Expert Report for the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry by Dr Terry Segal and Professor Elizabeth Whittaker, titled Module 8 – Children and Young People Long COVID in Children and young people.

• The delay in the recognition of Long Covid in children, compared to adults
• The impact of lack of specialist services for children

Report from Mental Health Expert titled Module 8 – Children and Young People, The impact of the pandemic on the mental health and wellbeing of children and young people

This report presents an overview of the evidence relating to the mental health of children and young people in the UK before, during and following the  Covid-19 pandemic. Overall, the balance of evidence suggests that the pandemic had a detrimental impact on the mental health of children and young people at population level. In our view, this negative impact is due in large part to the disruption on a population level of many protective factors, such as in-person connection, learning, play and socialising, and to a greater exposure to risk factors, such as unstable home environments, parental stress, isolation, and financial strain, as well as reduced opportunities to identify and address emerging problems early through support in home, school, community or service settings. However, we stress that the effect of the pandemic was not uniform.