I joined the Children’s Commissioner’s Office (CCO) in August 2026 for a three-month, full-time placement. Although I was not yet a year into my PhD, the role caught my attention when it was circulated by UBEL. I was keen to contribute to the CCO’s work and was already familiar with some of the national data they used. As a student on the Population and Health pathway doing a PhD focused on children with rare conditions and neurodevelopmental disorders, I have a particular interest in children’s health and wellbeing, and the placement offered a valuable opportunity to apply this in a government/policy setting.

My project examined whether courts’ decisions to remand children into detention are justified and lawful. Children have a general presumption of bail: remand should be a measure of last resort, used only where the statutory tests are met and no less restrictive option would be adequate. The CCO had recently received an extract of Ministry of Justice data under section 2F of the Children Act 2004. This data recorded the reasons courts gave for remanding children to youth detention accommodation (YDA). My work had three aims. First, to describe the population of children remanded into custody, including where they were remanded (by region and court type) and their key demographic characteristics. Second, to understand why children are remanded by examining the reasons formally recorded by courts, and to assess whether that reasoning adequately evidences the statutory tests it is meant to satisfy. Third, to explore whether the quality of decisions varied systematically by region, court characteristics, and the demographic characteristics of the defendants. Where the recorded reasoning did not appear to justify remand, I examined what the court records revealed about why children were nonetheless being detained. Several themes emerged, including children being remanded because of gaps in social care provision or a lack of local authority accommodation, pointing to a need for stronger support from the systems and services around them, rather than the use of custody as a last resort. I was able to write a report on my findings and present them internally as well as to key stakeholders at the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office.

The placement gave me a team-based research perspective that differs from the largely independent work of a PhD. We continuously checked and collaborated on analysis scripts and written outputs, and documented this quality assurance formally, a process that was new to me. I also saw how research using national datasets moves from the research team to the policy team, who develop recommendations, then to the communications team, and finally to the Children’s Commissioner, who advocates for children publicly through the media, policy roundtables and select committees. As a PhD researcher in child health, my aim is to generate evidence that informs policy and practice and improves outcomes for children. It was valuable to see that the CCO shares this goal but pursues it through a different route, and to experience the work from both sides.