VCF

12/03/2026

Children with SEND can’t wait again

At VCF, we have come to know and understand the various challenges for SEND parents and their children, through advocacy support to families fighting for their children's rights to education, health and care, according to their needs.

Children with SEND and their families continue to face significant challenges in the current system. Many wait months—or even over a year—for an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), and too often families must appeal to tribunals just to access the support their children need.

The government’s current consultation on SEND reform does not fully capture these lived experiences, and it does not address the systemic issues that cause delays, inconsistent provision, and underfunding across education, health, and social care https://consult.education.gov.uk/send-strategy-division/send-reform-putting-children-and-young-people-firs/

Our community’s voices are clear: children need early intervention, consistent support in schools, and strong legal protections to ensure their rights are upheld.

Children with SEND deserve a system that works—not one that repeats the mistakes of the past.

05/03/2026

Shocking last minute amendment to Children's Bill giving the government power to ban children from any part of the internet. Updates available from Reclaim Rights for Children including a template to send to your local MP. Act now!

The Government are adding on yet more dangerous powers to the already dangerous Children’s Bill. Their new amendment gives them the power to require internet providers to block access to children from any part of the internet they decide.

This last-minute amendment means any consultation will happen AFTER this becomes law. Not only this but they haven’t addressed any of the considerable human rights concerns. They say they will do this later, if they decide to use the powers.

This is NOT how it should work.

Children’s access to digital spaces is an emotive and complex area and there is concern from both parents and children. It is undeniable that children are experiencing harm. ]

But again, there has been no transparency about the fact that age verification means checking identity, as a letter from hundreds of the leading privacy and security scientists explains. It means the END OF PRIVACY ONLINE. This is unthinkable.

Not only this but age gating can lead to greater risk to children by pushing them towards less well-regulated digital spaces. Child rights and child safety groups have warned the same as well.

As groups such as Defend Digital Me together with Child Rights International Network have argued – we must have both. Children need to be able to access digital spaces AND to do so safely. For many children and young people the internet is a source of joy, connection, information, friendship. For some it is their safe space.

Contact your MP today and tell them to say no to this dangerous power grab. There’s a link to the campaign page below and a template letter which can be personalised.

25/02/2026

This week we have been honouring Victoria Climbié and her contribution to child protection, particularly in light of forthcoming safeguarding reform and proposed legislative changes.

We call for accountability within the UK child protection system https://vcf-uk.org/before-we-rewrite-safeguarding-law-again-we-must-deliver-what-victoria-climbie-was-promised/

We seek to ensure that safeguarding reform means implementation ,not reinvention https://vcf-uk.org/safeguarding-reform-must-mean-implementation-not-reinvention/

The work continues...

Victoria Climbié’s Legacy and the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill: Reform or Repetition? The name Victoria Climbié continues to shape safeguarding policy in this country more […]

25/02/2026

Remembering Victoria Climbié 2 November 1991-25 February 2000 Safeguarding Reform Must Mean Implementation, Not Reinvention Twenty-six years ago, a little girl named Victoria Climbié died in […]

25/02/2026

We urge all local authorities to Remember Victoria Climbié on the anniversary of her tragic death, including her contribution to child protection. Let her legacy continue to light up our national conscience, not as a reminder of failure, but as a standard we refuse to fall below

Did LB Haringey or Ofsted remember Victoria?

We feel it necessary to remind them of the past that they vowed to never forget, when rightfully posting about their 'Outstanding' grade from Ofsted 👇

18/02/2026

This week we attended a funeral service to remember Eric Huntley, a Guyanese-born British activist, publisher and educator whose work promoted Black literature and social justice in the United Kingdom. Alongside his wife, Jessica Huntley, he co-founded Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications, a pioneering independent publishing house that provided a platform for radical Black voices and literature in Britain. The Address and Libations were eloquently delivered by Professor Gus John https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_L._Huntley

Eric’s community advocacy, including as Patron of WAPPY - Writing, Acting and Publishing Project for Young People, continued into his 10th decade, when he observed that “the struggle never ends: there is always something to fight for”.

Eric & Jessica Huntley inspired us then and he inspires us still to keep moving forward and making a difference for young people…

12/02/2026

"Families need support. Not surveillance"

The Prime Minister has it back to front. It is government that has for years failed on its responsibilities to families. And it is clear that it is the conduct of those who work in government which requires greater scrutiny.

In a recent speech the Prime Minister spoke about problems the country faced. In this he claimed that "tougher regulation" of home education is necessary because "schools are so important for integration". Therefore, he said, "we need a higher bar for people who want to opt-out of that responsibility".

Let's unpick this.

Presenting school as a "responsibility" rather than a service automatically makes those who are outside of this system a problem. Irresponsible. Risky.

This is yet more of the blame game and it's concerning to see this from the Prime Minister.

Home education is a legal option for parents. Government guidance states that "Most parents who take up the weighty responsibility of home education do a great job, and many children benefit from being educated at home"

The choice to use this speech – one which started with an apology for his own action in promoting the known friend of convicted pa******le Jeffrey Epstein to the role of US Ambassador - to point the finger at children and parents in this way is a choice to direct our attention away from government responsibility and failures.

It is widely accepted that increasingly home education is not “elected” but is a last resort for families, especially those children whose needs are not being met amidst the so-called “SEND crisis”.

Yet the government continue to oversee a system of automated threats and fines alongside a “100% attendance” drive which only increases the pressure. We must strongly reject the suggestion that these families have chosen to “opt out of the responsibility”. To suggest that parents owe the state their children's attendance at school - no matter how unsuitable the provision available or whether their child is suffering - is to gut parental duty to act in their child’s best interests as well as flipping any notion of the "social contract" upside down.

It is important also to note that the Prime Minister’s statement about home education was sandwiched between references to ramped up powers for the Charities Commission to shut down "extremist" organisations and to the claim that people not learning English makes them "vulnerable to abuse and exploitation".

This increases our long-held concern that the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools bill powers will be used to extend the government’s controversial “counter-terrorism” Prevent programme further into children’s homes, lives and more deeply into community spaces.

Numerous human rights organisations have spoken out against the way that the programme has extended surveillance and policing into schools and the harm which it does to children. In addition to this numerous commentators have spoken out against the government’s dangerous anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Muslim children and families have for many years been the main object of Prevent powers. There has been a recent focus on autistic and neurodivergent children. The definitions of extremism and radicalisation used, as well as what is to count as signs of these are so wide that attendance at protests, support for lawful organisations, discussion of video games have all resulted in children being flagged under the powers.

The legislation which is referred to in the Prime Minister’s speech is the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill. It is dangerous legislation and has been rushed through parliament without sufficient scrutiny, risk assessment or public consultation. The majority of those who will be worst impacted do not even know about the Bill.

The Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill creates a duty to share information under broad grounds and it mandates use of a digital identity number to link across systems. These powers lack safeguards, leave much to be decided by ministers later and applies to all children.

Although every local authority already has databases of both children missing education and children who are known to be home educated the bill creates new “children not in school” registers. These are to include a concerning amount of data about individual named children which can be shared, including with central government and onwards. The powers also include that local authorities can inspect homes and demand to see children. Given that there are existing powers should there be cause for concern that a child is at risk of harm it is clear that this is to apply when this is not the case. Data about home visits is to be included in these registers. Local authorities are also to be given powers to decide whether it is in certain children’s “best interests” to attend school.

At the same time the families of children with special educational needs and disabilities are fighting to keep children’s legal rights to support and to education care and health plans with a constant barrage of leaks and rumours that these rights are to be removed.
The direction of travel from government across both policy and legislation is clear. There is a demand from government is that our lives must be more visible to the state, that children and their families' privacy is a reasonable price for making it easier for the state to “help”.

We must reject this reworking of the relationship between individual and state. Children's privacy is vital to their safety and wellbeing. Instead, we must demand that the government act in accordance with the legal commitments they made around economic and social "everyday" rights.

Families need support that they ask for. Not surveillance.

02/02/2026

The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill is being sold as safeguarding, but it is smoke and mirrors, and does not address genuine safeguarding matters.

The Bill expands registration, monitoring, and data collection while ignoring the real causes of safeguarding failures: overstretched social services, unmanageable caseloads, lack of training, underfunded frontline services, weak early help, and poor inter-agency working. These failures are well documented and the Bill does not fix them.

Instead, it confuses surveillance with safety. Visibility does not equal protection. Some of the worst child protection failures happened inside fully registered, inspected systems. Safeguarding depends on capacity, trust, and skilled professionals, not bureaucratic oversight.

The Bill also targets what is easiest to control, not where harm is most likely. Children already known to services continue to be failed, while low-risk families and non-standard education routes are treated as risks simply for choosing a different lawful route. While the harms some of those children experienced are ignored because they happened in majority education options.

By repeatedly invoking “safeguarding” without clear outcomes or accountability, the Bill uses the language of child protection to justify expanded powers, not improved safety. Worse, it risks diluting real safeguarding by diverting time, damaging trust, and prioritising compliance over care.

This matters now. People must urgently contact their MPs and Members of House of Lords to:

Reject a surveillance society.

Demand investment in frontline services and early help

Insist on safeguarding that actually prevents harm

We should not accept easy, headline friendly measures that will lead to wider harms for children. Children deserve real safeguarding, not political reassurance pretending to help when it will lead to harm.

19/01/2026

"When communities come together with the same goals in mind…
When multiple generations walk shoulder to shoulder…
When power is driven not by fear, but by hope and determination…

That is where real change begins.
And that is why this moment matters."

09/01/2026

The work continues…for the children and families we support in 2026, with renewed hope and positivity.

9 January 2026 VCF – The Victoria Climbié Foundation UK – borne out of Victoria’s tragic death and subsequent inquiry into child protection – continues to […]