// BBC UK NEWS — CRONACA
'Postcode lottery' driving children's inequality in England, commissioner warns
Dame Rachel de Souza's landmark report examines the challenges faced by children across England
Services for children are in a "state of emergency" and young people across England are facing extreme and unfair inequality, a new report says.
Children's Commissioner for England Dame Rachel de Souza has analysed a hundred different metrics including health and social care, education, safety and play, concluding that a "postcode lottery" has resulted in a "litany of failures" affecting children.
Her report, called the Childhood Lottery, found that deprivation alone could not explain the differences in their experiences.
Some poorer areas had scored highly in her analysis compared to relatively well-off ones.
Dame Rachel called for a minimum standard for children's services, and an emergency fund for improvements where needed.
She said she had previously resisted the call to "reduce everything to funding", but the "extent of failure is too great".
In her report she wrote that she could not see the status quo as "anything less than a national emergency".
She urged Prime Minister Andy Burnham to give larger local authorities and mayors more of a role in providing better education, health, youth services and policing for children.
More than one million children had been referred to mental health services in 2024-25