Daily roundup 20 November: Child protection, London cuts, and school standards

Six men have been banned from contact with young girls after a council became the first to use civil injunctions to block child sexual exploitation. The injunctions came after social workers at Birmingham City Council and police raised concerns about the welfare of a vulnerable 17-year-old girl who is in the care of the council. The judge barred the men from approaching the girl until she turns 18 following a public hearing in the the High Court, the BBC reports.


A leaked document reveals that the Greater London Authority (GLA) is considering cutting funding for its youth and education services by 90 per cent. According to the BBC, the document written by the education and youth forward planning team shows that the department will reduce its current £22.6m spend to £2.3m by 2016/17.


Ofsted is to place a faith school in special measures for failing to protect pupils from extremism. The Telegraph reports Ofsted is to make the move after finding that Sir John Cass’s Foundation and Red Coat Church of England school in Tower Hamlets failed to monitor the activities of an Islamic society set up by sixth form pupils.


Sex lessons in school introduce children to pornography and leave them susceptible to sexual abuse, a Muslim adviser has told MPs. Speaking to the education select committee, Yusuf Patel, the founder of SRE Islamic, which gives guidance to schools on sex and relationship education, said sex and relationships lessons should not be compulsory in schools. Patel told the committee that if sex and relationships education lessons became statutory then the parental right to withdraw children would be removed, and this would impair the ability of parents to bring up children based on their values, reports the Times.


The detective who led the investigation into Britain’s most notorious child abusers said its files could provide evidence for Scotland Yard’s investigation of an alleged Westminster paedophile ring. Roger Stoodley told the Times he had looked for possible links between the Sidney Cooke gang, which abducted, abused and murdered children in the 1970s and 1980s, and the Elm Guest House, in London, which is at the centre of allegations about an establishment paedophile conspiracy.


The Prince of Wales will mark the first anniversary of social action campaign Step up to Serve this afternoon by taking part in his first Google+ Hangout. He will be joined by a volunteer from charity YouthNet who will show him how the internet can be used to connect with young people.


Latest figures show that in December 2013, the NSPCC’s ChildLine service carried out almost 23,000 counselling sessions with children and young people. The most common reason for contacting ChildLine was family relationship issues – from worries relating to parents separating to arguments with family members and wanting to leave home – while the numbers contacting it feeling suicidal rose 38 per cent on the previous year. The figures coincide with the launch of the NSPCC’s December funding appeal for ChildLine.