Pandemic took huge toll on UK's children, inquiry hears

The Covid pandemic disrupted the “very fabric of childhood”, the UK inquiry heard yesterday on the first day of a four-week session on its impact on children and young people.

- Sally Weale Education correspondent

Clair Dobbin KC, counsel to the inquiry, said in her opening submission that some of the evidence drawn from the 18,000 stories and 400 targeted interviews submitted to the inquiry would be “hard to listen to”.

Some children lost parents, grandparents and other loved ones to Covid. Some children died, while others continue to live with the “severe, and, for many, long-lasting” consequences of the pandemic.

Dobbin described the curtailment of play and the loss of all the normal rites of passage - birthdays, proms, exams - as well as the damage done to young people’s mental health and their ability to make and sustain friendships.

She also spoke about children who suffered “grievous” harm at the hands of the people who were meant to care for them when they were told to stay at home and lost the protection that schools usually offer.

Some young people were exposed to violent pornography and other harms as their lives rapidly moved online, while many struggled to access online lessons and spent most of the day gaming instead of learning.