Ten per cent of young people in Northern Ireland have self-harmed, a study has found. The BBC reports that research by Glasgow University and the Northern Ireland Department of Health found that past exposure to years of conflict and the emergence of social media are new associated risk factors.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has admitted that the government’s universal free school meals scheme will have teething problems when it launches in September. According to the Guardian, Clegg told radio station LBC that some schools will not be ready to implement the scheme due to inadequate kitchen facilities. – See more at: http://www.cypnow.co.uk/cyp/news/1142729/daily-roundup-free-school-meals-youth-services-child-health#sthash.CrqH7juX.dpuf

Children and Families Act receives royal assent

The Children and Families Act has received royal assent, ushering in a raft of changes including adoption reforms, greater protection for vulnerable children and shared parental leave.

The legislation includes a number of new measures to protect the welfare of children, including giving children in care the choice to stay with their foster families until they turn 21 and a new legal duty on schools to support children at school with medical conditions better. Meanwhile, there are reforms to children’s residential care designed to make homes safer and improve the quality of care vulnerable children receive. The act will also introduce measures intended to help people better balance their work and home life. From next month, mothers, fathers and adopters can opt to share parental leave around their child’s birth or placement – with mothers and fathers being able to take up to a year, or several months at the same time. The act will also make it illegal for people to smoke in cars when children are present. Children’s minister Edward Timpson, said the act would make a big difference for vulnerable children. “Our adoption reforms will help the 6,000 children who need loving homes to be adopted,” he said. “Our reforms to special educational needs will see a system introduced which is designed around the needs of children and will support them up to the age of 25. “For children coming into the care system, the new 26-week time limit for care proceedings will reduce unnecessary delays. “Virtual school heads will champion their education; children in residential care will live in safer, better quality homes and care leavers will have the option to stay with their foster families until they turn 21. “The act will also make it easier for families to access more flexible childcare, and give young carers’ greater support.”

Source: CYPNow

More than 45,000 18- to 24-year-olds have been forced to go without food or other essentials after their benefits were incorrectly stopped under a new sanctions scheme. According to the Independent, figures from the Department for Work and Pensions reveal that tens of thousands of young people have been hit by the strict new system of penalties introduced in October 2012.

Labour considers witholding cash from schools if young people become Neet

A proportion of schools’ funding should be dependent on pupils’ progress post-16, a group of experts has recommended to the Labour Party.

Labour’s independent skills taskforce has concluded that making schools more directly responsible for pupil destination outcomes is the best way of reducing young people who are Neet (not in education, employment or training).

It wants schools to be given a responsibility to track the destinations of all pupils, with an element of funding – potentially 10 per cent per pupil – conditional on passing learners onto the next stage of their education or training.

The report says: “We believe that such an obligation in itself would incentivise collaboration between schools and colleges in the interests of young people. Our proposal would be to set the level of withheld funding at a level which drives institutional behaviour so we suggest an approach based on withholding 10 per cent of per pupil funding for every young person who fails to secure a next step, but this proportion will need testing and modelling.”

Schools that had funding withheld would instead be required to use that money to provide an enhanced careers guidance service in an effort to cut the number of future Neets, the taskforce’s report proposes.

A new national framework for information, advice and guidance in schools should be brokered by local enterprise partnerships based on the needs of the local labour market, and delivered in partnership between local employers and schools.

Young people would also be expected to continue studying maths and English until they are 18, with a new baccalaureate developed to measure the skills and learning school leavers have achieved, which would make it easier for employers to assess young people’s abilities.

Professor Chris Husbands, chair of the taskforce, said: “Successful economies and societies depend on developing all their young people. In Britain, we have a poor record of delivering high skills and effective qualifications for the forgotten 50 per cent: the half of young people for whom the current qualifications regime simply does not deliver.

“The taskforce has set out plans for radically improved information and advice which will help young people negotiate an ever more complex labour market, and for a deliverable National Baccalaureate – a simple framework for qualifications and skills which will make it easier for all young people to make the transition to adulthood.”

The taskforce was established in November 2012 and published a previous report last year on apprenticeships. Its proposals will now be considered by the party as it draws up its manifesto for the election in May 2015.

Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt said: “The talents of the forgotten 50 per cent – those young people who wish to pursue a vocational route through education – are being overlooked by this government.

“Labour will deliver for the forgotten 50 per cent through a Technical Baccalaureate with rigorous vocational qualifications, requiring schools and colleges to collaborate to reduce Neets and transforming careers advice by working with local employers so young people have the best chance of succeeding in the job market.”

Source: CYPNow

Government advises against cell use for children with mental health problems

The government has issued updated advice on crisis mental health care that states police cells should never be used to hold children and young people.

The Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat says every local area should establish protocols that set out how police officers should use powers under the Mental Health Act to ensure that a person deemed in need of emergency mental health care receives an assessment and are taken to a health-based “place of safety” rather than a police cell.

The protocols, which should be agreed by NHS commissioners, the police, the ambulance service and social services, need to make specific arrangements for dealing with children and young people detained under the act.

The Concordat says that protocols should ensure police custody is never used as a place of safety for children and young people except in exceptional circumstances. It defines this as “where a police officer makes the decision that the immediate safety of a child or young person requires it”.

“Even in cases where police stations are used, the use of cells should be avoided, and alternatives considered wherever possible,” it adds.

In addition, the Concordat states that units attached to adult wards in mental health hospitals can be used as places of safety if child-dedicated facilities are unavailable – under the Mental Health Act 2007, hospitals should provide “age-appropriate” facilities that are separate from adult wards.

The new advice comes just weeks after the Care Quality Commission revealed that 41 children were held in police cells in the South West under the Mental Health Act because of a lack of age-appropriate places of safety at local hospitals.

Figures published last week showed that 350 children have been treated on adult psychiatric wards so far this year.

The Concordat also highlights the importance of staff in hospital adolescent inpatient units having the “appropriate skills, experience and resources” to support those aged 16 to 18 whose care may soon transfer to the adult system.

Schools and youth services should be fully involved in developing crisis strategies for children and young people as they will often be the first to identify the problems a young person is experiencing.

It recommends that services ensure groups with a higher prevalance of mental health problems, such as looked-after children, care leavers and those leaving youth custody, have good access to mental health crisis care.

SOURCE: CYPNOW

Ofsted faces criticism over botched inspection

Ofsted’s controversial new framework for rating child protection and care services has been criticised after one of the first inspections was found to be “seriously flawed”.

CYP Now has learned that despite initially being told it had achieved an overall “good” rating, Sheffield Council was later informed by Ofsted that a further inspection visit would be required because the initial findings were flawed.

Following the additional visit the authority’s overall rating was judged to be “requires improvement”.

So far five inspection reports using the new framework have been published. More have been carried out but are awaiting publication.

Andrew Webb, president of the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS) said inconsistency in the quality of inspections carried out so far is “extremely concerning”.

“I think the experience of local authorities in the first phase is that Ofsted needs to do quite a lot of work to ensure it is operating consistently,” he said.

“You always expect teething problems when you introduce a new inspection regime.

“But the consequence of inspectors that are new to the process and inconsistency in the quality is extremely concerning given the inspections are subject to limiting judgments.

“What we have seen in some parts of the country with the previous regime is that the Ofsted judgment can have a negative effect on the stability of the workforce and that is a key issue in improving quality.”

Of the first five inspections, Slough was rated “inadequate”, Hillingdon and Sheffield were rated as “requires improvement” and two authorities – Derbyshire and Hartlepool – were rated as “good”.

Jayne Ludlam, executive director for children, young people and families at Sheffield Council, said that although the inspection proved to be a valuable learning tool for staff and management, she feels the authority was harshly judged.

She told CYP Now that initial feedback from Ofsted following the inspection – which ran from 19 November to 11 December – was that five areas were “good” and one area (the sub-category of adoption performance) “required improvement”, but the overall grade was “good”.

However, following moderation the overall judgment was lowered to “requires improvement”.

Ludlam said she challenged the decision, only to be told by Ofsted that they had now deemed the inspection to be flawed, and an additional three-day visit would commence the following day (28 January).

“We had the national lead and two senior inspectors with us, who took a very different approach to the first inspection – they were more focused on documents, and took a forensic approach,” she says.

“The initial inspection was very immersed in practice, the inspectors went out with staff and got to know the city very well.

“I felt it was fair, challenging and balanced.

“During the re-inspection, the inspectors just sat looking at documents.

“They judged three areas as ‘good’, and two [the sub category of adoption performance, as well as the key judgment category of children looked after and achieving permanence] as ‘requires improvement’, with an overall grade of ‘requires improvement’.

“It feels we have been very harshly judged.”

The inspection framework has proved controversial since its conception.

Sector leaders have previously raised fears that the new “requires improvement” rating – which replaced the “adequate” grade under the previous inspection frameworks – will sap morale and result in more councils appearing to be underperforming on child protection.

The first set of single inspection reports are to be reviewed by Professor Eileen Munro of the London School of Economics.

An Ofsted protocol sets out how to deal with the “very rare” occasions when inspections are “considered to be so seriously flawed that they are deemed to be incomplete”.

It states that inspections can be considered flawed if:

• Key judgments that might affect the overall outcome of the inspection are given orally by the lead inspector at final feedback to the provider or stated in the written report, and are not substantiated by evidence gathered and recorded by the inspection team
• The conduct of the inspection is such that the evidence gathered and recorded cannot be relied upon to provide a fair and accurate view of the provider, in whole or in part
• The inspector or inspection team has not gathered sufficient evidence or evidence of sufficient quality to allow it to obtain a fair and accurate view of the provider, in whole or in part

Ofsted has been contacted for comment.

Source: CYPNow

Ofsted abandons complaint-driven inspections

Complaints against childcare providers will no longer automatically trigger inspections of settings, Ofsted has confirmed.

The regulatory body has routinely inspected settings following compliance investigations since changing its inspections process in September 2012.

But now Ofsted has said it will only inspect settings where a compliance issue has been reported when it deems necessary.

A spokesman said: “When we receive a complaint about an early years provision we consider it very carefully.

“We look at each case on its merits, in line with our published risk assessment process, and if we believe it to be necessary we will undertake a full inspection.

“Ofsted will no longer routinely inspect early years provisions at the end of a compliance investigation. Instead we will do this when we believe it is required.”

The move follows a campaign against the complaint-driven inspections by early years professionals, who called for a more “consistent, transparent and fair” relationship with the inspectorate as part of the Ofsted Big Conversation.

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, was among those urging Ofsted to revise its inspections process.

She said: “We all want a robust inspection process but the emphasis on a complaint leading to a full inspection was a major concern for our members – it also meant routine inspections were put back for unacceptable lengths of time.

“There is much more benefit to Ofsted and the sector if there is time to stop and think if a full inspection really needs to be carried out when a complaint is made.

“It also means Ofsted can get back to carrying out inspections for nurseries which require improvement.”

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, also campaigned against complaint-driven inspections.

He said: “Common sense has prevailed and it is positive to see that Ofsted seem to be finally taking notice of the views of the sector.

“It’s vital that any changes to the inspection process are clearly communicated to the sector and we look forward to this new policy being reflected in all relevant Ofsted guidance documents shortly.

“However, while this is clearly a step in the right direction, there is still much to be done to improve current inspection processes.”

Source: CYPNow