Daily roundup 16 March: School deficits, serious case review, and youth club closures

The number of state secondary schools falling into deficit in England has almost trebled in the last four years to more than a quarter, research says. The BBC reports that analysis by independent think-tank the Educational Policy Institute (EPI) found the proportion of local authority secondaries in deficit rose from 8.8 per cent in 2013/14 to 26.1 per cent in 2016/17. Its study of official figures also found a significant increase in the number primary schools in deficit. The government disputed the findings.


Professionals who worked with a 16-year-old Bristol girl killed in a sexually motivated attack by her stepbrother and his partner treated her as problematic rather than as a vulnerable adolescent with a difficult past, a serious case review has found. The Guardian reports that 17 experts from eight service providers saw Becky Watts in the three and a half years before she was killed by her stepbrother, Nathan Matthews, and his partner, Shauna Hoare, but she received a fragmented service and there was a lack of communication.


All youth clubs in Gwynedd in North Wales will be closed as the council tries to cut £270,000 from its budget. The BBC reports that the council's cabinet approved plans to shut all 39 youth clubs this Easter and replace them with a county-wide club. It comes despite concerns the authority had not fully engaged with communities about the loss of the clubs.


A High Court judge has condemned Herefordshire County Council as a result of "dreadful failures" in the handling of children in its care. The Birmingham Mail reports that Mr Justice Keehan said there had been "egregious abuse" of legislation designed to provide accommodation to children who did not have somewhere suitable to live. Bosses had been too slow to ask family court judges to take control of cases and make long-term decisions about children's living arrangements, he said. He said about a third of approximately 50 children in the council's care had been affected.