From Vision to Movement: 2022 – 2024
The seeds we planted between 2016 and 2020 had taken root. But a single voice, however passionate, can only echo so far. The next chapter of our story was about transformation — turning individual advocacy into a unified movement, and turning that movement into lasting policy change.
Between 2022 and 2024, something remarkable happened. The Children’s Alliance evolved from a campaign into a coalition. We weren’t alone anymore. Hundreds of organisations and partners — experts, practitioners, families, and leaders from across the country — stood alongside us with a shared conviction: that children’s health and well-being must sit at the very centre of how we shape our nation’s future.
The Worcester Catalyst
It began with a conference. In partnership with Worcester Business School, we convened the brightest minds working in child health, education, early years development, mental health, and safeguarding. The energy in that room was electric — hundreds of voices, all aligned behind one mission.
From that catalyst moment, something powerful took shape. We established dedicated Working Groups, each focused on a critical dimension of children’s lives. The goal was ambitious: to produce rigorous, evidence-based policy recommendations that would drive real change at national, regional, and local levels. What emerged was unprecedented — a unified body of work that spoke with one, undeniable voice.
Seven Reports. One Clarion Call.
Between 2022 and 2024, our Working Groups produced something extraordinary: seven comprehensive, evidence-based reports. Each one tackled a vital question about how we support our children. Together, they formed an unprecedented blueprint for change — and we brought them directly to Parliament.
A Preconception Care Strategy made an audacious case: that mental health support must begin before birth itself, with a fully funded national strategy. A Plan for Play, sponsored by Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL), positioned play not as a luxury but as medicine — a frontline solution to the twin crises of childhood mental health and obesity.
The Role of the Family in Early Years Education, sponsored by Babbu, placed families exactly where they belong: at the heart of a child’s earliest learning. The Early Years Report, titled “The Health & Wellbeing of Children in the Early Years,” charted a clear course for transforming outcomes from day one. The Physical Health Report sounded an alarm bell with uncomfortable clarity: without urgent action, our children face becoming the “least healthy in living memory.” Our recommendations proposed concrete measures to reverse that trajectory.
Then came The Mental Health Report, a direct response to a staggering statistic — a 90% surge in urgent mental health referrals for children in just one year. This wasn’t a crisis hiding in the margins; it was in plain sight. Our report laid out a roadmap for transforming how we support children’s mental wellbeing. Finally, Power of Play, produced by the Early Years Working Group, wove through every report’s recommendations a single, unifying truth: that play is not a break from learning — it is learning.
There is no passion to be found playing small — in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.
Partnerships That Changed the Game
But reports alone don’t change the world. We knew that lasting change required partnership — and partnership on a scale we’d never attempted before. We joined forces with PH Affairs, bringing our collective voice to bear on the corridors of power.
Together, we didn’t just talk about problems. We led nationwide campaigns on child poverty, mental health, and safeguarding. We didn’t ask for permission to be heard — we demanded a seat at the table. And remarkably, we got it. Our advocacy directly influenced the expansion of early childhood education programmes and secured meaningful improvements to child welfare legislation.
Most importantly, we kept pushing for what remains our north star: a dedicated Cabinet Minister and Department for Children, Young People, and Families. The journey continues, but the momentum is undeniable. When you align hundreds of organisations behind a single, unwavering mission, the system has to listen.
