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15th January, 2021 11:08 am
Source: BBC By Hannah Richardson, Education and social affairs reporter England’s education secretary acted unlawfully in scrapping a string of legal protections for children in care, Appeal Court judges have ruled. They said Gavin Williamson should have consulted England’s children’s commissioner and other groups, before scrapping 65 safeguards for children. The court said consulting such bodies would have been “manifestly in the... View Article
12th January, 2021 12:10 pm
Source: Internet Watch Foundation A record number of reports of online child sexual abuse have been processed by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF). Predatory online groomers are a “grave and widespread threat” to children in their bedrooms as new figures reveal the record-breaking scale of child sexual abuse imagery on the internet. A record number of reports of online child... View Article
5th January, 2021 12:09 pm
Source: GOV.UK The Prime Minister has today announced that a new national lockdown will come into force at 00:01 on Wednesday 6 January. During the period of national lockdown, schools, alternative provision, special schools, and colleges will remain open to vulnerable children and young people and the children of critical workers only. Public vocational exams and assessments scheduled to take... View Article
16th December, 2020 12:07 pm
Source: The Telegraph The proportion of students declaring a mental health issue on their Ucas form increased from 0.7 per cent in 2012 to 3.6 per cent this year, and the report’s authors noted that the year on year increases have started to level off in recent years. Read more…
15th December, 2020 12:06 pm
Source: BBC UK watchdog Ofcom is set to gain the power to block access to online services that fail to do enough to protect children and other users. The regulator would also be able to fine Facebook and other tech giants billions of pounds, and require them to publish an audit of efforts to tackle posts that are harmful but... View Article
13th December, 2020 12:04 pm
Source: Sunday Times Critics have questioned the suitability of the government’s preferred appointee for children’s commissioner because of her academy trust’s record of excluding children from the classroom. Rachel de Souza, whom Michael Gove once said he wanted to “clone 23,000 times”, is Gavin Williamson’s choice to replace Anne Longfield, whose six-year term comes to an end in February. The... View Article
10th December, 2020 12:02 pm
Source: Adoption UK The charity Adoption UK is warning that declines in the number of adoptions could lead to more children spending their childhood in care. The warning comes as the latest official statistics reveal the number children adopted from care in England is down by more than a third compared to five years ago. The Department for Education figures show the... View Article
8th December, 2020 12:00 pm
Source: GOV.UK The Culture Secretary has launched a major and wide-ranging review of gambling laws to ensure they are fit for the digital age as committed to in the manifesto. National Lottery minimum age raised to 18 to protect young people Online stake limits, gambling advertising and age limits to be considered Gambling Commission’s role and powers will also be... View Article
8th December, 2020 11:59 am
Source: The Evening Standard Nearly 90,000 children in the capital are expected to be homeless this Christmas, London Councils warned today. The rate of families being placed in temporary accommodation is spiralling out of control as the pandemic continues to stretch local authority finances and demands for help reached record numbers, the umbrella group said. Some 63,000 London households, more than two thirds with children, will spend the festive... View Article
4th December, 2020 11:48 am
Source: Internet Watch Foundation Minister praises work to find and remove images and videos of child sexual abuse from the internet, and says new legislation will aim to tackle the issue. The Government is exploring new ways to tackle online grooming as Peers hear lockdown has created a “perfect storm” for abusers to coerce and exploit children into recording their... View Article
