8 months into the pandemic, the UK Government’s inadequate consideration of young people in the COVID-19 response is causing lasting harm to a whole generation. Although children and adolescents are generally less clinically vulnerable to COVID-19 than are adults, the wider effects of COVID-19 policies have disproportionately and negatively affected the young.

Data emerging from multiple sources show that, during the first phase of the pandemic in March–June, closures of schools, nurseries, and outdoor play spaces, and reduced clinical and community services have endangered child health and widened pre-existing disparities. Early findings of a survey of 500 parents showed that young children (aged 0–3 years) from disadvantaged backgrounds were less likely to engage in enriching activities, had less access to outdoor space and books, and had more daily screen time than their wealthier peers. In some areas of England, more than half of health visitors who support new parents and infants have been redeployed to COVID-19 services, raising concerns about missed needs in young children’s growth, development, and safeguarding. A quarter of pupils (roughly 2·5 million children in the UK) had no schooling or tutoring during lockdown; while 74% of those at private schools had full days of teaching, the proportion was only 38% for state school pupils. Cancelled exams and the heavily criticised grading system have left many students missing out on university places and facing an uncertain future. Young people are also more likely to work in sectors affected by COVID-19; in the Social Mobility Survey, 11% of those aged 16–25 years reported losing their jobs between February and September, compared with 5% of older adults, and nearly 60% of young people reported a fall in their earnings.