Daily roundup 11 June: Fostering ‘myth-buster', hitting children, and ear piercing

The Department for Education has issued new “myth-buster” guidance around what makes a good foster carer. Launched by children’s minister Edward Timpson and celebrity chef Lorraine Pascale, who was fostered as a child, the myth-buster aims to show that the things many people see as obstacles to becoming foster carers, such as not being married, are in fact not barriers at all.


The government and child protection campaigners have questioned a judge’s suggestion that recently arrived immigrant parents should be permitted to slap and hit their children. The Daily Mail reports that a government spokesman said there should be “no exceptions” which allowed foreigners to inflict violence on their sons and daughters. Child protection campaigners called for the Ministry of Justice to investigate the judge’s comments.


Government is to be asked to consider banning parents from piercing the ears of children or babies. The Guardian reports that Labour MP Mark Tami intends to raise questions in the House of Commons about a potential age restriction for piercings, on the basis that children cannot consent to the procedure.


The case of a maths teacher who ran away to France with one of his pupils is to be analysed by East Sussex County Council. The Brighton Argus reports that the safeguarding scrutiny committee at the local authority will discuss the findings of a serious case review into the Jeremy Forrest case. The teacher at Bishop Bell School in Eastbourne ran away with a 15-year-old pupil and was later jailed for child abduction and child sex offences.


More than 34 per cent of children in Belfast are waiting longer than nine months for an assessment for autism. BelfastLive reports that 138 children in the Belfast Trust area waited between 26 and 39 weeks; 160 waited between 39 and 52 weeks and 78 children had to wait longer than 52 weeks for an autism assessment.