Daily roundup 10 July: Gender identity, self-harm, and child abuse inquiry

The number of children being referred to gender identity clinics has quadrupled in the past five years, it has emerged. The Telegraph reports that experts have said the huge spike is, in part, due to the promotion of transgender issues in schools which they say has encouraged children to question their identity, and "sowed confusion" in their minds. Figures from the Gender Identity Development Service show that 84 children aged between three and seven were referred last year, compared with 20 in 2012/13.


Failure to correctly diagnose the special needs of children could lead them to self-harm, it has been claimed. The BBC reports that an expert has warned that parents fear their children are suffering mental health problems because autism spectrum disorder is not being recognised.


Strong "vested interests" want the independent child sexual abuse inquiry to collapse, its chair has said. The Daily Mail reports that Professor Alexis Jay suggested unnamed institutions welcomed the inquiry's troubled start - including the loss of three previous chairs - because it is a "threat".


Record numbers of Scottish children are being forced to live in temporary accommodation, new statistics show. The Scotsman reports that at the end of March, there were 781 children in Edinburgh without a stable home, the highest figure since records began in 2002 and a 58 per cent rise on the same time last year.