- Seven per cent of children in England are unsatisfied with their life as a whole.
- 50 per cent of children reported being left out by their classmates and 38 per cent had been hit by other children in the last month.
- Almost 25 per cent of girls aged 12-13 were unhappy with their appearance, compared with ten per cent of boys.
Measuring a child’s subjective well-being could be seen as indulgent, however we measure so much else - their educational attainment, their skills in sport or music – that it makes sense to ask children how they actually feel! This might challenge us if we play a numbers game in our children’s work: ‘How many did you get?’ might be a regular question we are asked, as opposed to, ‘What is going on for the kids who are coming?’
An interesting feature of the report was just how little children in England know about their rights. Only 36 per cent said they knew what their rights were, compared with 77 per cent in Norway. In 1991, the UK government made a promise to the UN that it would make sure children have their rights by agreeing to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), including the right to be safe and free from violence. How is it that so many of our children don’t know what their rights are?
The Children’s Society makes some recommendations:
- Statutory provision of counselling in schools.
- Ring-fenced money for children’s mental health and well-being.
- Better data collection and the Department of Health to include questions about children’s well-being.
As I read the report, I think we have areas to consider as those who work with children. Firstly, children’s sense of well being and satisfaction with life decreases as they get older; self-confidence (and with that body image and happiness with appearance) is worse for girls than boys; for all children, if they have been bullied they are six times more likely to be unhappy than children who are not. While I think more counsellors in schools might be beneficial, it doesn’t tackle the environment our children are growing up in: being bombarded with images of so-called perfection in terms of appearance and being emotionally and physically bullied by others at school. More children’s and youth workers are needed in our schools, journeying alongside both students and staff and investing in the well-being of children.
