The Covid Inquiry is now underway, and it provides us with a vitally important opportunity to examine the events of the momentous months of 2020 and 2021 through the eyes of children and young people.
Under the overarching theme of the UK's 'response to and impact of the pandemic' and 'what lessons can be learned', the Inquiry has begun by looking at resilience and preparedness, before it moves on to decision-making and political governance. Further modules include education, children and young people, and benefits and support for vulnerable people. I will be providing the Inquiry with evidence, drawing on my period as Children's Commissioner for England during the first two national lockdowns.
There is no doubt that the pandemic exposed and enhanced many of the deepest inequalities and generational problems that were already affecting millions of children, including the attainment gap, food poverty, a lack of provision to help children with mental health problems, and our overstretched and underfunded children's social services and care systems.
The pandemic led to the biggest disruption in education since the Second World War, with an average of 115 days of education lost. Those living in the most disadvantaged areas, where infection levels were higher, missed the most school. Though schools were kept open for vulnerable children (and the children of key workers), the overwhelming majority did not attend. And while the more affluent schools were already using digital platforms in their work and were able to move over to online lessons and tutoring quickly and easily, many other schools were not equipped for virtual learning. Some children had no access to laptops or the internet at all.
