Welcome to a brand new season of Committee Corridor. In the first episode, co-host Caroline Nokes MP, Chair of the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee, speaks with Dame Rachel de Souza, the Children’s Commissioner for England, about the effects the Covid-19 pandemic had on education.

Children have been through an “unprecedented experience” of seeing schools closed and being restricted to their homes, de Souza says. They have “probably taken the biggest hit because childhood is very short.”

Nokes is also joined by fellow parliamentarians Robin Walker MP (Chair, Education Committee) and Dame Meg Hillier MP (Chair, Public Accounts Committee), whose committees have been working on related inquiries:

• Public Accounts Committee: Education Recovery in Schools
• Education Committee: Persistent absence and support for disadvantaged pupils

Petitions Committees Chair Catherine McKinnell MP is co-hosting this series with Nokes.

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