Daily roundup 12 December: Family courts, youth work, and self-harm

Children could be driven to suicide if family courts are opened to public scrutiny, Deputy Children's Commissioner Sue Berelowitz has claimed. According to the Daily Mail, Berelowitz said children could consider killing themselves if they believe their names and their troubled lives will become known to the public.


Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has described funding provided to a project to boost uniformed youth work in less well-off areas as “the best £10m I’ve ever spent”. During the past two years funding provided to Youth United has helped to create 627 new, permanent, self-sustaining cub packs, guiding patrols and cadet troops in areas where youth volunteering organisations had previously only had a limited presence.


Numbers of children admitted to hospital due to self-harm is at a five-year high, government figures have suggested. Statistics published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre found a 93 per cent increase in the number of 10- to 14-year-old girls admitted to hospital this year with a 45 per cent rise in numbers of boys. The BBC reports that campaigners including YoungMinds want to ensure more help and support is available for children and their families.


A new grant programme designed to boost the personal and social development of young people has been launched. The Jack Petchey Foundation will provide a total of 15 grants worth £15,000 to projects put forward by registered charities. The money will be used to help young people in London and Essex increase their potential through personal, social, emotional and physical development. Young people from the foundation will join the panel in assessing the grants.


A new postgraduate diploma course for social workers intended to improve outcomes for looked after children has been launched by the British Association for Adoption & Fostering (BAAF) and Sheffield Hallam University (SHU). The Advanced Practice in Family placement and Looked After Children course will initially be run from next April at Sheffield Hallam University and in Leeds with future courses planned in London and Birmingham.


Education Secretary Nicky Morgan has been wrong-footed by a 10-year-old interviewer with a secondary school maths question. She was asked the cube root of 125 by pupil Leon Remphry during a children's newspaper interview on Sky News. The answer is five, but Morgan said: "I think that's one that I might just have to go away and work out." She added: "I think politicians who answer maths questions or spelling questions on air normally come a cropper."