Ministers must recapture the post-war spirit to rebuild children's lives after the pandemic, the Children's tsar has said.
Dame Rachel de Souza said it feels like "the future of a whole generation is on the line" and warned that the pandemic had compounded challenges facing young people, ranging from mental health to social and regional inequalities.
But she argued that the Covid crisis offers the same opportunity to overhaul the system as the post-war years, and urged ministers not to return to "the old normal".
Dame Rachel, who took over as Children's Commissioner for England this month, is launching a once-in-a-generation review modelled on William Beveridge's report in the 1940s, which laid the foundations of the welfare state.
"Sometimes it feels like the future of a whole generation is on the line," she said in a speech to the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) conference on Monday.
"In terms of economic, social and cultural shocks, even in terms of deaths, this is very much a post-war generation.
"I think we need to look at the way they came out of the Second World War, how we make improvements to people's life chances, how we come up with renewed optimism.
"We need to grab that same spirit of hope we saw then and be optimistic, because the adults who came of age in the 1940s did find answers in the Beveridge report, which created a blueprint for social security and the welfare system and for our NHS, and the Education Act in 1944 and education for all to 15.
"This is our big moment to do the same - to repay children for the sacrifices that they have made. Our ambition should be so much higher than simply returning to the old normal."
Dame Rachel called on the Government to use the "once in a generation" chance to make children the top priority to prevent them becoming a "lost generation".
Every speech by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor should mention children, she said, and every department should be pushing to improve the lives of young people.
She went on: "None of us are in any doubt that the experiences of the last year will have changed our children. It's our job now to make sure it changes them for the better."
Children must be allowed to catch up with friends and play sport instead of panicking about the amount of work they have missed, she said.
“We shouldn’t panic children about the lessons they have missed or about how far they have fallen behind," she said.
"Giving children opportunities to rediscover play, sport, clubs and activities and just spending time with their friends must be one of the foundations of helping them to get back on track.”
Her comments came after she piled pressure on ministers to extend free school meals during the Easter holidays and expressed concern about plans to end the £20-a-week universal credit uplift later this year.
Meanwhile, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson admitted he was "almost a little bit Marmite" after a tumultuous year where he has faced sustained criticism over his handling of school closures and exams.
In an interview with the i newspaper, he hinted that there could be changes to exams next year, saying: “I don’t want to see those children as a disadvantage to previous years.
“So we are going to be looking at a clear set of interventions as we’re able to properly support those children.”
And he suggested that snow days could be a thing of the past, saying: “What we have learned in terms of remote education, I don’t think there’s going to be any more snow days in the future."
