By rejecting mandatory Child Rights Impacts Assessments, the UK government has missed an opportunity to establish a culture of child‑centred decision‑making, argues children's rights expert and CRAE Director, Louise King.
The Covid‑19 Inquiry has powerfully recognised what many of us already knew: that profound and avoidable harm was caused to children during the pandemic.
It demonstrated that there was no proper planning for school closures; that children in prison - some of the most vulnerable in society - were held in cells for 23 hours a day; that fundamental legal protections for children in contact with the children’s social care system were diluted without adequate consultation; and that there was a foreseeable rise in child abuse.
The Inquiry’s Module 2 report, which focussed on core political governance and decision-making, identified significant failures by government to anticipate or mitigate such harms to children. It concluded that children’s rights and needs were not properly considered or understood, and that as a result children bore profound and avoidable harms from pandemic measures.
To ensure that the same mistakes would not be repeated, the Covid Inquiry recommended that Child Rights Impacts Assessments (CRIAs) be made statutory.
Using the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) as a framework, CRIAs enable systematic consideration of how children may be affected by policies and decisions – whether positively or negatively – so that any adverse impacts can be identified, avoided or mitigated. They also enable policymakers to identify and consider proactive measures that may lead to better implementation and realisation of children’s rights. They are not a burden or bureaucratic exercise, but a vital tool which ensures that a child rights lens is applied to decision-making at an early stage.
It is therefore profoundly disappointing that, last week, the UK government rejected this key Covid Inquiry recommendation, arguing that mandating CRIAs would not necessarily lead to better outcomes for children. This is despite a wealth of evidence to the contrary and widespread support from a broad and diverse coalition, from large national children’s charities and professional bodies to grassroots community organisations.
Rejecting this recommendation means that the UK government will continue to fall behind other nations in how it considers children’s rights in law and policymaking. As a result, children living in England – and across the UK in relation to reserved matters – will continue to experience less protection than children in neighbouring nations.
In Wales, ministers have a statutory duty to have due regard to the UNCRC when exercising their functions. In Jersey, specified decision-makers must consider children’s rights in developing relevant laws, policies and practices. Scotland has directly incorporated the UNCRC, making it unlawful for public authorities to act incompatibly with incorporated rights. As part of their measures to embed child rights, Wales, Scotland and Jersey have all adopted legal measures or statutory arrangements requiring CRIAs to be conducted.
The UK government has committed to building awareness and understanding of children’s rights and use of CRIAs across departments, but, while welcome, it does not replace the need for CRIAs to be a mandatory requirement.
The Department for Education developed a CRIA template and child rights training pack back in 2018, and despite ongoing work to increase awareness, use of CRIAs remains stubbornly inconsistent, further demonstrating the need for them to be mandatory.
Rejecting this key Covid Inquiry recommendation is a missed opportunity to act on crucial lessons from the pandemic and establish a culture of child‑centred decision‑making across government. History has shown us that when there aren’t statutory children’s rights duties in place, children’s rights, needs and voices can too easily be set aside, especially those of the most disadvantaged. Without a mandatory requirement to conduct CRIAs this will continue to be the case.
This comment piece originally appeared in Children and Young People Now on 31st March 2026