Impact

Our Blooming Change group secures a major change to the Mental Health Bill (2025)

Blooming Change is a group of young people who have experienced mental health detention as children. We set up this group in 2021. Together, members have influenced government guidance on the use of force in mental health units, given advice to the Health Services Safety Investigations Body and successfully persuaded parliament’s Joint Committee on Human Rights to press for changes in law and policy to strengthen the rights of children in mental health inpatient care.

At the start of parliamentary scrutiny (Second Reading) of the Mental Health Bill, in November 2024, Lord Crisp, former NHS Chief Executive and permanent secretary at the Department of Health, publicly acknowledged Blooming Change’s briefing:

“We have had a lot of impressive briefings for this Bill. I will quote one of them, from Blooming Change. That was the one about children who had experience of the system. There were lots of issues about patient safety and quality of care. They talked about being injured during restraint, just being drugged and restrained and being scared all the time. There is a dreadful sentence there, which I will read out:

‘Hospital makes you worse … going into hospital with one problem and then leaving with trauma, new behaviours, new diagnoses, assaults, PTSD – it’s awful’.”

Days later, Blooming Change members had an extremely productive and lengthy meeting with civil servants leading on the Bill. Then, over the following months, several Peers gave tremendous support for Blooming Change’s priority areas – including stopping the placement of children on adult wards, ensuring therapeutic support is available for children in hospital, and introducing a new statutory mechanism for hearing patients’ views. In a fantastic development, one of Blooming Change’s proposed new clauses – ‘Ascertaining and learning from patients’ experiences of hospital treatment’ – was voted into the Bill on 31 March 2025 (209 votes to 143).

Historic ban on pain-inducing restraint in child prisons (2024)

In February 2024, government policy for the first time states that pain-inducing techniques cannot be used as a form of restraint in child prisons. Article 39 has led opposition to these brutal techniques since our inception. We have pursued strategic litigation, provided oral and written evidence to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, collected extensive data via freedom of information requests, and collated the views and experiences of children and young people.

Annual week of action launched to champion excellent advocacy services for children and young people (2024)

In May 2024, we launched our first annual ‘Change through Advocacy’ week, delivering a packed agenda of events and activities for advocates, young people and others to champion and support excellent advocacy. The highlight of this week is the publication of a magazine produced by children and young people and advocates.

Landmark legal victory over unlawful changes to children’s safeguards during first COVID-19 lockdown (2020)

In November 2020, we secured a significant Court of Appeal ruling which found the Education Secretary had acted unlawfully in failing to consult the Children’s Commissioner or any other children’s rights organisation before he removed and diluted 65 safeguards for children in care. The Department for Education had claimed this drastic reduction in children’s legal protections was necessary because of COVID-19 and characterised the safeguards as minor, administrative burdens. This narrative was rejected by both the High Court and the Court of Appeal. Our litigation was the first successful UK legal challenge to regressive COVID-19 legislation.

Empowering children and young people through our rights4children website (2018)

Our rights4children website, launched in June 2018, gives children and young people accessible and up-to-date information about their legal and human rights. We consulted 48 children and young people with experience of living in children’s homes, residential schools, prisons and mental health units about both the content and design of the site. The website was used 51,000 times in 2024/25.

Transparency triumph: access to report on child deaths and serious harm (2023)

In September 2023, we won our freedom of information tribunal case seeking disclosure by the Department for Education of a report reviewing 89 incidents where children in care had died or suffered serious harm. Children aged 16-18 were those most affected. The report was commissioned by the national Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel and had never been published, despite widespread concern about government plans affecting the safety and well-being of teenagers in care. Article 39 and 29 other organisations had asked the Panel’s Chair to publish the report, but this was refused. The Department for Education had claimed release of the report would jeopardise its working relationship with the Child Safeguarding Practice Review Panel whom it said had provided the report to ministers and civil servants in “strictest confidence”. Article 39 successfully argued that transparency was necessary in order to protect highly vulnerable children. The report can be found here.

Advocating for care standards for all children in care (2025)

Following growing evidence of serious harms suffered by children in care living in unregulated accommodation, with The Care Leavers Association and the National Association of Independent Reviewing Officers, we brought together concerned organisations in January 2020 which led to the formation of a national campaign called #KeepCaringTo18, which Article 39 co-ordinates.

In May 2022, the children’s social care review led by Josh MacAlister recommended that “new universal care standards should be introduced covering all types of care”, including in what is now known as supported accommodation for children in care aged 16 and 17 (then unregulated and known as semi-independent and independent accommodation). Then in July 2025, parliament’s Education Committee’s inquiry into children’s social care concluded that, “It is unacceptable that vulnerable children are being placed in unsuitable homes such as barges and caravans with little or no support…the Department for Education needs to go further and ensure that all children under 18 receive care where they live, rather than simply support”.

The children’s social care review’s interim report, published in June 2021, had backed government plans for ‘care-less accommodation’ for children in care aged 16 and 17 – where providers can avoid having to register their properties as children’s homes by not providing any day-to-day care to children this age. During a High Court hearing, in a judicial review initiated by Article 39, where we argued that having different, age-based legal protections for children in care was discriminatory, counsel for the Department for Education cited the review’s interim report as supporting government policy. That was in February 2022, and the week before a delegation of care experienced adults delivered a petition signed by over 10,700 individuals calling for every child in care to receive care where they live, no matter how old they are. Before it published its final report, members of the #KeepCaringTo18 campaign strategy group had dialogue with the children’s social care review team to explain the importance of all children in care receiving care. We remain bitterly disappointed that Article 39 lost our legal challenge, though pleased and relieved that the children’s social care review modified its position and supported our campaign goal in its final report.

Very regrettably, in October 2025, the government issued a non-committal response to the Education Committee’s recommendation that all children in care receive care where they live. We will continue pressing for this, knowing we have the weight of the Education Committee behind us. Also in October 2025, the Children’s Commissioner for England reiterated her support for care to be provided for every child in care, no matter where they live.

ON YOUR SIDE: launching our unique children’s rights advice service (2022)

In October 2022, we launched our ON YOUR SIDE children’s rights advice service which provides straightforward information about the law and children’s rights for children and young people, their advocates and others seeking to protect their rights. This built upon our earlier ‘advocacy help’ email service (set up in April 2021) for members of our Children and Young People’s Advocates Network. We hear regularly that the rights information we provide has made a difference – including stopping forced moves for children in care, ensuring proper leaving care support for young adults, and successfully challenging local authority refusals to investigate complaints. We were particularly proud when a child in care was able to attend their grandparent’s funeral after our help, a child in care was able to travel abroad with their foster carers, and a child in care was provided a laptop for their studies.

Together for children campaign defeats deregulation in social work (2017)

We set up and co-ordinated the ‘Together for Children’ campaign against the exemption clauses in the Children and Social Work Bill in 2016/17. Had Parliament approved these clauses, which were championed by the Chief Social Worker for Children and Families, councils would have been able to apply to central government to opt-out of any number of their children’s social care legal duties for up to six years. Government was clear that these local opt-outs were to be trials for national deregulation. Over 50 organisations and 120+ social work experts were part of the campaign. More than 108,000 members of the public signed our petition to oppose the clauses. The campaign was a complete success: the clauses were removed from the Bill in March 2017!

Legal and advocacy success against pain-inducing restraint policies (2019)

Following a successful crowd funding appeal, we legally challenged the authorisation of pain-inducing restraint on children during their journeys to and from secure children’s homes. As a result, the Ministry of Justice conducted an internal review of its policy. After we applied for permission for judicial review to the High Court, in October 2018, the Ministry of Justice appointed Charlie Taylor to conduct a full-scale review of pain-inducing restraint in child prisons and during children’s journeys to and from detention. Then, in February 2019, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse concluded that pain-inducing restraint is a form of child abuse and recommended it be legally prohibited (we gave evidence to the inquiry). In June 2020, Charlie Taylor’s review was published and recommended that pain-inducing restraint techniques be taken out of the core restraint training syllabus – in respect of both child prisons and during children’s journeys to/from custody. The government accepted this recommendation but indicated it would take some time to implement. After further pressure from Article 39, in August 2020 the Ministry of Justice instructed the companies taking children to/from custodial institutions that they were no longer authorised to use pain-inducing techniques as a form of restraint.

Championing safeguards in the Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act 2018

The Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act 2018 received Royal Assent in November 2018, and came fully into effect on 31 March 2022. We worked on the legislation with YoungMinds and others throughout its Parliamentary passage. We lobbied for a number of safeguards and were delighted that three of these were included in the final legislation:

• The Act requires that staff training includes the impact of restraint on a patient’s development. This means training must specifically include the effects of use of force on children’s development.
• Staff must record the outcome of each use of force. This means that any injuries and/or psychological harm suffered by children (and adults) will be documented. This in turn will improve transparency and accountability and should lead to the withdrawal of techniques which cause harm to children.
• Records about the use of force must indicate whether parents (or others in a patient’s care plan) were notified after each use of force. This is a vital safeguard for vulnerable children who may not tell their parents (or the local authority if they are in care) if they have been restrained.

We were thrilled that accounts of restraint and segregation from members of our Expert Group on Mental Health (now called Blooming Change) were included in the statutory guidance. We believe this is the first time children’s views and experiences of restraint and segregation in mental health inpatient care have been included in government guidance.

Challenging misinformation on legal protections for vulnerable children (2019)

After a legal challenge from Article 39, the Department for Education agreed to withdraw a document which incorrectly described as myths a number of key legal protections for vulnerable children and young people – including children in care and care leavers, children remanded to custody and children who have run away or gone missing from care. Government assurances were also given that children and young people, Article 39 and other organisations would be consulted about any similar future plans to amend the law or statutory guidance. The document was discussed in Parliament on three separate occasions, the latest after it was withdrawn (25 March 2019).

Strengthening protections for children in the Draft Mental Health Bill (2023)

In January 2023, the parliamentary committee which had scrutinised the Draft Mental Health Bill (published in 2022) made a number of recommendations to strengthen protections for children. Article 39 gave oral and written evidence to the committee, and we were delighted when it made recommendations reflecting our priorities – including stronger safeguards for children placed on adult wards and children sent to hospitals many miles from home, and opt-out advocacy for all patients not only those detained under the Mental Health Act 1983. Later in 2023, we were commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care to consult children and young people on the Draft Mental Health Bill, and published our ‘In what world is this hospital care?’ report in December 2023.

Groundbreaking research on abuse in institutional settings (2017)

In November 2017, we published the first research review of abuse allegations in different institutional settings, with disaggregated data for children’s homes, secure children’s homes, boarding schools, residential special schools, mental health inpatient units, other hospitals, young offender institutions, secure training centres, immigration removal centres (detention) and police custody. This showed that less than a quarter (24%) of abuse allegations in institutional settings result in a statutory child protection investigation. We found the situation for child prisoners was especially poor. Our advocacy for statutory guidance on keeping children safe in institutional settings was referenced in the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse’s February 2019 report. We published our follow-up report in December 2021.

Advocates4U campaign elevates independent advocacy standards (2019)

Our Advocates4U national campaign to strengthen children’s independent advocacy led to a Parliamentary roundtable chaired by the Children’s Commissioner for England and hosted by former Children’s Minister Tim Loughton MP. The Children’s Commissioner subsequently established an Advocacy Working Group, which Article 39 was part of. We pressed for the Commissioner’s recommendations (June 2019) from this work to be implemented, including the revision of national standards for advocates, and were delighted that the then Children’s Minister, Vicky Ford MP, announced in March 2020 that the standards and regulations for children and young people’s advocacy services would be revised. Between September and December 2023, the Department for Education consulted on a revised set of national standards for children and young people’s advocacy services. Prior to this, Article 39 had set up a national working group of advocates to draft revisions to the existing, 2002, standards. We also facilitated dialogue between young people and civil servants – to help government understand just how important effective advocacy is.

We force disclosure of restraint-related injuries (2017)

We forced the disclosure of information on serious injuries and asphyxiation warning signs during the use of physical restraint in child prisons. This was the first time such information was brought into the public domain. As a result of our work, information about restraint injuries and asphyxiation warning signs has been published in the government’s annual youth justice statistics since January 2017.

Exposing child abuse at Medway secure training centre (2016)

We gave advice to the BBC Panorama team making a programme about G4S-run Medway secure training centre, ‘Teenage prison. Abuse exposed’, which was broadcast in January 2016. Our Founder Director was the only professional in a non-statutory role to be interviewed by the Medway Independent Improvement Board, established by the then Justice Secretary after Panorama aired. Following publication of the Board’s report, the government announced it would be taking control of the centre from G4S. We submitted information about the child prison to the Medway Safeguarding Children Board, and lobbied directly, and through the media, for the Board to launch a serious case review. In February 2017, the Board announced it would be establishing such a review. The serious case review was published in January 2019 (see our analysis here), after which we co-ordinated a joint letter (36 signatories) calling for government to cancel its plans to convert the prison into its first experimental secure school.

Unveiling government safety assessments on child restraint techniques (2016)

We obtained the independent medical advice given to government ministers on the safety of restraint techniques approved for use on children in custody, children taken by escort to custody and children taken on aircraft for deportation. The Guardian newspaper published the story at the end of 2016 and a question was subsequently asked in Parliament. In response, the government said it would consider annually publishing the medical risk assessment with other restraint review information.