The role of Children’s Commissioner was created by the Children Act 2004 to promote awareness of the views and interests of children in England. The Office has the status of a non-departmental public body (NDPB).
The post is currently held by Dr Maggie Atkinson, who took office on 1 March 2010. Maggie Atkinson is supported by a number of staff, a deputy children’s commissioner, Sue Berelowitz, and a Grant in Aid from the Department for Education. The Children’s Commissioner is a corporation sole and is not an agent of the crown.
The Act specifies the Commissioner’s general functions:
- to encourage people who are planning or providing services or activities that affect children, to take account of their views and interests
- to advise the Secretary of State on the views and interests of children
- to consider or research the operation of complaints procedures in so far as they relate to children
- to consider or research any matter relating to the interests of children
- to publish reports on any of the above.
In carrying out these functions, the Office of the Children’s Commissioner (OCC) must have regard to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Children’s Commissioner also has a number of specific functions and powers which include:
- carrying out inquiries into individual casework in order to investigate and make recommendations about the issues that arise
- publishing reports of their investigations and submitting them to the Secretary of State. Any individual or organisation carrying out a statutory function which is the subject of recommendations by the OCC must publish in writing how they propose to respond.
The Office of the Children’s Commissioner has recently been the subject of an independent review commissioned by the Secretary of State. The report, published on 6 December, sets out 46 recommendations, all of which the Government has accepted in principle.
