Daily roundup 22 April: Leadership, free childcare, and food poverty

John Goldup, a former deputy chief inspector and national director of social care at Ofsted, has been appointed as the new independent chair of Buckinghamshire's Children's Services Improvement Board. Goldup has been formally appointed by Education Secretary Nicky Morgan to oversee the improvement work at the council's "inadequate" rated children's services department. His appointment follows a series of recommendations made in a detailed report by Government consultants, Red Quadrant, which examined Buckinghamshire's plans for improvement following its Ofsted rating, reports Get Bucks.


The Conservatives' manifesto pledge on childcare would create an extra 600,000 free places, David Cameron has said. The Prime Minister said the proposed reforms would ensure it pays for people to go out to work. Under the £350m Conservative plans, the amount of state-subsidised childcare for three and four-year-olds would be doubled to 30 hours a week, reports the BBC.


The number of children using food banks in 2014/15 rose nearly 70,000 from the year previously, figures from the Trussell Trust show. In 2014/15, 396,997 children received food bank support for at least three days compared to 330,205 in 2013/14. As a percentage of the overall number of people being supported by food banks, children made up 37 per cent in 2014/15, up from 36 per cent the previous year.


A report into the killing of three-year-old Mikaeel Kular has cleared social workers of any responsibility, saying his death “could not have been predicted”. The child, who had been in foster care from July 2013 to August 2014, was beaten to death by his mother, Rosdeep Adekoya after she became angry that he had vomited following a trip to Nando’s in January 2014. An inquiry report found there were “no signs of physical abuse” against Mikaeel or his siblings and argued that “Mrs Adekoya’s behaviour towards her son was unprecedented and out of character”, reports the Times.


Millions of public sector workers would be spared pay cuts under Liberal Democrat plans, Nick Clegg has said. The BBC reports the deputy prime minister as saying pay should rise in real terms for two years from 2016, and then above inflation once the deficit has been dealt with. He said public sector workers had "made enough sacrifices" and it was time to end "the era of pay restraint".


A study of 10,000 primary-school aged children has found that two thirds are below recommended levels of fitness for their age group. Conducted by children’s activity organisation Fit For Sport, 67 per cent of the children were unable to reach targets in jumping, running and throwing, and 24 per cent fell significantly below government recommended activity levels. The results found that 36 per cent of five to seven-year-olds were at an adequate level of fitness, falling to 32 per cent and 33 per cent for eight to nine and 10 to 11-year-olds respectively.