iferi.org

Britain has created a crisis in childhood, says former children’s commissioner

Sir Al Aynsley-Green has written a hard-hitting book that he hopes will shame politicians and spark a national debate

...This is a damning indictment by a man who spent more than 40 years caring for children, first as a children’s physician and lecturer in paediatrics at Oxford, then as a professor of child health and the director of clinical research at Great Ormond Street hospital. In 2000, he was appointed as the first national clinical director for children in the Department of Health, and in 2005 he became the first independent statutory children’s commissioner for England. He was knighted by the Queen for his services to children and young people in 2006.

...He believes educators will need to capture the Treasury’s attention to put children on the government’s radar. “We have to look at the cost of not getting it right for children versus the cost of getting it right.” There’s no easy answer, he admits. “I am looking for readers who will pick up the baton from me and run with it. I am hoping to light a touchpaper.”

The British Betrayal of Childhood: Challenging Uncomfortable Truths and Bringing About Change is published by Routledge.