Daily roundup 16 October: CSE, eating disorders, and disability

There will be more Rotherham-style child sexual exploitation scandals unearthed in the coming months, one of Britain’s top police officers has warned. The Guardian reports that Simon Bailey, chief constable of Norfolk police, the leading officer on child abuse at the Association of Chief Police Officers, said the scale of the problem is far larger than previously thought.


Eating disorder charity Beat has called for the sale of laxatives to children to be more strictly regulated. It says supermarkets have done nothing to restrict sales of the medicine to young people, despite 80 per cent of those affected by eating disorders in the UK have misused laxatives in order to lose weight. The BBC reports that supermarkets say their sale of laxatives complies with regulation set by the medicines regulator.


A Conservative minister has apologised for suggesting some disabled people were “not worth” the minimum wage. Labour said it was “outrageous” and “insulting” that Lord Freud, the welfare reform minister, had not resigned or been sacked over the remarks. The Times reports that Downing Street confirmed the peer was ordered to apologise for the comments, made during the Conservative party conference.


A School in Kent has come in for criticism after banning pupils from going to the toilet during lessons. The Daily Mail report that parents of pupils at Westlands School and Sittingbourne Community College in Sittingbourne were outraged told their children could only go to the bathroom during lessons if they had a note from a doctor.


Hertfordshire has seen a 25 per cent increase in the number of children on child protection plans over the last year, reports the Comet. Hertfordshire County Council now has almost 200 more children considered to be at risk of significant harm, bringing the total up from 885 in September 2013 to 1,065 last month. Jenny Coles, the Hertfordshire director of children’s services, said: “There is a rising demand for children coming on to child protection plans. They have increased dramatically in particular areas.”


A partnership between the Fostering Network and Achievement for All has been launched with the aim of improving educational outcomes for children in foster care in London. London Fostering Achievement is part of the Mayor for London's Schools Excellence Fund and it funded by the Department for Education and the Greater London Authority. Through the programme, more than 2,000 foster carers, social workers and teaching staff across London will receive training to improve educational aspirations for fostered children.