The UK Covid-19 Inquiry has today (Monday 29 September 2025) published its latest Every Story Matters record, documenting the “life-changing” impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on children and young people. It features powerful personal accounts drawn from parents, carers and professionals working with and caring for children across the UK, as well as young people aged 18-25, all reflecting on their pandemic experiences.
Every Story Matters is the largest public engagement exercise ever undertaken by a UK public inquiry. It gave people the opportunity to help the UK Covid-19 Inquiry understand their experience of the pandemic. From the 58,000 stories shared through Every Story Matters, this latest record draws on almost 18,000 stories and more than 400 targeted interviews specifically documenting the pandemic’s impact on children and young people.
The latest record is published on the opening day of public hearings for the Inquiry’s eighth investigation: Module 8 ‘Children and Young People’. The four-week investigation, which runs from 29 September – 23 October, will examine the impact of the pandemic on children and young people across England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. It will explore the diverse experiences of children and young people, including those with special educational needs, disabilities and from various ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds.
This new Every Story Matters record reveals how young lives were profoundly affected. Stories were submitted by 18-25 year olds about their experiences, some of whom were under 18 at the time of the pandemic. The Inquiry also received invaluable contributions from adults who cared for, or worked professionally with, young people during the period.
The record reveals that while some people found unexpected benefits and inner resilience during this extremely stressful period, many others saw their existing challenges and inequalities made significantly worse – from out-of-classroom learning barriers including a lack of access to technology, to difficult family dynamics and an abrupt severing of daily in-person contact with friends, disrupting vital routines of connection, support and belonging:
- Many children and young people experienced heightened anxiety, with some developing extreme issues with school, food and pandemic-related fears leading to obsessive behaviours including handwashing – including one boy whose hands bled
- Significant disruption to education, with many lacking the required technology or internet access for remote learning, whilst those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities faced difficult challenges without familiar routines and specialist support
- Some young people faced increased vulnerability to online exploitation and grooming during lockdown, with reduced supervision and increased digital engagement creating new opportunities for targeting and manipulation through various online platforms
- Social isolation and loneliness devastated young people nationwide with lockdowns severing vital face-to-face contact with friends and extended family
- Healthcare access was severely disrupted causing dangerous delays in diagnosing serious conditions like asthma, diabetes and cancer in children and young people
- Limited access to dental care led to significant dental issues such as decay, resulting in some children losing teeth
- Young carers were severely impacted, facing 24/7 caring responsibilities whilst losing essential support services and respite that school once provided
- For some children and young people, their homes became dangerous environments where they witnessed or experienced an increase in domestic abuse
- Physical wellbeing was significantly impacted, with reduced activity levels and disrupted sleep patterns, though some managed to remain active through online clubs or family walks
- Visiting restrictions and funeral limitations created unprecedented barriers to grief, while fragmented support services left countless children and young people unable to process their loss properly
- Post-viral conditions including Long Covid, Paediatric Inflammatory Multisystem Syndrome (PIMS) and Kawasaki disease have had substantial and life-changing impacts on children’s physical and emotional wellbeing
The stories in this Every Story Matters record highlight the profound and varied impact of the pandemic on children and young people across the UK. From disrupted education and healthcare access to heightened anxiety and social isolation, these accounts reveal both the unprecedented challenges faced and the resilience shown by young people and their families.
We all remember when the lives of children and young people changed, when they were not allowed to enjoy play, sports or socialising, when learning transitioned from classrooms to online in bedrooms, when birthdays were celebrated on videocall. And for some facing bereavement, they were not able to say goodbye to loved ones.
By documenting these deeply personal experiences shared by parents, carers, professionals and young people themselves, we are making sure that their voices are not forgotten. The stories we’ve heard through Every Story Matters will directly shape the Inquiry's recommendations so that lessons are learned and children and young people are better protected in a future pandemic.
I am deeply grateful to each of the thousands of people who shared their experiences with the Inquiry. Their contributions have been invaluable in creating this record and their participation in Every Story Matters will help ensure we learn vital lessons for the future.
On 23 May 2025, Every Story Matters closed as the Inquiry reached the end of this vital phase of gathering stories to inform the Chair’s investigations. Every Story Matters records have already been used in hearings alongside witness testimonies and expert reports and they will continue to be used until the end of the Inquiry.
Every Story Matters records help the Chair, Baroness Hallett, to reach conclusions and make recommendations for the future. Four other records have been published so far: ‘Healthcare Systems‘ (September 2024), ‘Vaccines and Therapeutics‘ (January 2025), ‘Test, Trace and Isolate‘ (May 2025) and ‘Care Sector‘ (June 2025).
As part of its Module 8 investigation, and alongside Every Story Matters, the Inquiry has also learned about the pandemic experiences of 600 children and young people under the age of 18 at the time, through the landmark Children and Young People’s Voices project.
Featured in the latest Every Story Matters record, parents, educators and young people describe the reality of learning during lockdown – some facing major difficulties, others discovering unexpected positives:
It was just, ‘Do the work, do the work, do the work,’ but it wasn’t marked, it wasn’t assessed, so you didn’t know if you were teaching things right and you didn’t know if what your child was doing was the correct work … There was no interaction. You would hear of other schools that had Zoom calls and they had the whole class in.
We’d have some of them [young people] saying, ‘My Mum’s just had to drive us to a car park so we can get free Wi-Fi so I can join the session and I’m doing this from the car.
Being autistic, I actually benefitted from the isolation and was able to successfully complete schoolwork by myself.
Parents and professionals shared that some children entered primary school lacking some of the skills normally learnt in early years settings like nurseries and pre-schools:
We have many more children now who are coming to school still wearing nappies, still not able to brush their teeth, still not able to use cutlery – those kinds of soft skills, there’s a huge delay in those. I don’t know if that’s just from the lack of being around other children and building that personal awareness. There’s so much incidental learning that takes place for all of us when we’re just out and about. The opportunities for that kind of learning weren’t there for those children.
Many told us about difficult changes to home and family life during lockdowns, while others described the benefits of spending more time with loved ones:
Suddenly the young carers’ responsibilities just went through the roof. Before the pandemic, a young person had to be in school, so the caring would be done around the school hours. Whereas now, suddenly, the carers were at home. If the person that would come to change their parent’s dressings or something didn’t turn up, because they had Covid, then the young person would have to do it and that’s taking them out of their education time. I definitely felt like there were young people who were losing more of their own space, particularly the ones that were carers.
For those children suffering through any kind of abuse, whether that be emotional or physical or neglect, those dynamics obviously changed. Because these children had no safe space to go, school was their safe space. They couldn’t get out, which was very difficult.
Before the pandemic, he was your standard 16-year-old that didn’t want anything to do with his parents, wouldn’t go out with you, didn’t want to do things with you, but then he did everything with us ... I am much closer to him than I think I ever would have been if it hadn’t happened. For two years, he lived with me and I was his social interaction. I was the person he would talk to and I’m now really close to him and he offloads to me when he’s got a problem and rings me when he’s got issues, which I don’t think many late teenage boys do with their mum. I think we have a better relationship because of it.
Parents and educators told us about the intense anxiety and pandemic-related fears that affected many children:
My daughter’s anxiety sky-rocketed due to the pandemic. She went from someone who loved school to someone who hates school. She has developed such bad separation anxiety that since lockdown we've had to share a bedroom, because she's terrified of being alone. She is also terrified of becoming ill and If someone even coughs near her she's terrified she will get ill.
There was a lot around death. I had one little boy who washed his hands so much that they bled. He was terrified that he was going to take germs home and his mummy and daddy were going to die. I kept saying to him, ‘sweetheart, they’re not going to die, they’re really young, they’re really fit ... you’re going to make yourself poorly’. ‘But I have to [wash them]’. His hands were bleeding, bless him.
The long-term effects of post-viral conditions fundamentally changed young people’s lives and future prospects:
They [Long Covid hub] told me it was mental health condition. It made me question if I was faking it, when you keep getting told this, after a year of complete bed rest, requiring help eating, needing a wheelchair, seizures, blacking out, exhaustion and no help from the NHS.
I was getting very cross when I was hearing that children were not affected by Covid, especially when my son nearly died because of it ... the lie being told that children were not affected. The doctors we saw did not even recognise PIMS as a possibility. I think that’s what angers me, the fact that maybe they should have known that this was a possibility and not brushed it off for as long as they had.
Support available
The Inquiry acknowledges that some content in the record and the extracts above include descriptions of death, abuse, neglect and significant harm which may be distressing or triggering. If you are affected by this content, please know that support services are available via the Inquiry website.