Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what research he has commissioned on the extent and nature of children’s behavioural, social, and emotional recovery after the covid-19 pandemic.

The department collects information on children’s behaviour and emotional and social wellbeing through several surveys. We have used these alongside additional research to monitor the effects of the COVID-19 outbreak and recovery.

Our third annual State of the Nation Report, published 8 February 2022, brings together data from these and external research to identify trends in children and young people‘s mental health. It also documents wellbeing recovery over the course of the 2020/21 academic year, as well as their views about society and the future. The findings show that overall, children’s wellbeing has remained largely stable across previous years. However, increasing COVID-19 prevalence rates and changing restrictions and school closures have coincided with fluctuation in levels of wellbeing throughout the period covered by the report.

The full report can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/state-of-the-nation-2021-children-and-young-peoples-wellbeing.