Daily roundup 27 February: Innovation fund, Neets, and Rotherham Council

Three projects have been awarded a total of £2.9m from the Department for Education’s £100m innovation fund. The Fostering Network is getting £1.6m for a programme that will see experienced foster carers share their expertise with families taking in vulnerable young people. Stoke-on-Trent City Council is receiving £558,000 to create a housing co-operative to give vulnerable young people a place to stay while taking their first steps into independent adult life. In addition, Surrey County Council and the Guildford and Waverly Clinical Commissioning Group have been given £729,000 to extend an existing programmes that provides round-the-clock care for children and young people suffering with emotional and mental health difficulties.


A charity has called for urgent action to reduce numbers of young people who are not in employment, education or training (Neet). Impetus The Private Equity Foundation said latest Neet figures, which show 963,000 young people were recorded as Neet in the last four months of 2014, are “unacceptably high”. The charity wants all the main political parties to include plans to tackle the issue in their forthcoming election manifestos.


The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles has announced the five commissioners that will take over the running of Rotherham Council. The government led commissioners will be led by Sir Derek Myers, former chief executive of the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea. They were appointed following the publication of the Casey report, which found Rotherham Council was "not fit for purpose", the Rotherham Star reports.


A youth charity has been awarded £100,000 to fund a housing project in Hackney for homeless young people with disabilities. City YMCA London was awarded the grant from the City of London Corporation’s charity, City Bridge Trust. The money will be used to set up interim premises for young people to stay in while a hostel it has been using for 40 years is refurbished.


Rotherham's MP has asked the government to fund a centre to support victims of child sexual exploitation. Sarah Champion has also called for witness statements from victims to be taken by one organisation, to avoid them being spoken to by three investigators – South Yorkshire Police, the Independent Police Complaints Commission and the National Crime Agency. She claims the authorities need additional funding to open more investigations and pay for commissioners to run the council, the Rotherham Star reports


Scotland’s largest teaching unions and parents’ groups have backed concerns over an extreme “crisis of confidence” among teachers because of the new exam system in Scotland. According to the Times, the Educational Institute of Scotland claims that pressure among teachers could cause a knock-on effect on pupils.