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Each day, CYP Now will summarise the key issues affecting the children and families sector as it tackles the effects of the pandemic. The daily update signposts children’s services practitioners and leaders to the latest developments, expert views, advice and resources.
NCS to run summer catch-up scheme
The National Citizen Service (NCS) has announced plans to deliver a summer catch-up programme to 30,000 disadvantaged teenagers whose education has been most disrupted by Covid-19.
The scheme will run on both local and national levels offering life skills activities around job-readiness, confidence building, re-forming friendships and building resilience to “the most vulnerable and marginalised young people around the country”, NCS said.
Children’s commissioner warns of ‘lost generation’
Tens of thousands of England’s teenagers are at risk of “falling off the radar” of schools and local authority children’s services as the country eases out of lockdown, the children’s commissioner for England has warned.
New analysis published by commissioner Anne Longfield states that as many as one in 25 teenagers were at risk of dropping out of education or going missing from care and becoming “easy prey” for criminal gangs before the Covid-19 pandemic.
The report warns that spending six months out of school could leave even more children failing to return to full-time training or education without urgent support over the summer break.
Youth work restrictions eased
Restrictions allowing youth groups to operate have been eased, the National Youth Agency has said.
The permitted level of activity for groups, published by the NYA, has dropped from red to amber.
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New official advice, published to complement government guidance, now allows:
Online and digital youth services -
Detached local youth activities (consistent with social distancing guidelines)
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1-2-1 sessions with young people indoors
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Group sessions delivered indoors (consistent with social distancing guidelines)
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Overnight stays will not be permitted
Barnardo’s staff report drop in referrals
Almost half of Barnardo’s frontline workers supporting vulnerable children have reported a decrease in referrals to their service during lockdown, the charity has said.
The biggest ever survey of frontline workers at Barnardo’s revealed that 45 per cent of practitioners said requests for support from their service had dropped since the UK went into lockdown in March.
A further eight per cent of respondents said a child or young person they had been working with had been turned away from services they are entitled to.
