Daily roundup 22 June: Ofsted turnaround, FGM, and stop-and-search

Children’s services in Salford have been rated as “good” by Ofsted inspectors. The Manchester Evening News reports that Salford has achieved the rating just five years after safeguarding services at the local authority were rated "inadequate". A separate report into children’s services at Brighton gave the council a judgment of “requires improvement”.


Police are considering increasing the use of stop-and-search on young people, it has emerged. The Times reports that Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, is contemplating taking action after youth knife crime rose by almost a quarter in the capital last year. He warned that a reduction in stop-and-search checks on young people has contributed to a dramatic rise in stabbings.


More than 600 new female genital mutilation (FGM) victims have been identified in seven months in the West Midlands. A report by the West Midlands Police and Crime Panel said that hospital statistics revealed a total of 632 cases between September 2014 and March 2015. A new taskforce to tackle FGM is being launched, BBC News reports.


Prime Minister David Cameron has been asked to give an update on progress the government is making in protecting victims of child sexual exploitation by Rotherham MP Sarah Champion. The Rotherham Star reports that Champion, who has been lobbying the government for action to tackle CSE, has written to Cameron asking for further details on how efforts to tackle the issue are faring.


Ofsted is ditching 1,200 school and college inspectors after assessing them as not good enough to judge schools. The BBC reports that the move is part of its plans to improve quality and consistency, and bring inspections in-house.


Fathers who don’t live with their children face being increasingly unable to have their child to stay overnight, due to a series of housing benefit changes, it has been claimed. Barnardo’s said government plans to remove housing benefit entirely removed from many people under 21 – potentially affecting 118,000 young people – could result in young fathers moving back to unstable family homes where they may have witnessed violence and substance abuse. The charity said the situation could jeopardise their chances of hosting children.