Children’s Commissioner for England website review

Children’s Commissioner for England website review

http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/ 

The post of the Children’s Commissioner for England came into being through the Children Act 2004 and in response to the death of Victoria Climbie  To date, there have been three Children’s Commissioners. The role of the Children’s Commissioner is to promote and protect children’s rights in England and ensure adults take into account the views children and young people. The ethos of the Children’s Commissioner is to listen to children and young people in line with United Nations Rights of the Child, Articles 12 and 13.  

Navigation around the website is clearly signposted.  The website attempts to have a child-orientated focus, although it would benefit from the inclusion of further interactive resources.

Children and young people can gain information about how to participate in the annual ‘Takeover Day’.  Reports and photographs of previous events are included within the website.  The scheme enables children and young people to work with adults and be involved in decision-making.  This facilitates the involvement of children and young people in participatory activities which may enable the acquisition of new skills.

There is a small group of children and young people who meet three times a year to share views, help interview adults for employment and to contribute to the Government policy making. The group is known as Amplify.  This is an opportunity for children and young people to come together, to have fun and meet new people with a common purpose.  The inclusion of children and young people poses challenges of access.  The Children’s Commissioner for England clearly provides a mechanism to communicate with children and young people, professionals and organisations.  There is also the opportunity to ensure that policies are disseminated.  There are similar Children’s Commissioner websites for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

During 2010, there was a Review of the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (Dunford, 2010) which directed the role of the children’s commission away from an outcomes driven agenda to a rights driven agenda.  This led to the archiving of the Every Child Matters guidance which has been replaced with a Rights Respecting Schools Agenda (UNICEF, 2014, Office of Children’s Commissioner, 2014). As more schools take on this agenda, children and young people will have more insight to the Rights they have been afforded. 

References

Dunford J. (2010) Review of the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (England), Department of Education. London

Office of the Children’s Commisioner for England, 2014. http://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/ last accessed 24th March, 2015

Office of the Children’s Commissioner:2014. A rights-based approach to education:  What are the characteristics of an education system which protects and promotes children’s rights?, Children’s Commisioner, London

United Nations, 1989. Convention on the rights of the child. [Online]. Available at: http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm [Accessed 2nd March, 2011]. 

UNICEF, 2014. Rights Respecting Schools, http://www.unicef.org.uk/rrsa Last accessed 27th October, 2014