Children in UK will be living in long shadow of Covid for next two decades, inquiry told

Anne Longfield arriving to give evidence to the Covid-19 inquiry. She said the ‘devastating’ impact of lockdown on children was ‘clearly predictable’. Photograph: Jordan Pettitt/PA

Children will be living in the “long shadow” of the pandemic for the next two decades thanks to the government’s “indifference” to them during lockdown, England’s former children’s commissioner has told the Covid inquiry.

The long-term, “devastating impact” the pandemic had on children’s mental and physical health was compounded by government policies that had left millions of families struggling to survive even prior to February 2020, the inquiry heard.