09/01/2025: Consultation launches to tackle low numbers of suitably qualified youth workers
Youth workers are being urged to give their views on proposals to overhaul qualifications and training for the role in a bid to tackle recruitment challenges and improve their career progression.
09/01/2025: Children’s social care reform bill clears first parliamentary hurdle
MPs give in-principle backing to legislation that would introduce multi-agency child protection teams, tighten regulation of placement providers and require meetings with families to explore alternatives to care.
09/01/2025: Five Reasons To Abolish Short-Term Custodial Sentences For Children
Abolishing Detention and Training Orders is the key to meaningful decarceration according to Dr Kathy Hampson and Dr Anne-Marie Day.
08/01/2025: Government’s early years funding hikes fail to cover rising costs, IFS warns
Increases to funding for the early years sector are failing to consider the rising cost pressures that providers face, an Institute of Fiscal Studies report is warning.
08/01/2025: Cooper vows to make child abuse reporting mandatory
The government is to introduce laws that make it an offence to fail to report child sexual abuse concerns, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has confirmed.
08/01/2025: The Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill explained
Tim Spencer-Lane sets out how the legislation will reform the provision, regulation and staffing of children’s social care in England.
08/01/2025: Rising costs force ‘difficult choices’ on schools
Head teachers say they face “difficult choices” over what their schools can afford, as a new report says they could be forced into further cuts next year.
08/01/2025: Child sex abuse and grooming gangs: What we know, and what we don’t, from the data
Recent debates over grooming gangs have been marked by accusations of lies and disinformation – this is what the data actually tells us about the victims and perpetrators of child sexual abuse.
07/01/2025: Social work opinion split over police involvement in mental health incidents, poll finds
Following an evaluation of the right care, right person policy, we asked social workers their opinion on police withdrawing from mental health incidents.
07/01/2025: SEND is the ‘biggest issue’ for schools – Ofsted
Special educational needs and disabilities (Send) is the “biggest issue” affecting schools in England, Ofsted’s chief inspector has said.
07/01/2025: Child mental health crisis: Better resilience is the solution, say experts
Jane Graham has been a school nurse for nearly 20 years – and during this time the nature of her work has completely changed. “When I started, the majority of the support we provided was for physical health, like asthma, allergic reactions and injuries,” she says. “Now it’s mental health.”
07/01/2025: Revenge Porn Helpline Welcomes New Legislation to Criminalise the Creation and Sharing of Deepfakes But Still Raises Concern Amid Remaining Gaps
The Revenge Porn Helpline welcomes the UK Government’s recent announcement to introduce new offences targeting the creation and sharing of sexually explicit ‘deepfake’ images and other forms of non-consensual intimate image abuse.
06/01/2025: ‘How parent advocacy can rebalance the power dynamics of the children’s social care system’
A parent-led network argues that peer to peer advocates can help ensure families’ voices are heard during the child protection process and overcome misunderstandings between parents and professionals.
06/01/2025: Record numbers of children in England jailed many miles from their families
More than one in 10 young people in custody are held at least 75 miles from their homes
03/01/2025: Care leavers missing out on home ‘essentials’, research finds
Care leavers in England are at risk of missing out on essential items when setting up their first home due to the lack of clear national guidelines on the levels of support offered by councils, latest research shows.
02/01/2025: Urgent referrals of children in mental health crisis in England rise 13% in year
Charity says NHS failure to help more young people sooner is a ‘shocking betrayal’.
30/12/2024: Lisa Nandy urges YouTube and TikTok to promote better content for children
UK culture minister says government wants to ‘open a dialogue’, but will intervene if platforms do not comply
22/12/2024: Spiralling demand and shrinking budgets: why England’s SEND system is buckling
No quick fix for a system that is failing children and parents and pushing councils into insolvency.
19/12/2024: Covid Inquiry to hear children’s personal accounts of loneliness and lost learning
The Covid Inquiry is to hear children’s first-hand accounts of life during the pandemic and lockdowns following the completion of a project to collect hundreds of their stories.
19/12/2024: New pilot shows way for smaller platforms to play big part in online safety
A new pilot scheme is showing how even the smallest platforms can help play their part in preventing the spread of child sexual abuse imagery online.
18/12/2024: Threat against UK ‘smouldering’, top counter terror officer warns
The UK is facing a “smouldering” terror threat level with children as young as 10 accessing extreme online material, one of the country’s most senior counter-terrorism officers has warned.
18/12/2024: Agencies to be required to set up multi-agency child protection teams, under social care reform bill
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill would also allow for regulation of agency work in children’s social care and creation of new type of placement where a child can be deprived of liberty.
17/12/2024: Plan to register children not in school takes shape
A register to identify children who are not in school in England will be part of a bill introduced to Parliament on Tuesday.
17/12/2024: Illegal casinos are using Roblox to draw children into online gambling
A Sky News investigation has found a network of illegal casinos allowing children to gamble using their accounts on the hugely popular children’s game Roblox. In response to our investigation, the Gambling Commission has taken action against the “criminal” websites.
16/12/2024: ‘The school system is broken’: Why more parents are home-educating their children
“Toby was so tremendously unhappy in school,” says his father, Daniel. “We were standing outside the classroom door for an hour every morning and he just didn’t want to go in.
16/12/2024: ‘Families first for children’ model to be rolled out to all councils, says chief social worker
Approach involving family help and specialist child protection teams that is currently being tested in 10 areas to be extended across England, says Isabelle Trowler
16/12/2024: Archbishop of York ‘deeply sorry’ for not being able to act sooner over sex abuse case
Archbishop of York Stephen Cottrell is due to take over from Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby next month as the Church battles serious sex abuse allegations.
16/12/2024: YJLC Summit: Collaborating with Children – Applying Child First Principles in Practice
This year’s Summit is our first youth-led conference. An organizing committee of young people has looked at whether a system designed without children at heart can ever really work. They have delved into what Child First, Collaboration and Participation are all about and have chosen speakers from around the world that they think will best examine the issues.
14/12/2024: Inexperienced social worker did not identify Sara Sharif’s father as posing any risk
The murdered girl had been allowed to live with her father, who had repeatedly attracted the attention of police and social workers.
13/12/2024: Practitioners struggling to respond to extrafamilial harm to children, finds analysis of serious cases
Staff not picking up on early signs of risk, such as missing episodes, while there is little evidence that interventions are keeping children safe, says national safeguarding panel, in annual report.