickly, and we’ve never been more convinced that founding the Centre was the right decision.

While most children in this country are doing well, there are still far too many of our young people facing significant barriers to their life chances.

Child poverty is a continuing blight on the lives of millions of children, the Special Educational Needs system is under huge pressure, there is an ongoing school absence crisis, and there have been further increases in exclusions and suspensions from school. Many children are also continuing to struggle with mental health problems. The epidemic of knife crime and exploitation is still wrecking many young lives.  

These big challenges need workable, affordable solutions, and we are proud of the forward-thinking and practical policies and campaigns that we have been developing and delivering alongside our partner organisations.  

The election of a new Government a few months after we launched has provided the opportunity for resetting the support we provide for children and families, and there has been a very welcome shift towards finally tackling some of the most pressing issues.

It is good to see the early years is now a key priority for the Government and encouraging that the Government recognises the crucial importance of early, targeted, evidence-based intervention to reduce the scale of costly crisis that many services and local areas are struggling to manage.

From the rollout of Breakfast Clubs and new nurseries to the National Youth Strategy and the first Young Futures hubs – a policy originating from our Commission on Young Lives in 2022 - we believe there are real opportunities to improve the lives of families and children and to ensure that all children and young people can grow up safer, healthier, and happier.

We are also encouraged by the move towards developing a much more inclusive education system, including an Ofsted measurement of inclusion. We have been arguing for these changes for a long time and are pleased that our relentless focus on this area is now bearing fruit. Shortly, we will be publishing a report  looking at how we can make the system more inclusive and responsive to the needs of every child.

The Centre continues to expand and alongside our founders, we have a growing policy team and business development lead.  Our Visting Fellows continue to provide additional, highly valued support and expertise. We also have new offices in Westminster.

Here are just some of the projects and interventions we have been making over the last year.

Our report Too Skint for School’, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, explored the link between child poverty and the current school absence crisis, finding children who are eligible for Free School Meals are more than twice as likely to be absent than their peers, and that the rate of absence among these children has risen more than the rate among their peers.

Over the last year we have published a series of eleven reports in partnership with Child of the North and the N8 Research Partnership. The twelfth and final report in the series will be published in March. Each of these reports has put forward evidence-based solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing children and young people.

Recent reports have included, “An evidence-based plan to improve children’s oral health with and through education settings” which urged Government to expand sugar taxes, ban sale of energy drinks to under 16s, and roll out national supervised toothbrushing programmes in schools to tackle the crisis of child tooth decay; “An evidence-based approach to supporting children in the preschool years” which highlighted the alarming rise in early years developmental delays since Covid-19 resulting in huge numbers of children who are not ready for school; “An evidence-based plan for improving school attendance” to tackle the 57% surge in school absence since 2015, including earlier identification and interventions for children at risk of missing school.

In June we launched the Raising the Nation Play Commission with Paul Lindley along with our partners Impact on Urban Health and API. During this time,  we have spoken to experts from academia, education, charities, and play work, as well as young people themselves about how to reduce the barriers to play. With the help of our Commissioners, we have held fifty evidence sessions and received over 150 submissions following our call for evidence. We’ve been visiting projects and play schemes to discover best practice, including a forthcoming trip to Scandinavia. We will publish its interim findings in February, and our final National Play Strategy report in June.

As the Premier League Charitable Fund’s new learning and evaluation partner, we have enjoyed visiting several Club Community Organisations – Arsenal, Burnley, and Newcastle – over the past few months. We have been extremely impressed by the breadth of their work and the scale of their impact; the CCOs are highly responsive to local need and are an illustration of what can be achieved through local strategic partnerships, talented youth workers, and welcoming community hub spaces.

As part of our “Ambitious about Inclusion” work led by our Visiting Fellow Jonny Uttley, CEO of TEAL, the Centre for Young Lives is undertaking research to contribute to the growing, national conversation on inclusive education. We’ve been hosting events and evidence sessions with leaders from across the education sector to discuss their insights into defining and implementing inclusion.

We are also working with Mission 44 on the “Ambitious about Inclusion” roadshows, bringing teachers, policymakers, community organisations, young people and youth activists together at events across the country to discuss what practical action can be taken at a local level to reduce lost learning and share best practice.

In partnership with the Prudence Trust, we are undertaking research into the provision of community mental health services for children and young people across England to ensure every child is growing up well. We are also working with Humber and North Yorkshire ICB to develop an exemplar approach to children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing.  

Shortly, we’ll be launching the ‘Future Minds’ campaign with Centre for Mental Health, the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, Young Minds, supported by the Prudence Trust, to campaign for greater investment and reform for children’s mental health.  This week we launched a new campaign bringing together four of the UK’s leading children and young people’s and mental health organisations – Centre for Mental Health, Centre for Young Lives, the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, and YoungMinds, with the support of the Prudence Trust – urging the Government to deliver urgent reform and investment to boost children’s mental health services in its forthcoming Spending Review and 10 Year NHS Plan.

We have partnered with the NCS Trust and The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award to explore the evidence linking participation in enrichment activities to improved academic attendance, amidst a rise in persistent absenteeism among young people. This project is looking to review and summarise evidence and draw on best practice case studies through school visits and observation, including interviews with educators from across the UK.

We have recently contributed our expertise and research to multiple national consultations and reviews to help shape policy for children and young people including calling for a curriculum and accountability system which are truly inclusive and prioritises belonging. We also made a submission to the NHS 10 Year Health Plan Review.

We were pleased to be able to join the End Child Poverty Coalition in November, and to have been selected as a Core Participant in the Covid Inquiry, together with the Child Poverty Action Group, Save the Children UK, Just for Kids Law and the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (known collectively as the Children’s Rights Organisations). Evidence sessions will begin in late 2025.

We are also so pleased and proud that our Founder, Anne Longfield, has received a peerage. She will take up her seat in the House of Lords at the end of February and she will continue to lead the Centre for Young Lives.

Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank our Advisory Board, partners, funders, and Oasis for supporting us over the last year.

Our ambition is to expand the Centre further in the year ahead, and we are excited by the new opportunities and projects we have planned. We are always looking for new partnerships and funding, so please do get in touch if you would like to work with us.