Scottish Catholic Church uses “hate group” research to fight gay marriage

Scottish Catholic Church uses “hate group” research to fight gay marriage

The Scottish Catholic Church has argued against equal marriage rights for same-sex couples, saying “exceptionally hazardous” gay relationships lead to shorter life expectancies, relying on a study which was discredited by its own authors for this purpose ten years ago and a paper authored by the founder of the Family Research Institute, which is designated a “hate group” in the US.

Source: Pink Paper News

Adoptive parent checks: overhaul planned in Englan

Adoptive parent checks: overhaul planned in Englan

The government is to overhaul the way people in England are checked to see if they are suitable to adopt children.

It has set up a new panel which will work with its adoption adviser, Martin Narey, to draw up plans.

Ministers say the process is “painfully slow” and that many are put off, while others are turned away unnecessarily for being overweight or ex-smokers.

The government has pledged to speed up the adoption system and says it wants more children adopted.

It says children wait an average of two years and seven months to be adopted, while it can take a year for a couple or individual to be approved to adopt.

‘Common-sense approach’

Earlier this year ministers highlighted figures which showed that of the 3,660 children under the age of one who were in care in England last year, only 60 were adopted.

They say they want a “common-sense” approach.

Children’s minister Tim Loughton said: “The assessment process for people wanting to adopt is painfully slow, repetitive and ineffective. Dedicated social workers are spending too long filling out forms instead of making sound, common-sense judgements about someone’s suitability to adopt.

“Children are waiting too long because we are losing many potentially suitable adoptive parents to a system which doesn’t welcome them and often turns them away at the door.

“We cannot afford to sit back and lose potential adoptive parents when there are children who could benefit hugely from the loving home they can provide.”

The new panel will include representatives from the British Association of Adoption and Fostering, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, Adoption UK and the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies.

They have been asked to suggest ways to improve the way would-be adoptive parents are recruited, assessed and trained and to “remove bureaucracy and over-prescription” in information collected about them.

Source: BBC NEWS Website

Guide to help employers improve their team’s communication and engagement skills with children and young people

A new guide to help employers improve their team’s communication and engagement skills with children and young people has been published

Communicating and engaging with young people follows employer feedback asking for support in this area. The guide, created by the Children’s Workforce Developemnt Fund (CWDC), builds on key learning outcomes from projects funded through our Participation Fund, and includes tips on how best to help staff and volunteers improve their skills in this area

Source: CWDC

CRB offences threshold under review

Cautions and police warnings could be considered under future vetting and barring procedures if the government agrees to an independent review’s recommendations.

The proposed change is part of a review by Sunita Mason, the government’s independent adviser on criminality information. The Home Office is currently reviewing her recommendation to widen the existing definition of ‘criminal record’ for vetting and barring checks.

At the moment, the system only takes into account convictions for imprisonable offences. This means penalties with large fines, including cruelty to animals, are ignored.

In future, Ms Mason wants employers to consider cautions, reprimands, non-imprisonable offences, and police warnings when deciding on a person’s suitability to work with children. However, penalty notices for disorder or restorative justice and community resolutions would not be included.

This is the second review Ms Mason has carried out into criminal records and vetting and barring checks. Many recommendations in her first review, including stopping checks on under-16s and allowing applicants to review and dispute police information held on them, have been made law.

Thousands of foster carers needed to prevent a care ‘crisis’

Thousands of foster carers needed to prevent a care ‘crisis’

At least 8,750 new foster families need to be found across the UK in the next 12 months to avoid a crisis in the care system, the Fostering Network has claimed.

According to the charity, the number of children in need of a foster home has risen for five years in a row and around 14 per cent of the foster care work force retire or leave each year.

The average age of foster carer was 46 in 2000 rising to 53 in 2009 and the number of children living with foster carers rose from 49,700 in 2005 to 59,000 in 2011.

The Fostering Network says an extra 7,100 foster carers are needed in England, 1,000 in Scotland, 550 in Wales and 100 in Northern Ireland.

Robert Tapsfield, the charity’s chief executive, said: “These figures are alarming – we could be facing a real crisis when looking to provide the most appropriate care for children who cannot live with their own family.

All children in care need a family they can grow up with who can love them, be ambitious for them and help them achieve their potential. For a growing number, foster care is the best option.

“By becoming a foster carer people can help the children they welcome into their homes to have the best possible opportunity of a positive future, do well at school and be successful in later life.”

Influx of youth remands after riots posed significant safeguarding challenges

Influx of youth remands after riots posed significant safeguarding challenges

Staff in the secure estate experienced an unprecedented influx of young people following the summer riots, which proved a significant challenge to safeguarding, the prison’s inspectorate has reported

An inspection of Feltham Young Offender’s Institution (YOI), following the disturbances in August, found a lack of information about new arrivals made it difficult to carry out initial assessments to keep young people safe, and the huge increase of movement across the whole of the under-18 secure estate impacted on both new arrivals and the settled population.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons also found that young people held on remand had inadvertently been exposed to gangs, with young people on different units forming into gangs, including those who had not been involved in gangs before.

The distance young people were held from home and the lack of contact with their families and youth offending teams was also highlighted as a consequence of for those moved to the north of England.

During and immediately after the riots the report states that “Feltham received in a week the number of new arrivals it would normally expect in a month: 60 young people”.

According to the report: “Staff said that while there had been good communication between establishments, there was a need for a National Offender Management Service (Noms) and Youth Justice Board strategy to help address the broader issues.”

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said, children sent to jail after the disturbances were put at risk, “stretching the prison system to its limit”.

“It is shocking that there was no coherent strategy from central government for dealing with the massive influx of children sent into custody,” she said.

“Staff were forced to make it up as they went along. As a result the number of children on suicide risk went up a whopping 200 per cent.

“We had phone calls on our crisis line from children in prisons who had been advised to walk around in pairs so they were not on the landing on their own.”

Penelope Gibbs, director of the Prison Reform Trust’s Out of Trouble programme, said: “The system did cope just about but the report begs the question as to whether so many under 18 year olds needed to be locked up on remand in the wake of the riots.”

The report conducted prior to the riots found that the YOI continues to operate fairly well, but progress had halted and in some areas regressed.

Safeguarding arrangements had improved, incidents of self-harm had reduced and work was going on to address gang issues.

But the quality of activity provision had deteriorated and attendance in education and standards of discipline were poor, with many young people returned to their cells because of disruptive behaviour.

Chief inspector of prisons Nick Hardwick said: “This establishment continues to operate reasonably well, working with often volatile young people in a challenging environment. This does not, however, negate the fact that the progress and improvement we have previously described has stopped, and in significant areas regressed.

“There is a clear need to refocus the prison’s work on equality with a diverse population, basic standards of cleanliness require improvement and there is a need to re-energise elements of the resettlement strategy. Most importantly, there must be access to good quality activity and education which will engage young people and equip them for the future.”

Michael Spurr, chief executive of the Noms, said: “Feltham has a very challenging population and I am pleased that the work being undertaken to address gang issues has been recognised.

“At the time of the inspection Feltham was adapting to cope with a higher sentenced population of young people than previously. The governor will use the chief inspector’s report to develop the regime to match the young people’s needs and improve activity provision.

By Neil Puffett Tuesday, 20 December 2011

Play recognised by government as integral to early learning

Play recognised by government as integral to early learning

By Janaki Mahadevan Tuesday, 20 December 2011

The government has recognised the importance of play in children’s learning in its response to the consultation on the Early Years Foundation Stage.

n her review of the framework for under-fives, Dame Clare Tickell recommended that the EYFS be slimmed down to focus on three prime areas of learning and to reduce the number of early learning goals from 69 to 17.

While there was broad support for the recommendations to simplify the assessment for children at age five, a “significant minority” of respondents questioned the emphasis on school readiness.

In its response to the consultation, the government states: “We understand that there may be some anxiety that the EYFS should be valued as an important phase in its own right, and that there may be a concern about too strong a focus on formal education too soon.

“The government considers that this anxiety is unwarranted because school readiness should be understood in a broad sense. In their first few years, through exploration and play, children learn to walk and run, to talk and understand, and learn to relate to others, as well as beginning to read and write and use numbers.

“The EYFS framework accordingly recognises the central importance of play in children’s learning. It also recognises that children need to be introduced to formal learning in their foundation years in a way and at a time appropriate to their individual level of development.”

Many respondents also felt there was a need for additional information to support practitioners deliver the reformed EYFS. The government said it is working with organisations in the early years sector to ensure appropriate material is produced to underpin the new statutory framework.

Sue Robb, head of early years at charity 4Children, said: “We particularly welcome the new proposals that extend early learning beyond formal approaches to include play and child initiated learning. Introducing stronger definitions of play and making access to outdoor learning a requirement for all children every day can ensure fun and enjoyment are at the heart of their learning and development.

“Simplifying the bands of development and producing a clearer, broader definition of school readiness will make the delivery of the EYFS less bureaucratic and ensure that practitioners spend more time interacting with children to give them a rounded and enjoyable early education.”

The government is continuing to consult on the early learning goals and will publish the final revised EYFS framework in Spring 2012, ready for its implementation in September.

Prison staff “refused to display” Stonewall posters for young offenders

Prison staff “refused to display” Stonewall posters for young offenders

Prison staff at the Feltham Young Offenders Institute refused official recommendations to display positive images of gay and bisexual relationships to inmates, according to a report released today.

During an inspection of the centre in London last year, the independent Inspectorate of Prisons suggested “positive gay and bisexual images should be displayed across the establishment, as well as information about sources of support and help”.

But after an unannounced follow-up visit in July of this year, the Inspectorate says the recommendation was “not achieved” due to opposition by prison staff.

The report says: “There was still a lack of positive images of same sex relationships around the establishment. We were told that plans to display the Stonewall ‘Some people are gay. Get over it’ posters had been opposed by some staff.”

The Inspectorate had found that a support group for young gay people, PRIDE, was held “whenever there were young people who wanted to attend it”.

The report adds: “All young people were told about it on induction, which provided an opportunity for young people to offer information about their sexual orientation if they wished.”

Frances Crook, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform said, “It is unacceptable that staff have opposed, and consequently refused, to put up positive gay and bisexual images in Feltham.

“Homophobic crime is not monitored inside prisons yet there is evidence that it is endemic. The charity has been told that complaints are ignored and disparaged by staff.”

Feltham is divided into a facility for inmates ages 18 to 21 and a facility for those aged 15 to 18. The follow-up inspection only examined the younger age group’s part of the institution.

Nick Hardwick, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, writes in the report’s introduction that the prison “continues to operate reasonably well, working with often volatile young people in a challenging environment”.

He adds: “This does not however, negate the fact that the progress and improvement we have previously described has stopped, and in significant areas regressed. There is a clear need to re-focus the prison’s work on equality within a diverse population, basic standards of cleanliness require improvement and there is a need to re-energise elements of the resettlement strategy.”

France Crook added: “It is important that young people have a diversity of positive images at a formative time in their lives so that their own sexual development and their attitude to others is healthy and safe.

“The Howard League for Penal Reform is intending to launch a major national inquiry into sex in prisons next year and will be particularly focusing on this issue.

“Just because prisons are archaic doesn’t mean our attitude should be.”

When asked about the reported opposition to posters, a Prison Service spokesperson told PinkNews.co.uk: “We have successfully piloted a scheme that collects information on prisoners’ sexual orientation in many prisons, which is understandably a sensitive issue.

“Guidance developed from this pilot will be issued to all prisons in the coming months. This information will further help us meet the needs of lesbian, gay and bisexual prisoners.”

Sorce: Pink Paper News

The Howard League for Penal Reform has published a summary of a report on the overnight detention of young people

The Howard League for Penal Reform has published a summary of a report on theovernight detention of young people
The Howard League for Penal Reform has published a summary of a report on the overnight detention of young people, calling for a ban on the practice and recommending the age of criminal responsibility be raised to 14. Findings include: 53,000 children under 16 were detained overnight in 2008/09.
Source: Howard League for Penal Reform 13 December 2011
Further information:
Children & Young People Now 13 December 2011
   The overnight detention of children in police cells: summary

Turning Point has published a report on the effects of parental alcohol misuse on children and families

Turning Point has published a report on the effects of parental alcohol misuse on children and families
Turning Point has published a report on the effects of parental alcohol misuse on children and families. Findings include: around half the people using Turning Point’s alcohol treatment services in 2010/11 were parents; 83% of parents surveyed worried their drinking had affected their children; and estimates that 2.6 million children are living with parents who misuse alcohol.
Source: Children & Young People Now 13 December 2011
Further information:
Turning Point 13 December 2011
   Bottling it up: the next generation