Daily roundup 20 March: Youth crime, mental health, and schooling

Children commit a third of burglaries in England and Wales, according to research carried out by home security firm ADT. Figures show 95,872 of 291,567 burglaries where offenders were caught were carried out by people under the age of 18, the Daily Mail reports. Police forces in Nottinghamshire, Greater Manchester and London have the highest percentage of child burglars out of the 23 forces that responded.


Online news outlets, newspapers and television stations need to stop using “head-clutching” images to illustrate mental health issues, a charity has said. Time To Change has warned that the use of such images are stigmatising, leaving some people to believe that only those who are visibly distressed are in need of help, the Independent reports. The charity is now calling on picture editors to be more considerate about how they illustrate stories about self-harm and suicide and to look for pictures that are relevant to the stories.


More powers should be given to the parents of summer born children, to overturn decisions to place their children in class before the compulsory school age, the education committee has said. Schools minister Nick Gibbs has been written to by the MPs stating summer born children can often miss out on a year of schooling when they opt for a later start. The BBC reports the government has said the committee’s recommendations are to be reviewed.


Children’s prospects could be permanently damaged as result of financial pressures on schools, the president of the Association of School and College Leaders has said. The Independent reports that Peter Kent believes students in college and sixth forms are already suffering from a reduction in course choices and “crammed” classes. He has also warned that the problem could become much worse and spread to those aged 11 to 16 unless schools get more money.


Westminster’s “alpha male” education reform culture would end under a Labour government, shadow education secretary Tristram Hunt is expected to say. The call is supposed to come under the party’s plans for schools, which will see greater autonomy for teachers and school leaders rather than the “exam factory” approach, the Guardian reports.


A mother tortured her two children to make up allegations about an evil cult at a primary school during a child contact dispute, a High Court judge has ruled. According to the Daily Mail, the children of Ella Draper and her partner Abraham Christie were forced to lie about ritual torture and sexual abuse in Hampstead. The care proceedings case was brought by a local council, and Mrs Justice Pauffley named the parents in a written ruling.