Mark Cronin
Terry Potter
The Department for Education (DfE) has published the concluding report of its review of children in need in England. Alongside this, the DfE has published children in need final data and analysis. Findings include: at least 1.6 million children...
Councils warn over ‘inadequate and unsustainable’ funding to tackle homelessness
Council leaders have warned that the “piecemeal” nature of government funding is hampering their efforts to tackle youth homelessness. The concerns have been raised by the Local Government Homelessness Commission (LGHC), which has...
Convenient Yet Neglected: The Role of Grandparent Kinship Carers
Date: 20 June 2019 Grandparents are increasingly involved in the care and protection of grandchildren. The qualitative Australian study reported here explored how contact between grandparents and their grandchildren could be optimised after child...
A selection of recommended books for children and adults that include stories about asylum seekers and refugees
Picture books and graphic novels (not necessarily aimed at young children) Apha by Bessora Barroux in association with Amnesty International A Story like the Wind by Gill Lewis, illustrated by Jo Weaver, endorsed by Amnesty International Azzi...
‘Absolute paralysis of Brexit’ impacts children in need
The government has failed to address the question of dire education outcomes for children in need due to the “absolute paralysis” of Brexit, the children’s commissioner for England has warned. The Department For Education’s...
Prevalence of maternal mental illness among children and adolescents in the UK between 2005 and 2017: a national retrospective cohort analysis
11 June 2019 Little information exists about the prevalence of children exposed to maternal mental illness. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of children and adolescents exposed to maternal mental illness in the UK between 2005 and 2017 using...
Young people, social media and mental health
Barnardo’s has published a report looking at what children, young people and practitioners say about the impact of social media on mental health and wellbeing and the social media experiences of vulnerable children in the UK. Findings from 80...
Advocacy for children
The Children’s Commissioner for England has published a report on advocacy provision for children in England. Findings include: a high proportion of the local authorities who returned figures to the Children’s Commissioner did not know...
Women as Protectors
The NSPCC has published an evaluation of the Women as Protectors service which aims to help mothers and carers protect their children from men in their lives who pose a risk of sexual harm to children. The evaluation looked at what changed...
Use of children’s centres falls by a fifth in most deprived areas
The number of children using Sure Start children’s centres in the most deprived areas of England has fallen by more than a fifth, driven by austerity cuts, new research has found. Action for Children’s Closed Doors report found that...
Child sexual abuse in religious institutions
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has published a report on child sexual abuse in religious institutions. The report, based on accounts shared by survivors who were sexually abused in a religious context, found that: 48% of...
Self-harm
The Lancet Psychiatry has published findings from research into the prevalence of self-harm in England. Findings include: the prevalence of self-reported self-harm has increased in both sexes and across age groups, with the largest increase...
d/Deaf people’s experiences of child sexual abuse
The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) has launched a new service in partnership with the charity SignHealth. The service enables d/Deaf people who were sexually abused as children in England and Wales to share their experiences...
Research reveals extent of ‘postcode lottery’ in 0-5 SLT services
Funding for speech and language support for children under the age of five varies widely across England, with a quarter of areas spending just 58p or less per child, according to new research. Research commissioned by the children’s...
Fifth of nurseries in deprived areas face closure
Nearly one in five nurseries in deprived areas of England are facing closure within the next 12 months due to the early years funding shortfall. Independent research agency Ceeda found that 17 per cent of childcare providers in the most deprived...
Councils legally accountable for safety of children known to social workers, Supreme Court rules
Compensation claims against councils that fail to protect vulnerable children from harm could be brought after a landmark judgment ruled councils are legally accountable for their care. The Supreme Court judgment, handed down today, found social...
Sure Start shown to bring health benefits to poorest children
Sure Start children’s centres substantially benefit the health of children from disadvantaged backgrounds, closing the gap in hospital admission rates between the poorest and richest areas by half, research has found. A study by the Institute...
‘Nearly half’ of UK children in poverty by 2021, UN expert warns
Nearly one in two of the UK’s children will be living in poverty by 2021 if the government remains in denial about the impact of cuts, predicts a United Nations report published today. In his damning report on extreme poverty and human rights...
