Daily roundup 25 May: Legal highs, smartphone ban, and children's centres challenge

Around two thirds of young people who take legal highs intend to ignore a blanket ban on the substances due to be introduced tomorrow, research by charity YMCA has found. The Independent reports a survey of more than 1,000 16- to 24-year-olds and a focus group of more than 100 young people found 64 per cent said they would be likely to use the drugs in future, despite the incoming law change.?


Children under the age of 16 should be banned from using mobile phones and smartphones over the risk of pornography, a former Downing Street policy adviser has said. The Express reports Steve Hilton has called for impressionable young people to be banned from using devices until they are 16 to protect them from early sexualisation and incorrect beliefs on sex. ?


Oxfordshire County Council is facing a judicial review in the High Court over its plans to cut funding to more than half of its children's centres. The Oxford Mail reports that the bid for judicial review has been launched by two parents on behalf of their children, but a spokesperson for the council called the claim "legally and factually misconceived”.


More than 150,000 pre-school children born in a single year have been reported to social services over fears of abuse or neglect, according to an investigation conducted by the University of Central Lancashire. The Times reports that, of the half a million children born in 114 council areas in 2009/10, one in five had been referred to social services by last year.


?The educational trust behind an independent Islamic school in Luton that has been criticised for segregating staff by gender and treating male and female pupils differently is being investigated by the Charity Commission. The Guardian reports the inquiry into Rabia Educational Trust comes after a series of adverse judgments made by Ofsted following an inspection of Rabia girls’ and boys’ school.?


Two children as young as eight were caught with cannabis in the school playground last week. The Mirror reports Northumbria Police were called to Bedlington Station Primary School where officers discovered two year 4 pupils in possession of the class B drug.?


Head teachers are calling on Education Secretary Nicky Morgan to stop the publication of this year’s primary school results in England. The BBC reports they have warned of “serious mistakes” in the introduction of changes to tests and say the results are too “unpredictable”. ?


An average of 1.3m – or 17 per cent – of 16- to 24-year-olds spend six months out of education, employment or training (Neet), according to think-tank Impetus-PEF.  A further 700,000 young people are spending a whole year as Neets, according to Impetus-PEF, who say its findings are worse than the government's own statistical releases.