Dame Rachel De Souza
Our More Rosebud guest today is the Children's Commissioner for England, Dame Rachel De Souza. Dame Rachel advocates for children in parliament, and on May 8 published a major survey of 1 million children in the UK - entitled "The Big Future". The children she's surveyed are especially those who are hardest to reach, living away from home, with disabilities, or in care – and the survey provides an urgent and definitive state of the nation of childhood, at a time when children are facing numerous challenges.
Regular listeners to Rosebud will know that we're particularly interested in childhood, and the huge impact the memories of our earliest years have on us. A childhood lasts a lifetime. And that's why Gyles is talking to Dame Rachel today - to ask her about the state of childhood in the country today, and to find out about her own story. Rachel tells Gyles about growing up in a working class family in Scunthorpe, about studying theology, and about becoming one of the most successful headteachers in the country.
Thank you to Dame Rachel De Souza for this frank and fascinating conversation.
This episode was recorded at Riverside Studios in Hammersmith in London, in front of a live audience, as part of Riverside's 50th birthday celebrations.
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