Daily roundup 10 November: Mental health, 'non-binary' gender, and care applications

More than 100,000 children have been rejected for mental health treatment by NHS Trusts after being referred in the last two years. Sky News reports that figures released by NHS Trusts following a Freedom of Information request by the NSPCC showed that 17 per cent of all referrals to Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) were rejected between 2015 and 2017. Of 652,023 cases referred to CAMHS, 109,613 children were turned away, equivalent to 150 a day.


Scottish children and adults will be allowed to change their gender so that legally they are neither male nor female, under controversial plans to overhaul the law unveiled by SNP ministers. The Telegraph reports that the Scottish Government has unveiled plans to create a "non-binary" gender for people who do not identify as a man or woman and to make it legal to "self-declare" which gender they want to be.


Latest figures from the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service show that the number of care applications it received last month increased by four per cent compared with the year before. In October 2017 there were 1,198 care applications, compared with 1,155 in September 2016.


A police force is facing a legal challenge against its refusal to delete the details of a teenager who sent a naked photograph of himself on social media to a girl at his school. The BBC reports that the boy, 14 at the time, was not arrested or prosecuted by Greater Manchester Police. But his mother said she was concerned police could release the information to potential employers when he is older.


The Open University has secured funding from the Higher Education Funding Council in England to work with employers to find ways to boost diversity in the social work sector. The funding will be used to explore means of using the upcoming social worker degree apprenticeship, due to be introduced in autumn 2018, to increase access to social work training from groups of people currently under-represented in the social work profession.


Around 100 experienced social workers are set to be recruited as part of an initiative being run by the Local Government Association (LGA), in partnership with central government. The Return to Social Work programme will look to retrain social workers for both adults and children who have left the profession.


A list of sexual exploitation "hotspots" in Newcastle compiled by social services has leaked online, prompting fears the data could be used by paedophiles to target vulnerable young people. The document, seen by The Guardian, names branches of various national chain restaurants, takeaways, metro stations and gyms in Newcastle. Police are contacting the businesses and premises named on the list, which was compiled by the Newcastle Safeguarding Children Board as part of an intelligence-sharing exercise, to inform them about the data breach.


Two police officers have been sacked after they left a message on a woman's answer machine saying they hoped her child "would get raped". The BBC reports that a misconduct hearing was told that the Avon and Somerset officers left the recording after being called to deal with a "vulnerable child", a misconduct hearing was told. The officers are heard laughing and saying they did not care what happened to the child. Both officers admitted gross misconduct and were dismissed without notice.