Middlesex County Championships welcomes Children’s Commissioner for England

Dame Rachel de Souza joined us on day five of the Championships and spoke with us about the importance of tennis in a child’s life

We were delighted to be joined by Children’s Commissioner for England at this year’s County Championship.

An avid tennis fan, Rachel took time to talk to us and explain her role and more importantly chatted with our junior player and parents during a rainy morning at Hazelwood Tennis Club.

The Interview in full

PV	So, Rachel, welcome to Hazelwood Tennis Club, Children’s Commissioner for England, (0:03) but before we get into that, you’re a bit of a tennis fan, aren’t you?	00:00
RdS	Oh, I love tennis. I mean, everyone loves Carlos and Federer and all of them, but also my family are great tennis players. So my son plays, he’s 30 now, but he played as a kid and was serious about it.	00:07
RdS	My husband was a coach, so we are a real tennis family and that’s why I’m (0:23) proud to be here, seeing the real heart of, you know, British tennis here in Middlesex. (0:29)	00:20
PV	Where great players are created. And when we met, we were watching Carlos, weren’t we? We were watching Carlos. And you were on the edge of your seat.	00:32
RdS	I was loving him. He’s so exciting to watch, isn’t he? But, yeah, and I think it’s great to see some fantastically British players coming through too. That’s what I want from you guys, isn’t it? The next Carlos, grown here. (0:49)	00:36
PV	We’re on it, aren’t we?	00:49
AL	We are on it.	00:50
PV	And we do have our 17-year-old Mika (Stojsavljevic), who’s like 230, 240 in the world, so we’ve got great help.	00:52
PV	So, Children’s Commissioner, it’s quite a big role, isn’t it?	1:00
RdS	Yes, so Children’s Commissioner for England, and I’ve been doing it for six years. It’s a six-year role. My job is to protect and promote the rights of children. And one of the things I really do, I get to do quite difficult things. So, I see children in prisons, in mental health wards, in hospitals, the tough things. But I also get to come out and see children doing amazing things that children should be doing to make sure they’re happy, they thrive. And I’m doing The Great Future survey for kids, and I’m here today to talk to tennis-playing children, to ask them what they want the new Prime Minister to do for them, and how we can make tennis great.	1:03
PV	Because you’re in that unique position, aren’t you, of influencing government. (1:40) So we’ve got a new Prime Minister, so opportunity knocks.	1:37
RdS	Yes, so basically, I’m completely independent, but I get to, in British law, Prime Ministers, Cabinet Ministers, politicians have to listen to me, and all public sector has to give me data, and they have to respond to my emails, and I get the chance to speak in Parliament a lot about children’s issues. For me, it’s taking children’s voices, children’s dreams, children’s what they need to Parliament to make sure they’re heard and not ignored.	1:43
PV	It’s so important. And do you know what, (to Andrew) you’re a dad, of two or three?	2:18
AL	Three, two daughters and a son.	2:24
PV	And Andrew looks after, well, he’s the Middlesex Tennis Manager, and a real specialist in the performance side of things. Because a lot of people say to me that, oh, well, children are children, and they’re the same as they were in 1970. Crikey! And I think it’s broken. Things have moved on so far, and children are under much more pressure, aren’t they, now, than they were.	2:32
RdS	So, I mean, I’ve heard from about a million children who’ve done the surveys and talked to me, and I think we forget just how much things like the online world, 24-7 news. So I just surveyed four million children, all children who are about to be able to vote, and asked them what their biggest worries were. Cost of living, money for mum and dad, will they get a good job? And war came up, because they’re watching it, aren’t they? And then, friendship. Because that’s the bit where they are the same, they’re still kids, you know, they still need that to belong to something.	2:47
PV	And we want to do positive things. So, because we’ve got 250 children in the performance programme, and we’re bringing them up in an environment that’s so different to the one that you and I were in. So, how do you make justice of that?	3:25
AL	Well, I mean, I think we try to use the environment that we have currently. So actually, the online environment can be used in a very positive way. So we do bring children together with various experts to run workshops, to get feedback from them, and also as part of the overall tennis. So that’s a key area for us. But I think, you know, tennis and sport, really, A, it’s extremely helpful. It brings people together. And it gives them that sense of purpose, which carries them through for the whole of their lives. So we are in a brilliant industry. And, you know, as we know, not everybody ends up as Carlos, but they get so much from it, stays with them for the whole of their life.	3:37
RdS	I mean, absolutely for the whole of their lives, doesn’t it? I mean, I know all the (4:38) little boys and girls when my son was starting to play, and they’re now in their 30s, all playing (4:43) still, all like, you know, and it’s part of their social life, and it’s part of their work life. (4:47) Like, you know, let’s go out and do that. But I cannot, I’ve just got to say, your comments about, (4:54) like, you know, of course, you’re using the digital world in a positive way. But what we (4:57) don’t want are kids sitting doing six hours on some game or scrolling. It’s far better to be (5:03) out here learning some skills, learning some mental, like, how to sort of manage yourself, (5:08) learning to win, learning to lose, to be in a team. And the great skills of tennis, (5:14) a beautiful game, isn’t it? .	4:33
PV	Yes. Oh, fantastic. So we’ve talked a little bit, but now we’re going to go and meet some parents and children and carry on with your survey.	5:18
RdS	Lovely, thank you. Thank you.	5:27