Daily Roundup 19 June: Lifestyles, childcare, and Muslim extremism

Pupils in England are more unfit than ever before, the Guardian reports. Sedentary lifestyles are to blame, says research published in the International Journal of Obesity, which studied 300 schoolchildren including those from disadvantaged backgrounds. The least fit child from a class in 1998 would be one of the five fittest in a class today, the senior researcher said.


The Bishop of Durham has criticised the government’s plans to double the free childcare allowance to 30 hours per week to families where both parents are working. He says the plan gives “the implicit and not so implicit message that it is better to put your child in childcare and go out to work than stay at home and look after your own children”, reports the Chronicle. 


Muslim communities need to do more to raise the alarm about extremists encouraging young people to join the “formidable and growing” jihadist surge in the Middle East, Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to say today. The Express reports that Cameron will accuse some Muslim community leaders of being too willing to blame the government or other authorities for the radicalisation of young people rather than exposing the fanatics.


More than six million doses of illegal medicines have been seized in a record British haul fuelled by students looking for help to stay alert during exams, the Times reports. According to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency £15.8m worth of counterfeit and unlicensed medicines has been netted over a month long period.


A trial scheme that aims to work with children and young people who have been or may have been trafficked from abroad and within the UK has helped 91 children, figures reveal. The 12-month Child Trafficking Advocate trials run by charity Barnardo’s with funding from the Home Office cover 23 local authorities in the South East, London, Greater Manchester and the Midlands.


The director general of the Confederation of British Industry has said that GCSEs should be scrapped in the next five years and replaced by an exam system with equal status for vocational subjects. John Cridland advocates a system in which A-levels taken at the age of 18 would be the most important exams, and include both academic and vocational subjects, BBC News reports.