The Government has made it clear that their preferred next Children's Commissioner is Anne Longfield.OBE who is currently the Chief Excutive of 4Children.

However there are concerns that the role of Children's Commissioner must to be undertaken by a person who is independent of Government, who will speak on behalf of children of all ages, and who has a track record of standing up for and protecting the rights of children.

The Government have only given members of the public a period of 6 days to comment on their proposal and put forward comments on what the key priorities should be.

They have also only provided the option of commented via Twitter – which excludes those who do not use Twitter.

(Those who use Twitter can comment by using the hashtag #OCCintray )

Therefore at the request of others, I have decided to set up this petition to give EVERYONE the opportunity to comment.

So the key priorities should be

Ensure the Children's Commissioner is able to fulfil the responsibilities of the role  of standing up for and protecting the rights of children under the Children and Families Act 2014, without conflict of interest or direction from Government.

Ensure the Children's Commissioner has proven record of protecting the rights of children up to the age of 18 years old, or 25 years if they have been in care, are care leavers or have a disability.

Ensure the Children's Commissioner provides evidence of own knowledge and experience in representing children of all ages, abilities and background.

Time is very short – comments need to be made by MIDAY on MONDAY 10th NOVEMBER 2014

Therefore please share as widely as possible – the more signatures and comments made, the more impact we can have – and remember this is about ALL children from birth to adulthood.

If you use Twitter – please also comment using the hashtag #OCCintray – and look out for others who are commenting and add your views to theirs.

By working in partnership we can make our voice heard

 I will ensure number of signatures and comments - plus link to petition is sent via Twitter to #OCCintray