Blog: Tags > Children
FEBRUARY 02, 2024
Centre for Young Lives launched
Anne Longfield CBE, Chair of the Commission on Young Lives, and former Children’s Commissioner for England, has launched the Centre for Young Lives. The Centre for Young Lives’ is a new, dynamic, innovative, independent think tank and delivery unit focused on ... Read more
APRIL 18, 2023
OFSTED uplifts Birmingham Children’s Services to GOOD
Children’s services in Birmingham have been praised by Ofsted inspectors following years of turmoil, which saw the department taken over by a children’s trust five years ago. The city’s children’s services previosly rated “inadequate” by the inspectorate for more than a ... Read more
AUGUST 15, 2022
Child trafficking referrals reach record levels
The number of potential victims of modern slavery referred into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) or via the Duty to Notify (DtN) process has reached record levels. The figures have been released by the Home Office just weeks after Sir Mo Farrah ... Read more
JULY 14, 2022
Cost of living crisis threatens pre-pandemic fall in child deprivation
Deprivation levels among disadvantaged families seen were falling before the Covid-19 pandemic but now there are concerns that these reductions could be reversed by the cost-of-living crisis. The Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) has published its annual living standards, poverty and ... Read more
JULY 11, 2022
The education select committee, consisting of cross-party MPs and chaired by Robert Halfon MP is calling on the government to improve the educational outcomes of children in residential care after an inquiry finds a “host of indefensible system failings”. The report ... Read more
JUNE 29, 2022
New evidence of the ‘year of financial fear’ being endured by UK’s low-income families has been published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation with analysis of the toll taken by the current cost of living crisis on the 40% of households ... Read more
JUNE 13, 2022
Government Food Strategy Misses the Mark
The government’s long-awaited food strategy has been branded a “pale imitation” of proposals put forward by an advisor to reduce food poverty in England according to an article published in Children and Young People Now. The strategy“focuses on longer-term measures to ... Read more
APRIL 08, 2022
Government urged to do more to protect children from child criminal exploitation
Children and Young People Now report that a coalition of children’s charities has called on the Education Secretary to better protect children facing school exclusion from child criminal exploitation. The charities have written to the Education Secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, arguing that ... Read more
DECEMBER 30, 2021
Out of Harm's Way - a new care system to protect young people at risk of exploitation
Former children’s commissioner for England Anne Longfield has warned that the current children’s social care system is “making it too easy for criminals to exploit our teenagers” in her new role as chair of the Commission on Young Lives. The report ... Read more
DECEMBER 13, 2021
Early years staff more stressed now than before pandemic!
The latest findings from Ofsted’s annual report into education and children’s services found that early years staff were more stressed and felt their work was more difficult than before the pandemic. Despite this, the report highlighted how staff and leaders worked “tirelessly” in ... Read more
DECEMBER 13, 2021
Children's Commissioner for England announces investigation over children missing from education
The Children’s commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, is set to launch an investigation over tens of thousands of children missing from education. The investigation comes following the death of six-year-old Arthur Labinjo-Hughes in Solihull last year, and will look ... Read more
SEPTEMBER 13, 2021
Unite calls for a ‘New deal’ for ‘Shared Lives’ foster carers looking after 14,000 vulnerable adults
Employers have been urged by Unite the union to give a ‘new deal’ to the UK’s 10,000 ‘Shared Lives’ foster carers who look after about 14,000 vulnerable adults, many with learning difficulties, in their homes. Unite said that many of the ... Read more
AUGUST 26, 2021
Growing numbers of British children are unhappy with their lives
A report from the Children’s Society shows that modern life continues to erode the happiness of young people. Dissatisfied with school, friendships and how they look, children deserve drastic change. The tenth annual Good Childhood Report found that 7% of 10 ... Read more
AUGUST 05, 2021
Chair of Care Review sets out priorities
In a letter to the Secretary of State and Chief Secretary, Josh MacAlister, Chair of the Independent Review of Children’s Social Care has set out three priorities for the upcoming Spending Review highlighting areas where investment is urgently needed. Outlining that ... Read more
AUGUST 04, 2021
APPG for Youth Affairs calls for long term investment in youth services
The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Youth Affairs led an extensive inquiry on youth work, publishing its final report and recommendations in 2019. Two years-on, it has published its interim report into the progress across statutory and voluntary youth services. It found that "While ... Read more
JULY 30, 2021
Child Poverty Action – Universal Credit: what needs to change to make it fit for families?
Universal credit: what needs to change to reduce child poverty and make it fit for families? calls for design and funding changes to improve claimants’ experience of universal credit and to reduce child poverty. It includes new analysis by IPPR which ... Read more
JULY 19, 2021
Social Mobility Commission – State of the Nation Report
In its report for 2021, the Social Mobility Commission reflects on the impact of the pandemic in the UK, as well as three years of its own reporting, and says 'There could not be a more pressing time for the ... Read more
JULY 16, 2021
Unite National Black & Asian Ethnic Minority Committee Statement
Unite’s National Black & Asian Ethnic Minority Committee (NBAEM) strongly condemns the racist abuse and comments posted on social media targeting England football players Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka and Jadon Sancho. Like the rest of the country watching the UEFA Euro ... Read more
JULY 12, 2021
MPs call for an end to the use of handcuffs on children in care
Ministers are backing the Hope Instead of Handcuffs campaign, launched by Emily Aklan, chief executive of children’s social care provider Serenity Welfare, which is calling for legislation allowing a child in care to be handcuffed during secure transportation to be scrapped. Children ... Read more
JULY 12, 2021
More girls being recruited and horrifically abused by county lines drug gangs
Girls and young women are being deliberately and increasingly recruited into drug-dealing ‘county lines’ gangs and subjected to horrific acts of sexual violence, the Local Government Association warns. They say that the menace of county lines has been fuelled by the ... Read more
JULY 09, 2021
Ending child poverty must be a priority for government
A cross party commission of MPs and children’s campaigners has identified ending child poverty as a core priority for improving early years support and learning in the next decade. The Early Years Commission, co-chaired by former children’s minister Edward Timpson, MP ... Read more
MAY 25, 2021
Government fails to prioritise early years
Latest government data has shown that more than 2,000 childcare providers have closed in the first four months of the year. Between 31 December 2020 and 30 March 2021, 2,087 childcare providers stopped being registered with Ofsted and this figure ... Read more
MAY 21, 2021
£118m for disadvantaged pupils could be lost from school budgets this year
Councils stand ready to help the Government prioritise disadvantaged pupils in its education recovery plan and to prevent the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and young people and their peers from widening further as a result of the pandemic. A total ... Read more
FEBRUARY 18, 2021
Into the clutches of poverty and hunger
Growing calls to cancel £20-a-week Universal Credit cut as new research shows 420k children will be plunged into poverty if extra payment is axed Pressure on chancellor Rishi Sunak to extend the £20-a-week Universal Credit uplift continues to mount as the ... Read more
FEBRUARY 09, 2021
Children's Mental Health Week and the toll of Covid
Unite Live writes: This week is Children’s Mental Health Week – a campaign to raise awareness around the ever increasing decline in our children’s mental health. In her fourth annual report on the state of children’s mental health services in England, ... Read more
FEBRUARY 08, 2021
Young people still not being kept safe
A year after the Prime Minister promised to “cut the head off the snake” of county lines, thousands of children are still not being kept safe. That’s the conclusion of the report published by Anne Longfield, Children’s Commissioner for England, which ... Read more
JANUARY 23, 2021
Young people struggling with life amid pandemic
Research finds that four in 10 young people not in employment, education or training (NEET) have said they feel "unable to cope with life" since the start of the pandemic. The Prince’s Trust Tesco Youth Index found that a quarter of ... Read more
DECEMBER 15, 2020
Greenwich Council revokes plans to close schools early for Christmas after governmental threats of legal action. The Leader of Greenwich wrote to head teachers last weekend advising them to close schools from today (15 December) amid concerns over the rising number ... Read more
DECEMBER 09, 2020
New study finds rapid growth in destitution across the UK
The third report in the Destitution in the UK series by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) reveals that even before the COVID-19 outbreak destitution was rapidly growing in scale and intensity. JRF found that since 2017 many more households, including families ... Read more
SEPTEMBER 03, 2020
Children exploited by gangs at most risk of exclusion
As schools throw open their doors for the mass return of pupils, Just for Kids, a children’s legal charity has warned that a spike in exclusions in September could “disproportionately impact” children and young people exploited by county lines drugs ... Read more
JUNE 10, 2020
Labour calls for statutory instrument to be scrapped
Parliament will today debate emergency changes to legislation that relax and remove local authorities' duties to vulnerable children, with Labour calling for the controversial measures to be scrapped. The Adoption and Children (Coronavirus)(Amendment) Regulations 2020, also known as Statutory Instrument 1445, ... Read more
JUNE 02, 2020
New report from the NYA - Hidden in plain sight
Building on the insights from their ‘Out of Sight?’ research, which focused on the vulnerabilities of young people caused or exacerbated by COVID-19, a new report from the National Youth Agency (NYA) shows that gangs have adapted to COVID-19, changing ... Read more
MAY 21, 2020
Under Pressure: children’s and young people’s services
New analysis by The Children’s Society, Barnardo’s, Action for Children, NSPCC and the National Children’s Bureau reveals the true impact of a toxic cocktail of cuts and a soaring demand for help. The two reports published, Children’s and young people’s services: ... Read more
MAY 13, 2020
Covid-19 and the impact on vulnerable children
The UK could face “losing a generation of young people” to poverty and poor mental health following the coronavirus crisis, the education select committee has heard. Giving evidence on the impact of the pandemic on vulnerable children, Javed Khan, chief executive ... Read more
APRIL 07, 2020
Capacity of children's charities to support most vulnerable under threat
Children’s social care and welfare services are being stretched and are struggling to meet the rising demand with public health experts predicting that significant proportions of the workforce could be unable to work due to sickness or having to self-isolate ... Read more
OCTOBER 08, 2019
Only Young Once - Labour commits to rebuilding a universal youth service
Labour has unveiled its vision for a universal youth service today, as fresh research reveals that youth services have been decimated by £1bn worth of cuts. ‘Only Young Once’ sets out Labour’s plan to rebuild youth services across the country as ... Read more