Daily roundup 16 February: Text messages, Dubs, and education cuts

Tough new laws that make it a criminal offence for an adult to send sexually explicit messages to a child under 16 are still not being enforced almost two years after they were passed by parliament, child protection campaigners have said. The Guardian reports that the NSPCC, which campaigned for the law, said no start date has been set to bring the new law into force, meaning police cannot charge anyone with the offence.


The UK's four children's commissioners have written to the government asking for a rethink of a decision to end a scheme bringing in lone child refugees. The BBC reports that the commissioners for England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland said they have "deep concern" after the Home Secretary last week said 350 would come into the UK under the so-called Dubs amendment rather than the 3,000 campaigners had hoped for.


The organisation representing councils in London has warned government of the damage school funding cuts could do to city growth and development. In a joint letter to Education Secretary Justine Greening, London Councils urged government to invest £335m nationally to enable the new funding formula to be introduced without any funding cuts to any schools in the country.


Young people who have grown up in care are far more likely to die in early adulthood than other young people. Figures released following a Freedom of Information request by the BBC show that 90 people who left care in England between 2012 and 2016 died in the years when they would have turned 19, 20 or 21. Care leavers make up 1 per cent of the population at these ages, but make up around 7 per cent of the deaths.


A new youth centre in Hampshire has been praised for its architecture. The Basingstoke Gazette reports that the Point, in Tadley, a new £860,000 youth centre run by Tadley and District Community Association, has won the prestigious RIBA Journal MacEwen Award, which celebrates architecture for the common good.