Daily roundup 17 August: Batmanghelidjh, Gove, and Ritalin

Camila Batmanghelidjh is planning to open food kitchen for up to 3,000 children and young people following the collapse of Kids Company. The Sunday Times reports that 50 former Kids Company staff have volunteered to help run the Kids Dining Room, which will open beneath a railway arch in Lambeth, south London, on Wednesday.


Justice Secretary Michael Gove has been warned that levels of teenage crime and numbers of children behind bars could increase because of the government’s austerity measures. The Independent reports that a letter to youth offending teams by the Youth Justice Board’s chief executive, Lin Hinnigan, said she had warned Gove that further savings would be “detrimental” to efforts to steer teenage offenders from a life of crime.
 
 
Prescriptions for Ritalin have more than doubled in a decade amid fears that children are being wrongly given the drug. The Daily Mail reports that 922,200 prescriptions were issued in 2014 compared with 359,100 in 2004, with experts concerned the rise is being driven by doctors misdiagnosing youngsters with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).


Electronic cigarettes do not introduce children to traditional cigarettes, a survey has found. The Independent reports that most children using electronic cigarettes have already been smokers, and that the total number of children using them is still relatively small.

 
There is a growing trend for larger families in the UK, research has found. The Telegraph reports that the number of babies born in the UK with three or more older siblings rose from 5.3 per cent in 2009 to 9.5 per cent in 2013.


A total of 38 young people are considered to be at risk of child sexual exploitation (CSE) across West Berkshire according to the council's head of children and families services. Newbury Today reports that just under half of the young people were considered to be at medium or high risk of CSE.