Children's Commissioner 2026 Response by WEU

How Can British Government still be Failing Its Children in 2026?

Are we really being told that children across England are being failed by education, mental health services, healthcare and the lack of opportunities available to them?

How are we seriously still having this conversation in 2026?

How can one of the world's wealthiest countries still be struggling to provide its children with the basic foundations for a healthy, safe and successful future?

These are not new problems. Successive governments have spoken about childhood poverty, educational inequality, struggling families and the need to improve opportunities for young people. Yet decades later, we are still hearing the same promises, while another generation risks being left behind.

Enough is enough. England's children deserve better.

A National Emergency That Should Shame Us All

The Children's Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, has published her landmark report, The Childhood Lottery, exposing enormous inequalities in children's lives depending on where they grow up.

The findings are deeply disturbing.

More than one million children were referred to mental health services in 2024–25. According to figures reported alongside the Commissioner's findings, 55% of children are not achieving a good standard in both English and mathematics at GCSE.
Meanwhile, the Office for National Statistics estimates that 981,000 young people aged 16 to 24 across the UK were not in education, employment or training between April and June 2026.

The report also exposes extraordinary differences in access to services. Children in some areas face vastly longer waits for mental health assessments than those living elsewhere. In four local authority areas, recorded spending on youth services per teenager was zero.

The four local authorities identified in the Children's Commissioner's October 2026 report, The Childhood Lottery, as recording £0 spending on youth services per teenager are:

• Slough, Berkshire
• Herefordshire
• Halton, Cheshire
• Warrington, Cheshire

By comparison, Camden in London recorded £421 per teenager.*

(Children's Commissioner for England, The Childhood Lottery, 19 October 2026. Reported local authority youth services expenditure per teenager)

What sort of future are we building when children cannot obtain timely mental health support, struggle to achieve basic educational qualifications and then face a shortage of meaningful employment opportunities?

Children Should Never Be Treated in Hospital Corridors

Alongside these findings comes another deeply troubling report concerning children receiving treatment in hospital corridors.
The tragic case of two-year-old Finlay Roberts, who died in 2024 after spending hours in an overcrowded hospital corridor before being discharged, should make every politician question how our healthcare system has reached this point.

No child should have to receive care in a corridor. No parent should be left wondering whether their child will receive the attention and treatment they desperately need.

Our NHS workers are doing their best under extraordinary pressures. Nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals should not be expected to compensate indefinitely for failures in capacity, planning and investment.

This is not simply a failure of healthcare workers. It is a failure of the system in which they are being asked to work.

Where Has the Money Gone?

Working people across England pay their taxes with a reasonable expectation that essential public services will be properly funded, competently managed and available when needed.

Yet families are increasingly confronted with overstretched schools, lengthy mental health waiting lists, disappearing youth facilities and an NHS struggling to meet demand.

Workers and their families have every right to question the British government spending priorities.

Every major spending commitment, whether domestic or overseas, should be subject to proper scrutiny. Taxpayers deserve transparency about where their money goes, what it achieves and whether essential services are receiving the resources they require.

This must not become an argument that vulnerable groups should be blamed for failures created over decades. The responsibility rests with successive governments to demonstrate that public money is being spent effectively and that the needs of children are being properly prioritised.

Importantly, the Children's Commissioner's findings demonstrate that poverty alone does not explain the differences between areas. Some deprived communities achieve better outcomes than wealthier ones.

That raises serious questions about leadership, organisation, accountability and how existing resources are being used.
Simply announcing another funding package or British government review is not enough.

Young People Need Opportunities, Not Another Political Promise

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has described the scale of youth unemployment and disengagement as an economic catastrophe and moral failure.

On that point, there should be little disagreement.

However, recognising the problem is considerably easier than solving it.

Young people need access to good education, meaningful apprenticeships, employment training and properly paid employment. They need employers willing to invest in their development, rather than a labour market that too often demands experience before offering someone their first opportunity.

They also need industries and businesses operating in England that can provide sustainable careers.
The Workers of England Union believes that rebuilding domestic industry, supporting businesses across England and creating skilled jobs in our communities must be central to any serious strategy for improving young people's prospects.

We cannot continue discussing a skills shortage while failing to provide sufficient opportunities for young people to acquire those skills.

The Workers of England Union Demands Action

The Workers of England Union calls for a national commitment to improving the lives and prospects of children across England.

This must include enforceable minimum standards for children's services, timely mental health support, safe and properly resourced healthcare, stronger educational support, investment in youth facilities and genuine routes into apprenticeships and employment.

It must also include clear accountability for public expenditure, with measurable outcomes rather than another succession of political announcements.

Parents should not have to fight continually for their children's education, healthcare or basic safety. Nor should hardworking families be expected to accept that poor services and limited opportunities are simply inevitable.

The failures identified in these reports have developed over many years. Responsibility cannot be placed exclusively on one political party or administration.

But responsibility for addressing them rests firmly with those governing today.

England's Future Depends on What We Do Today

The measure of a successful country should not simply be its economic output or the announcements made by its politicians.
It should also be how well it protects its children, supports struggling families and prepares young people for independent and fulfilling lives.

We should not accept that a child's postcode determines the quality of their education, the speed of their mental health treatment or the opportunities available to them.

We should not accept children receiving treatment in hospital corridors.

And we should not accept almost a million young people across England and the UK being outside education, employment and training as an unavoidable feature of modern life.

England's children deserve more than another promise. They deserve a future.

The time for excuses has passed.

References: (Children's Commissioner for England (19 October 2026). The Childhood Lottery: The hardest places to grow up in England; Office for National Statistics (27 August 2026). Young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), UK: August 2026; BBC News (19 October 2026). Tom Symonds, reporting on the Children's Commissioner's findings; BBC News (19 October 2026). Harry Sekulich, Burnham says youth employment and training crisis is a 'moral failure'; BBC News (18 October 2026). Ian Aikman, reporting on NHS corridor care for children and the case of Finlay Roberts)

*An important distinction for the Workers of England Union: This is reported spending on youth services, not all children's services. It does not mean these councils spent nothing on education, children's social care or safeguarding. Nor does it necessarily mean that no youth activities were available through charities or other providers.

Key Takeaways

• The Childhood Lottery Disparities: The Children's Commissioner highlights extreme inequality, with youth service spending at £0 per teenager in Slough, Herefordshire, Halton, and Warrington versus £421 in Camden.
• Escalating Youth Mental Health & Education Deficits: Over 1 million children referred to mental health services in 2024–25, while 55% fail to hit benchmark GCSE grades in English and maths.
• Near-Million NEET Crisis: ONS figures show 981,000 young people aged 16–24 across the UK were not in education, employment, or training during Q2 2026.
• NHS Systemic Crisis: Tragic incidents like children receiving corridor care expose deep-seated failures in health service capacity, planning, and hospital investment.
• Call for Domestic Industrial Renewal: WEU urges enforceable minimum standards for children's services and the rebuilding of domestic English industry to generate skilled apprenticeships and jobs.