Every school to become an academy, ministers to announce

The Department for Education is expected to publish draft legislation as early as Thursday, BBC Newsnight has learned.

The move would end the century-old role of local authorities as providers of education.

An aide to the education secretary has declined to comment.

Back in October, David Cameron said he wanted “every school an academy… and yes – local authorities running schools a thing of the past”.

At the autumn statement a month later, the official document stated that the government wanted: “The next step towards the government’s goal of ending local authorities’ role in running schools and all schools becoming an academy”.

The proposals under consideration by Education Secretary Nicky Morgan owe much to a pamphlet by Policy Exchange, the Conservative-aligned think-tank, which proposes mass-converting the remaining local authority schools into academies.

That document proposed the change for mainstream schools, but did not deal with the future of special schools.

Before 2010, around 200 schools were opened as academies or converted into them.

These were struggling schools that required fast turnaround or were opening in areas of educational weakness. To that end, these “sponsor academies” were given exemptions from the national curriculum and on teachers’ pay to help them adapt to tougher-than-usual circumstances.

From 2010 to the present, however, schools have been allowed to become academies if they wish to do so. These are known as “converter academies” – and were then Education Secretary Michael Gove’s big change to the system.

This was a popular programme (partly because academies got extra cash for converting). So at the last count, there were 3,381 state secondaries, of which 2,075 were academies.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-35814215

Care applications hit record high

Figures published today show that in February a total of 1,225 care applications were made – the highest-ever figure recorded by the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass).

It represents an increase of 9.4 per cent, or 105 applications, on the previous record of 1,120 recorded in July 2015.

February’s total also makes 2015/16 a record year for care applications. With March still to go, the total number of care applications for the first 11 months of 2015/16 now stands at 11,513. The previous high of 11,517 was recorded for the full 12-month period of 2014/15.

The increase in the number of care applications comes as the actual number of children in care continues to rise.

Figures published by the Department for Education in October show that, across all councils in England, the number of children in care rose from 68,800 in March 2014 to 69,540 in March 2015.

It has previously been claimed that rising levels of poverty in the UK and the impact of the refugee crisis are likely to be factors behind the rising number of care applications.

Source: CYPNow Website

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Governors and Mandatory DBS Checks

The government has published amended legislation which comes into force on the 18th March 2016 to make Enhanced DBS checks mandatory for governors in maintained schools. This is retrospective, so governors without DBS certificates appointed prior to 1st April 2016 must obtain one by 1st September 2016.

Those appointed after April 1st 2016, must apply for one within 21 days. This now means that all governors, in whatever kind of school, maintained, independent, academy or free school, must have an Enhanced DBS certificate.

The School Governance (Constitution and Federations) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2016 Explanatory Memorandum

Children and Young People Now report that according to Home Office statistics, there has been a massive increase in unaccompanied asylum seeking children. In 2015, a total of 3,043 unaccompanied children applied for asylum in the UK, compared with 1,945 in 2014 – an increase of 56.5%.

Source CYPnow Website

To mark self-harm awareness day on 1 March, a group of youth charities including Young Minds and ChildLine commissioned a survey of 815 parents and 3800 young people aged up to 24 who on beliefs and attitudes around self-harm. Findings include: 67% of parents think young people should go to their parents for information and support on self-harm, but only 16% of young people would talk to their parents about it. 76% would turn to online support groups.

http://www.youngminds.org.uk/news/blog/3241_parents_and_young_people_divided_when_it_comes_to_self-harm

Social work student ‘expelled’ from course after anti-gay Facebook posts

A Christian social work student is appealing against a decision to remove him from his course for voicing opposition to gay marriage on Facebook.

Felix Ngole, 38, was in his second year of an MA in social work course at Sheffield University when a committee found his Facebook posts had “transgressed boundaries which are not deemed appropriate for someone entering the social work profession”.

He was reportedly removed from his course and told to hand in his student card, a move his supporters said had “effectively barred” him from training as a social worker.

Ngole shared posts showing support for Kim Davis, the American county clerk jailed after she refused marriage licenses to same-sex couples. On his private Facebook account, he also argued that homosexual activity was against the teaching of the Bible and quoted a verse from Leviticus that described it as an “abomination” in September 2015.

The posts reportedly triggered a complaint from a fellow student. This led to a meeting at the university and later the fitness to practise panel hearing.

The panel was run by the university but considered conduct in relation to the Health and Care Professions Council standards for social workers. It concluded Ngole was entitled to his opinions but there was a danger that “publicly posting those views” would have an effect on his ability to practice as a social worker.

What do you think ?  should he of been “expelled”