Daily roundup 2 October: Child protection, job skills, and public health

Parents should be aware that their children can be tracked online, the former head of MI6 Sir John Scarlett has warned. He told a conference that technology changes have made children “particularly vulnerable to predators", who will try and track them through getting into conversations online, or by using apps that used an individual's location. "It's the tracking, and obviously if you get into conversations, I don't really see how that can be controlled unless you have some idea what your child's doing," reports the Telegraph.

Young people lack workplace skills such as communication and team working, according to a British Chambers of Commerce survey. Of the 3,000 firms questioned nine out of 10 thought school leavers were not ready for employment, and more than half said it was the same with graduates, reports the BBC. Three-quarters of the companies surveyed put the situation down to a lack of work experience, and more than 50 per cent said young people did not have even basic skills such as communication.

The government has published guidance outlining the funding details for the transfer of birth to five-year-old public health services to local authorities from the NHS. The factsheet explains the timescales for NHS teams and local authorities in the run-up to the commissioning transfer and how funding will work after October 2015. As part of the transfer, local authorities will be obliged to provide certain universal elements of the Healthy Child Programme, including antenatal health review, new baby assessments, and reviews at one and two and a half.