Daily roundup 30 January: Bereavement support, fostering, and missing from care

Concerns have been raised that government plans to change the way support for widowed parents is provided will leave many worse off. The Childhood Bereavement Network said the Widowed Parent's Allowance, the safety net that parents get thanks to the National Insurance contributions their husband or wife made before they died, is being replaced by a new Bereavement Support Payment from 6 April. Instead of getting support until their youngest child leaves school, widowed parents will now get support for just 18 months.


The first public evidence session of the education select committee's inquiry into fostering in England will be held on Wednesday. The inquiry will explore a number of areas including recruitment and retention of foster carers, the capacity of the foster care system, and the support for and treatment of foster carers.


One hundred children went missing from care in Wirral last year - more than double the number in 2015, the BBC has discovered. The BBC reports that many of the 570 incidents were due to 65 youngsters going missing at least twice, according to data released under the Freedom of Information Act.


Nine of the UK's leading youth charities are joining forces on 3 May to run a youth sector event. Creative Collisions 2017 will bring together more than 500 attendees from across the sector, including youth workers, volunteers, sector experts and young people, in a bid to share ideas, bridge divides and forge a positive future for young people and youth organisations.


Bradford's local safeguarding children board is writing to sports clubs across the area, in the wake of the national scandal of sexual abuse in football. The Ilkley Gazette reports that the board, in collaboration with Bradford Council, is contacting sports clubs with information and guidance on how to prevent child abuse in sport.