Thousands repeatedly run away from care, police figures reveal

Nearly 3,000 children repeatedly went missing from care in 2012 according to police figures obtained by the NSPCC.

Freedom of Information requests made by the child protection charity revealed that police in England and Wales recorded 28,123 incidents of children running away from residential care homes and foster care.

A total of 7,885 children went missing during the year at least once and 2,959 ran away more than once.

In one case a young person went missing from care 67 times.

Tom Rahilly, head of the charity’s looked-after children programme, said the figures were concerning.

“Repeatedly going missing should be a big warning sign as this kind of behaviour can put children at serious risk of harm such as grooming or sexual exploitation,” he said.

“The state needs to be a parent for these children. If any other child went missing their parents would move Heaven and Earth to find them and to understand why they did it. It should be no different for young people in care.”

Most of the young people who went missing were aged 13 to 17 but some were as young as six.

Some were not seen again for more than a week and one police force said that six children were still missing.

The charity warned that the figures would underestimate the extent of the problem since only 29 police forces responded to the charity’s inquiries and many cases were not reported to the police.

The NSPCC said professionals should regard repeat disappearances by children in care as a sign that they are at greater risk of harm and more needed to be done to prevent young people running away from care in the first place.

The charity also said care homes should do more to find out why children ran away rather than punishing them for going missing.

Source: CYPNow

Young people embrace online campaigning

Nearly a third of young people believe online campaigning is more effective than street protests, a survey by youth volunteering charity vInspired has found.

A poll of 1,364 young people aged 16 to 21 found that 28 per cent thought social media was the best way to get campaigns heard, while 10 per cent opted for protesting in the streets.

Just one in five said they believed politicians could improve the country, although 45 per cent felt their generation could change things.

Terry Ryall, chief executive of vInspired, said: “Young people have always been at the forefront of social change. Their creativity, passion and energy is truly world-changing.

“Digital technology has made it easier than ever to harness all that energy to create positive change. Even elections are already being won and lost through the power of social media.

“We want young people to understand this power and learn to use it to do something about all the things they really care about.”

The survey also asked young people to pick out issues and policies they would most like to see.

High levels of unemployment came top of the issues that concerned the young people, with 29 per cent selecting it as the most pressing issue facing the UK.

The young people’s favourite policy, picked by 18 per cent, was to make people work for their benefits, followed by 16 per cent who wanted the banks to repay the bailout money they had received faster.

The survey was carried out to mark the launch of vInspired Live, a music event run by vInspired that is designed to encourage young people to make their voices heard and campaign on issues that matter to them.

The charity intends to use the 6 July concert to kickstart three campaigns, which young people are being asked to propose as part of its Change Something programme.

The winning campaigns will be selected ahead of the event and the young people who proposed them will get to work with celebrity mentors to help create a buzz about it on social media.

Source: CYPNow

Scotland increases free childcare

The number of hours of free childcare for three- and four-year-olds in Scotland is to rise, the Scottish government has announced.

A clause in the government’s new Children and Young People Bill will increase the free entitlement by more than 100 hours to 600 a year.

Looked-after two-year-olds and those with a kinship care order will also be eligible for the allowance.

The announcement followed a pledge made in March last year by First Minister Alex Salmond to include a legal guarantee of 600 hours of free nursery education in the bill.

At the time, Salmond said Scotland would offer “the best package of free nursery education on offer anywhere in the UK”.

Anand Shukla, chief executive of the Daycare Trust and Family and Parenting Institute, credited the initiative to a campaign run by the Daycare Trust and Children in Scotland in February 2012.

The organisations’ Scottish Childcare Lottery report found some local authorities in Scotland were charging twice as much as others for daycare, and that only a fifth of councils had sufficient childcare places to meet local demand.

Salmond’s pledge followed two Scottish parliament debates prompted by the research.

“We are delighted to see the introduction of this bill, which has the potential to make a great difference,” said Shukla.

“It’s important that this is a real entitlement that it is structured to meet parents’ needs. We need it to be available and flexible.”

Shukla noted that the increase would raise Scotland’s childcare offer above that offered in England and Wales.

“This is slightly more than the 575 hours available in England and Wales,” he said.

“Scotland has now set the benchmark for free early years provision and we would like to see governments in England and Wales follow suit as quickly as possible.”

The Children and Young People Bill, which was published yesterday, also includes measures to provide every child and young person from birth with a named person to safeguard and support their wellbeing.

An extra £10m was also announced for third sector organisations working with children, young people and families.

But Jackie Brock, chief executive of the charity Children in Scotland, said the bill needed to go further.

“There are significant gaps in supporting improvement for all vulnerable pre-school children and children with additional support needs,” said Brock.

“Children in Scotland believe a more effective framework for children’s rights is needed and we will be calling for improvements to the bill in these areas.”

Source: CYPNow

More than 500,000 children suffer cruelty, says NSPCC

More than half a million children in the UK are abused or neglected at home every year, the NSPCC has claimed.

Research released today by the charity estimated that 520,000 children were maltreated by their parent or guardian in 2011, but only 58,000 were subject to a child protection plan.

The report also concluded that 260,000 children have been maltreated by an adult away from home.

The charity said the findings highlight the need for more services designed to prevent the abuse and neglect of children.

“The hidden extent of child abuse and neglect revealed in this report is a national scandal,” said Lisa Harker, head of strategy at the NSPCC.

“When we discover abuse we must do everything we can to protect children from further harm and help them recover.

“But it’s vital to prevent abuse from happening to so many children in the first place.

“We need to shift policy across the UK towards early intervention – and set a new course that can stop cruelty blighting so many children’s lives.”

The charity’s estimate was based on 19 indicators, including youth suicide rates, sex offences against children, calls to ChildLine, exposure to sexual images online and child protection plan data.

The report also used the data to identify nine risk factors that the figures suggest are linked to child abuse and neglect.

These include having parents with mental health problems, living in poverty, domestic violence, being in care and belonging to a black or mixed ethnic community.

Source: CYPNow

DfE to spend £5m on early years research

The cost benefits of early education and its impact on children are to be investigated as part of an eight-year research project.

The Department for Education (DfE) will spend £5m on the study, which will track thousands of children from the age of two until they finish their second year of primary school.

NatCen Social Research, the charity 4Children and the consultancy Frontier Economics will carry out the research, which begins in September.

They will start by interviewing parents of the children involved, whose development will be tracked in nurseries, pre-schools, nursery schools and with childminders.

Jane O’Brien, director of children and young people at NatCen Social Research, said although much research on early education for three- and four-year-olds had already been done, little was known about its effect on younger children.

“We know that attending early years education alone isn’t enough to improve outcomes – the quality of the staff and the setting is critical, as is the child’s home learning environment and the type of parenting they receive,” said O’Brien.

“This study looks at all these factors to see what are the long-term effects and benefits of early years education – particularly as it is extended to younger children.”

O’Brien said the research was necessary to inform the DfE’s future spending decisions on early education, particularly as it will have spent more than £1.5bn on free childcare for disadvantaged two-year-olds by 2014/15.

“Very little is known about the long-term cost benefits of early education and how quality and use affect this,” she said.

“To make sure it is getting the best value from this investment, and so that the DfE can inform its policy development and spending decisions in this area, the National Audit Office has highlighted that more needs to be known about the cost benefit and value of early education.”

Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association, backed the study.

“The last major study in this area was the Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) study which began in 1997,” she said.

“Since 1997, early years education has changed and developed significantly, so we must invest in research to measure the impact of these changes. It is important that future early years policy and investment is informed by what works best for our children.”

Jane Payler, chair of TACTYC, the Association for the Professional Development of Early Years Educators, agreed that fresh research was timely.

“We are pleased to see investment in large-scale early years research, but sorry to see that it does not include the under-twos. Details of the nature of the study will be important,” said Payler.

“We hope that ‘impact’ looks beyond economics to consider long-term as well as short-term outcomes across children’s holistic development and dispositions towards learning, in addition to the quality of children’s, families’ and practitioners’ experiences.”

Anne Longfield, chief executive of 4Children, said: “There is now an unprecedented political consensus about the importance of the early years and we have the opportunity – with this piece of work – to ensure that future policy and practice is strongly grounded in what works.”

Source: CYPNow

Ofsted gets tough on early years

A tougher inspection regime for early years services is to be introduced from September under plans unveiled by Ofsted.

The children’s services watchdog has published a consultationoutlining changes it wants to make to the way that nurseries, pre-schools and childminders are inspected.

Under the plans, the existing “satisfactory” rating will be replaced with “requires improvement” and settings that achieve this grade will face more frequent inspections and have four years to become “good”.

Nurseries and pre-schools that fail to move up from “requires improvement” to “good” after two consecutive inspections are likely to be judged “inadequate”.

And inadequate-rated settings that do not improve by the time of their next inspection will face having their registration cancelled.

Ofsted’s chief inspector Michael Wilshaw said: “We must be tougher on weak settings.

“From September 2013, nurseries and pre-schools judged less than good will need to improve rapidly.

“I want the new designation of “requires improvement” to act as a catalyst to get all early years providers to “good” as soon as possible.”

He added that good and outstanding early years services will be encouraged to help those deemed less than good.

“We know that the best schools are joining forces and we anticipate that this will happen in the early years,” he said.

Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-School Learning Alliance, said changing the rating description would make no difference to quality if settings lacked the support they need to improve.

“The government is soon to remove the role that local authorities play in supporting their local settings and training support for the sector has been reduced by 40 per cent in the last year,” he said.

“At the same time the government is proposing that nursery workers look after up to 50 per cent more children – a move that parents themselves overwhelmingly oppose.

“While we welcome the aspiration of high-quality childcare, without a rethink on policy and adequate funding from government, we struggle to see how a real improvement will be made.”

Ofsted’s consultation on the plans is open until 24 May.

Source: CYP Now

In March 2013, Cafcass received a total of 925 applications. This is a 3% increase on March 2012 levels and is the highest number of applications for that single month.

Key findings from 2012/13:

• Between April 2012 and March 2013, Cafcass received a total of 11,055 applications. This figure is 8% higher when compared to the 2011/12 financial year.
• The 998 applications received in February 2013 were the highest ever recorded for a single month.
• Applications received during all months in 2012/13 (apart from June 2012) this financial year have been the highest ever recorded by Cafcass for these individual months.
• The comparatively lower demand in June 2012 is believed to be due the additional Bank Holidays in that month.

School project tackles parental drug abuse

Action on Addiction and Place2Be have joined forces to offer school-based services to children and families affected by parental substance abuse.

The move will see the addiction charity training staff from Place2Be, which runs mental health services in schools, to deliver its Moving Parents and Children Together (M-PACT) programme.

Action on Addiction’s M-PACT programme has been running since 1986 and consists of an eight-week intervention where families with substance addiction problems take part in weekly group work sessions to address their behaviour.

The new schools-based version of the programme, M-PACT Plus, will be delivered in schools by Place2Be, starting with Willows Primary School in Manchester.

“This collaboration with Place2Be will allow M-PACT to reach even more of the children and families that need our help,” said Nick Barton, chief executive of Action on Addiction.

“Children of problematic substance users can receive little support despite being so at risk. Our project with Place2Be means more young people and families will get the specialist support they need.”

The work is being funded by The Royal Foundation and Comic Relief.

Source: CYPNow

Call to address sexual behaviour

The NSPCC wants action to tackle sexually harmful behaviour carried out by children and young people

Youth offending might be falling, but sexual offences by under-18s show little sign of decline.

The most recent Youth Justice Board figures show that children and young people committed 1,888 proven sexual offences in 2011/12, down 3.3 per cent on the 1,952 in 2009/10. However, this compares to a 22.2 per cent fall in the total number of crimes committed by young people in the same period.

There is a range of reasons why children and young people commit sexual offences, from a lack of boundaries growing up to being victims of sexual abuse themselves. There are also growing concerns that the ease of access to hardcore pornography online is making the situation worse.

But local services are not always geared up to spot or deal with the problem, and this gap in provision has prompted the NSPCC to call for more specialist services and training for police, social workers and teachers.

Jon Brown, head of strategy and development at the NSPCC, says awareness of sexually harmful behaviour by young people is increasing, but that more work is needed.

Source: CYPNow

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Working Together to Safeguard Children: key revisions explained

The old adage that size does not matter is clearly not a mantra at the Department for Education.

Last month’s publication of the revised Working Together to Safeguard Children guidance marks the completion of almost two years’ graft by civil servants to slim down the previous 600-page incarnation of the document.

But given that the underlying legal framework for safeguarding remains unchanged, what does the new, streamlined 97-page version change?

Much of the content was previewed in the draft document put out for consultation in June last year, but a number of key changes have been made to the final version, which comes into force on 15 April.

The three draft guidance documents consulted on have been merged into one. It contains new accountability measures for local safeguarding children boards (LSCBs), changes to the way serious case reviews can be carried out and a shake-up of assessment timescales. In addition, specific responsibilities for individual organisations are clarified – with a total of 16 agencies referred to.

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