Rachel de Souza
Dame Rachel Mary de Souza '' is the Children's Commissioner for England. She is a British educationalist and social reformer, a former headteacher and founding chief executive of the Inspiration Trust.
She was appointed DBE in the 2014 New Year Honours "for services to education".
Early life
Born in Scunthorpe in 1968, Rachel Kenny is the only female of four siblings. Her father David was a steelworker, while her mother Renate Telewny arrived in England as a refugee; Renate's father was a German railwayman from Leipzig, and her mother a Hungarian. Her stepfather Simon Telewny was Ukrainian.She attended St Bede's, a local Catholic comprehensive school, then attended the John Leggott College, gaining A-levels in English and Religious Studies in 1986. She graduated as BA in Philosophy and Theology from Heythrop College, University of London. De Souza then received a PGCE and MA in Education at King's College London.
Career in education
During her career, de Souza taught in Oxfordshire, Tower Hamlets and Luton Sixth Form College, and later served as deputy head at Denbigh High School, Luton.Her first headship was at Barnfield West Academy in Luton, before being appointed principal of Ormiston Victory Academy. In 2012, she co-founded the Inspiration Trust, a multi-academy trust based in Norwich. She grew the Trust to include 14 schools across Norfolk and Suffolk.
She was appointed DBE in the 2014 New Year Honours "for services to education" following her successes rapidly turning around failing schools.
Children's Commissioner
De Souza became Children's Commissioner for England on 1 March 2021. As the most powerful child protection post in the country, she advocates for the views of children in England, as well as children in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on UK Parliamentary reserved matters, such as immigration.During an evidence session to the Education Select Committee preceding her appointment, at a time when numerous Children's Commissioners, including those for Wales and Scotland, had already committed to banning corporal punishment against children, de Souza was criticised for failing to do so. However, early into her role, having started on 1 March 2021, she said she was against violence of any form towards children, and in an article for the Times 20 April 2022 she said she was supportive of a ban being introduced in England. In December 2024, following the murder of Sara Sharif, she reiterated her position, calling for the end of the ‘reasonable chastisement’ clause that exists as a defence to assault against children in English law.
Since 2021 she has carried out several large-scale surveys of children, parents and carers, and professionals working with them – The Big Ask, The Big Ambition and her School and College Survey – to take their views to politicians and decision makers. In total she has engaged with one million children, reflecting their experience in her work and she has established a youth participation programme of Youth Ambassadors.
The Big Ask
In March 2021 de Souza announced plans to commission a major survey of children’s views on policy ideas that would improve their lives and opportunities. ‘The Big Ask’ was launched on 19 April 2021, supported by international footballer and children's campaigner Marcus Rashford. Over six weeks the survey gathered 557,077 individual responses, making it the largest detailed survey of children ever conducted. According to the survey, the three primary concerns reported by children recovering from the pandemic were their mental health, their education experience, and the lack of local activities.The Big Ambition
In March 2024, ahead of the 2024 UK general election, de Souza published the findings of her next survey, The Big Ambition, which heard from 367,000 children. Launched in parliament, The Big Ambition found only 22% of children and young people agreed that people who run the country listen to what they had to say – the most negatively answered question in the survey. In The Big Ambition, de Souza called on all politicians to listen to children and act on what they said. She also set out recommendations to improve children’s lives including the closure of all Young Offenders Institutions, raising the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14, and calling for the end of the two-child limit.School and college survey
In September 2024, de Souza announced plans to use her 2F powers of the Children Act 2004 on all 20,000+ schools and colleges in England for the first time. The survey, consisting of 25 questions, asked schools and colleges about the support offered to pupils and their families, staff roles and responsibilities, and the characteristics of vulnerable pupils. The survey closed in January 2025 and will be published in 2025.Work as Children’s Commissioner
Online safety and children’s access to pornography
In response to Ofsted's review of sexual abuse in schools and colleges on 10 June 2021, which was prompted by the Everyone's Invited movement, de Souza was commissioned by Government to review online safety for children, with a focus on the prevalence of sexualised content. Over the following three months, she met with the owners and administrators of adult content sites, all major social media companies, and content sharing platforms, and co-chaired a meeting with Ministers and senior representatives of the eight largest internet and social media companies, and support for the Online Safety Bill, which became law in 2023.De Souza has campaigned for robust age limits on adult content sites and has called for tighter age verification on sites that children already engage with and use. Her work to strengthen the UK Government’s Online Safety Act, through workshops and focus groups with young people and other leading child’s rights organisations, during the passage of the legislation, and to her being named as a statutory consultee on the face of the Act.