The true cost of school closures – an interview with the Children's Commissioner

Teaching unions have spent much of the past year campaigning with the social media hashtag #CloseTheSchools. It’s a reminder of the imbalance in debate over education. Unions represent the adults, MPs represent their constituents, but who in Westminster speaks for children?

In 2005 the Blair government sought to answer this question by creating a Children’s Commissioner, who would promote and protect the rights of children in decisions affecting their lives. Anne Longfield, the third to hold the job, is in the final few weeks of her six-year stint. She is spending those weeks campaigning for schools to re-open as soon as possible after the February half-term.

She believes she has more reasons to be optimistic now than she did last year when she was pushing for classroom tuition to resume in June. Back then, she says, parents and unions were reluctant. ‘Everyone was completely terrified of what was going to happen.’ That has changed. ‘Parents definitely want their kids back [at school] now,’ she says. This time, too, ‘it’s the councils and unions who are saying to me that it can be done. That feels really different’. Even Public Health England has said there is now a ‘strong case’ for the safe return of primary schools after half-term if cases continue to fall.

The political mood is less promising. Boris Johnson has this week ruled out the return to in-person education next month that he had previously hinted at. Instead, the new hope in government is for schools to begin reopening from 8 March. Should that date slide once again, don’t expect much criticism from Labour or the Liberal Democrats. It seems that no party in SW1 is advocating for the basic right of all children to go to school.