9 January 2026
VCF – The Victoria Climbié Foundation UK – borne out of Victoria’s tragic death and subsequent inquiry into child protection – continues to advocate for children, young people and their families in accordance with their rights.
Yet, as we look towards 2026 and beyond, there will be further challenges ahead for children’s rights organisations such as VCF offering advocacy support or representation.
Without support, children, young people and families may find it difficult to navigate a system that has become unacceptably hostile, often overlooking children’s access to even basic rights; food, health, and wellbeing.
Dominating our concerns is the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill which – alongside other emerging legislation – is set to weaken protections for children through proposed measures to curtail privacy and the right to family life, and to widen the scope for data sharing despite not having considered those most likely to be impacted nor addressed the lack of parental consent in decision-making.
Over the past decade, from Brexit to the COVID-19 pandemic, we could not have predicted the depth of the crisis facing children from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities, or those with disabilities as a result of far reaching discriminatory policies in practice.
We are living in extraordinary times. The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill in its current form is supported by the Children’s Commissioner, local authorities and a number of publicly funded children’s charities. Such support is at odds with an unprecedented level of parent groups that are making their concerns known across the country, including their views on digital ID, which for today’s children will be lifelong and controlled by the State.
Rights must be at the heart of keeping children safe
How do we reconcile the fact that incoming legislation appears to be formalising what is already experienced by numerous families, currently unlawfully and with limited adherence to rights or advocacy based practice.
Increasingly, we have seen the need for community-led approaches to child safeguarding; to tackle inequalities in the delivery of services amid challenges for central and local government to deliver appropriate statutory support for children and their families – according to their needs.
For VCF, It is imperative that every child, parent, carer and practitioner understands the potential flaws and dangers of the safeguarding measures being introduced, and the wholesale failure to implement prior reforms and developments from Laming to Munro.
The government is consulting on the Child Protection Authority (CPA), a national body to improve child protection. The consultation will be available for responses until 5 March 2026.
We must hope in the wake of prior reforms and reviews that the CPA will be able to achieve this seemingly impossible task.
The significance of our involvement and enduring campaign to improve child protection policies and practices, can best be promoted by the following statement.
“In this country the journey from Victoria Climbié to the full realisation everywhere of the spirit of ‘Every Child Matters’ represents a formidable challenge. It must be underpinned by a commitment to seeking a good outcome for each child and by being altogether more ambitious for each child in all we do.
The years of childhood pass all too quickly. They are the foundation on which our future life is built. Let us strive to make childhood happy, safe and fulfilling for every child. It is against that hope that the memory of Victoria must live on.”
Lord Laming
VCF has long since been viewed as a critical friend although we endeavour to be constructive to a sector set up to protect the rights of every child to care and protection.
The independent role that we play – informed by our advocacy work within, and on behalf of, the community – has not been easy, with our work at VCF set to become more challenging than ever in our efforts to both navigate and aid understanding of the emerging children’s agenda.
VCF aims to offer a more holistic and common sense approach to ongoing immigration and migrant rhetoric that leads to concerning practice based issues within a child protection system struggling to deliver a rights respecting framework to effectively protect every child.
We are assisted in these efforts through collaboration and collective voice, as Secretariat of the BME-Migrant Advisory Group (B-MAG); Safeguarding Children and Young People and Reclaim Rights for Children initiatives respectively; to invite participation by academics and practitioners through research, communication and campaigns.
The work continues…for the children and families we support in 2026, with renewed hope and positivity.