‘Serious, inexcusable and avoidable failure’ on children’s rights in pandemic

Children’s rights were not sufficiently considered when lockdown decisions were taken and seeing Boris Johnson with a birthday cake in the pandemic “touched a particular nerve” as a reminder of all the parties missed by the nation’s young people, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has heard.

There was a “serious, inexcusable and avoidable failure of governance and policymaking”, a lawyer for children’s groups said as hearings in the inquiry’s second module continued on Wednesday.

Jennifer Twite said she had to make the “embarrassingly simple and depressingly obvious submission” that children’s needs are different from adults because, she argued, that difference was not recognised when lockdown rules were being made.

Ms Twite, appearing on behalf of Save the Children UK, Just for Kids Law and the Children’s Rights Alliance, said it was “undeniable” that the pandemic had disproportionately impacted children.

She said this was because the UK Government “did not sufficiently consider children’s rights and wellbeing in their political and administrative decision-making”.

The fact Sir Gavin Williamson, who was education secretary when the pandemic hit, is not being called during this module “effectively proves our very point”, she added.

She said his absence seemed to be down to the understanding “he was largely excluded” from high level decision-making processes at the time.

She said: “The key decision in respect of children which the inquiry will wish to ask itself and ask the witnesses being called – how does such a serious, inexcusable and avoidable failure of governance and policymaking happen?

“What needs to be done to learn the lessons so this never happens again? And what needs to be done to repair the harm that was caused?”

While adults were allowed out to exercise, children were scolded by police for playing, she told the hearing.

She said: “Despite frequent calls from those who work with children, from psychologists and academics, to clarify that guidance and tell the population and tell the police that play for children would constitute exercise, to tell the parents that supervising their own children whilst their children exercised or played was within the rules, that guidance and those regulations were not updated.”

She added: “The result was that parents kept their children in for fear of breaking the rules.

“The result was that children skateboarding, climbing trees, and paddling in streams were told off by the police and sent home.

“When adults were allowed to meet one other adult from another household for the jogging and the yoga that they were allowed to do their young children could not meet any of their friends, because the need for a supervising adult would constitute a breach of the lockdown regulations.”

She said lockdown rules had been “in reality stricter for children than their parents, stricter for English and Northern Irish children than Scottish and Welsh”.

Arguing that children experience time differently, she referenced the effect it had had on many to see then prime minister Boris Johnson with a birthday cake in Downing Street.

She said: “Childhood is a crucial development time, which impacts all of later life.

“It is why, for some, Mr Johnson’s being ‘ambushed’ by a birthday cake in lockdown touched a particular nerve. It reminded us all of the birthday parties missed by the nation’s children.

“There is something about missing your sixth birthday which frankly isn’t the same as missing your 57th. Childhood is sacrosanct and lost childhood cannot be given back.”

Mr Johnson was eventually fined over an event to celebrate his birthday in the Cabinet Room which had taken place in June 2020, a time when Covid guidance restricted indoor gatherings.

Tory MP Conor Burns had defended Mr Johnson’s presence at the surprise birthday bash saying the then PM had been “ambushed with a cake”.