Daily roundup 11 March: Care applications, charity chief, and primary care

The number of care applications made to the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) rose seven per cent last month, latest figures show. In February 2015, Cafcass received 954 care applications, compared to 891 in February 2014 and 889 in January. In eight of the last nine months the number of care applications received has been higher than the same month a year earlier.


Kevin Williams has been named as the new chief executive of the Fostering Network. Williams, former chief executive at TACT and most recently head of adult learning disability charity DGSM yourChoice, will take up the post in early summer. Richard Drean, interim chief since the retirement of Robert Tapsfield last August, will stay on to help with the transition.


A three-year project funded by the Department of Health has revealed high numbers of young people not registered with their GP and barriers to accessing care. The GP Champions project, led by the Association of Young People's Health, ran in 10 pilot sites in England, each with a GP, linked with a voluntary sector partner and young people. In the Liverpool site, 39 per cent of young people were not registered with a GP and of 203 young people surveyed, aged 11-24, 57 per cent said going to their GP was "not a good experience".


The government has given local authorities an additional £2.2 million of funding to implement integrated health and early years reviews for children aged 24 to 30 months old. The integrated review, which will be implemented nationally from September, brings together assessments currently done separately by the Department for Education and the Department of Health. The reviews will also be available for two-year-olds not in early education settings with the aim of reaching around 275,000 children.


The number of young people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds who have been unemployed for longer than a year has risen 49 per cent since 2010, figures from the House of Commons Library show. The Guardian reports that since the coalition came to power, the number of young people aged 16 to 24-years-old from BAME communities who are long term employed has grown to 41,000. The data also shows a fall of two per cent among young white people and a one per cent fall in overall youth unemployment.


More than one in 10 secondary school pupils has listed teaching or lecturing as their ideal job, the Telegraph reports. A study by the Edge Foundation, found 12 per cent of 1,100 young people aged 14- to 18-years-old saw education as an ideal career path, falling to 2.6 per cent who want to become estate agents. The findings come despite Department for Education figures suggesting that a quarter of newly qualified teachers leave the profession within their first five years.


The first ever degree-level ‘Trailblazer’ apprenticeship has been launched by banking and financial services giant Barclays. The company has recruited 10 young people to join its degree level apprenticeship scheme, with the first ever apprenticeship in Relationship Management also being launched. According to the Online Recruitment Resource, the announcement comes during National Apprenticeship Week and is developed as part of the government’s ‘Trailblazers’ initiative.