Daily roundup 27 April: Scouts, free childcare, and young election candidate

A host of new awards are to be introduced under an overhaul of the Scout Association’s badge system in efforts to appeal to today's young people. Badges on woodcraft and orienteering are to be replaced by those for computer skills, disability awareness, understanding global issues, photography and community-based projects such as helping in food banks. In all, 250 badges are to be introduced or updated in what the Scout Association said will be its biggest revamp of the movement, reports the Times.


Childcare would be at the heart of the Conservative party programme in its first 100 days in government, according to Prime Minister David Cameron. The Conservative leader told supporters there is no “lack of drive” in the party’s campaign, and childcare, housing welfare and wages would be at the heart of its early priorities, BBC News reports. One of the party’s main pledges is to double the amount of free childcare for working parents.


A Birmingham teenager is aiming to become the youngest councillor in the UK. Luke Holland, aged 18, is standing as an independent candidate in the Moseley and Kings Heath ward in the local elections on 7 May. He told the Birmingham Post that if elected he will spend his entire £16,267 yearly councillor’s allowance to tackling poverty in the north of the ward.


The sexual abuse of hundreds of young girls was ignored by police who were too busy pursuing “priority crimes” that would earn senior staff bonuses, according to former detective Tony Brookes. The Daily Mail reports that money was diverted away from protecting children so crime targets under the last Labour government could be chased.


Representatives from 120 free schools have called on the next government to protect the right for schools to be set up by parents where they choose. In a letter to the Times, 138 head teachers, governors and founders have said that schools should continue to be set up where they are wanted.


St John's Ambulance hopes to train 50,000 children and young people aged between seven and 16 in first aid skills at its Big First Aid Lesson event on Friday 12 June. The initiative, being run for the second year, will see a one-hour online first aid session streamed live into classrooms across the country. The lesson will combine first aid training and 999 scenarios with real life stories, as well as forum discussion.