Daily roundup 20 January: Council tax, child cruelty, and census boycott

Surrey County Council has announced plans to raise council tax by 15 per cent because of mounting pressures on children's and adults social care services. The Guardian reports that the proposal will have to be agreed by residents through a county-wide referendum.


A mother and her ex-partner have been jailed for 13 years each after being convicted of feeding drugs to her four-year-old daughter. The BBC reports that Poppy Widdison collapsed at her home in Grimsby and died in hospital from a cardiac arrest in June 2013. Her mother Michala Pyke, 38, and her former partner John Rytting, 40, were found guilty of child cruelty, last month.


Civil rights group Liberty is urging parents in England to boycott next week's school census amid fears the data will be used to aid deportations. The BBC reports that Liberty director Martha Spurrier wants parents to refuse to disclose information of children's nationalities and birth countries.


A scheme that mentors care-experienced school pupils could expand to support every young person in Glasgow. The Glasgow Evening Times reports that Glasgow City Council's chief executive Annemarie O'Donnell has announced a commitment to have at least 10 per cent of the council workforce taking part in its mentoring project.


Skills minister Robert Halfon has announced that the Department for Education is setting the public sector a target of recruiting 200,000 more apprentices by 2020. The government said the drive will create thousands of quality opportunities in the public sector, giving more people the chance to launch or develop their career.


Stockport Council has passed a motion urging the government to introduce a 9pm TV watershed on alcohol advertising. Colin Foster, the council's lead member for children and family services said the local authority took the step because it is keen to do everything it can to protect the health of children and young people. "Alcohol has a very damaging effect on our communities yet our children are bombarded with alcohol marketing from a very early age," he said.