Daily roundup 3 May: Mental health, care failings, and rosemary

Schools and colleges are struggling to provide time and resources for pupils' mental wellbeing as a result of tightened budgets and increasing academic pressures, MPs have warned. The Independent reports that, at a time of growing concern for the state of mental ill-health among children, the health and education select committees said education providers are being forced to cut back on vital mental health services, such as in-school counsellors.


The mother of a severely anorexic 15-year-old girl who died after stepping in front of a train has said that failings in her daughter's care "from beginning to end" resulted in her death. The Guardian reports that a jury at South Manchester coroner's court concluded on Wednesday that Pippa "Pip" McManus had taken her own life, but said that the lack of support provided to her family and the delay in implementing a care plan when she arrived home could have been contributory factors in her death.


University researchers have suggested that the smell of rosemary could enhance children's memory. The BBC reports that a study found that pupils working in a room with the aroma of rosemary, in the form of an essential oil, achieved five per cent to seven per cent better results in memory tests.


The next government should introduce legislation to "end the shocking rise in self-harm and suicides in prisons", a cross-party group of MPs and peers has said. The Guardian reports that the joint committee on human rights says the steady rise in self-inflicted deaths from 58 in 2010 to 119 in 2016 in prisons across England and Wales means it is now time to place a legal duty on the justice secretary to specify a minimum ratio of prison officers to prisoners in each jail.


Parents of a baby with a rare condition are appealing against a High Court decision to withdraw life support. The BBC reports that specialists at Great Ormond Street said eight-month-old Charlie Gard is unable to move and has significant irreversible brain damage.