Over 100 students from five different schools and around 50 King’s students have launched a campaign in collaboration with Citizens UK.
The Campaign
The students are campaigning in response to what they view as the government’s inadequate response to their concerns. Their key concern relates to claims of inaction towards children in care and temporary accommodation.
They plan to demonstrate outside the Department for Education on 4 July 2025 after meeting at Victoria Square Gardens. They expect around 150 demonstrators to be in attendance, including approximately 50 students from King’s College London.
The campaign has escalated in recent weeks after Janet Daby, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families and Member of Parliament for Lewisham East, failed to attend scheduled talks in Lewisham with the students.
The Students’ Key Demands
As the students gather, a letter is set to be delivered to Daby to request a meeting with the young people to discuss a set of issues identified across the city. “It’s not going to be your world – it’s going to be ours” is the key message running throughout the students’ campaign material. They are also encouraging other students to attend to celebrate youth leadership and learn more about the UK’s democratic system.
At the moment, there is no mandate in place for councils to support a child’s application for British citizenship. As a result, many children turn 18 believing they are citizens when, in fact, they are not. The campaigners want local councils to be obligated to support a child’s citizenship application, should they be eligible.
Equally, there is no obligation for councils, GP surgeries and schools to communicate with each other when a child is in temporary accommodation. Due to this, children who should be eligible for certain benefits, such as free school meals, are often overlooked. The campaigners argue that this communication should become mandatory. Indeed, this was also a suggestion provided in a 2025 government report into the homelessness crisis amongst children.
The Work of Citizens UK
Citizens UK are also currently campaigning to reduce the cost of obtaining British Citizenship to its cost price. This is approximately £372.
In 2022, they successfully campaigned for a fee waiver for child citizenship fees, subject to certain criteria. This has aided almost 30,000 children so far.
In addition to campaigning, Citizens UK also attempt to hold the government to account by commissioning reports. A recent report found a 663% increase in children who have been housed in hotels exceeding the six-week legal limit over the last three years.
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