Daily roundup 25 September: Housing, migrants, and academies

Almost 100,000 children in England are living in temporary accommodation after being made homeless, according to data from the Department for Communities and Local Government. The BBC reports that at the end of June this year, 66,980 individuals or families were registered as having no home and living in temporary accommodation, an increase of 12 per cent from last year.


A teenage asylum seeker has been killed by a freight train near the Channel Tunnel in France while attempting to reach Britain. The Independent reports that the boy is believed to be from east Africa, and that an investigation is underway.


Local authorities across the UK have inherited over £30 million of debt from schools converting to academy status. The BBC reports that the debt of £32.5 million had been accrued since the introduction of the Academies Act in 2010, a Freedom of Information Act request to all English local authorities found.


The number of under-18s with mental health problems admitted to non-specialist wards in Scotland has increased by 39 per cent since 2008/09. The Scotsman reports that there were 207 admissions of under-18s to non-specialist units, including adult psychiatric and paediatric wards, in 2014-15.


A charity has been offering bus tickets to homeless young people unable to find accommodation, to allow them to sleep on London's night buses. The Guardian reports that New Horizon Youth Centre said its staff have given tickets to young people and told them the best bus routes that run through the night across the capital.


A new tool to improve language and literacy for children under three is being developed by the National Literacy Trust. Funded by the Department for Education, Helping Early Literacy and Language Outcomes will work with two local authorities and five nursery teaching schools across England. It will aim to increase staff knowledge of how to develop children's literacy.