Daily roundup 4 December: Obesity, charity leadership, and council cuts

Increasing numbers of children are obese when they start school at the age of four or five, figures show. The Daily Mail reports that figures from the Health and Social Care Information Centre show that 22.5 per cent of reception age children are obese or overweight, up from 22.2 per cent last year.


Anand Shukla is leaving the Family and Childcare Trust to head up education and mentoring charity Brightside. Shukla, who will take up his new post in February, became chief executive of the Daycare Trust in 2010, and oversaw its 2012 merger with the Family and Parenting Institute to create the current organisation. The trust said it will begin the process of recruiting a new chief executive immediately.


West Berkshire Council has announced plans to cut £297,000 from services to vulnerable young people, just nine months after the authority reduced the services' spend by £393,000. The Newbury Weekly News reports that some front line services will be scaled back as a result of the cuts, while others will be scrapped completely.


The chief executive of Rotherham Council was paid £26,000 to leave the troubled authority early. The BBC reports that Martin Kimber was due to leave this month after resigning in the wake of the child abuse scandal but quit on 31 October after receiving the payment.


Three times as many children have tried e-cigarettes as have smoked tobacco, it has emerged. The BBC reports that the latest Childhood Exposure to Tobacco Smoke study by the Welsh government found that six per cent of 10- to 11-year-olds in Wales said they had used e-cigarettes, compared to two per cent who had smoked tobacco. Children who tried e-cigarettes were seven times more likely to say they might start smoking within two years.


Teenage girls are playing truant because they are insecure over their looks, according to a government-commissioned report. It found that as many as one girl in five holds back from answering questions or giving her opinions at school because she dislikes her appearance, while one in six admitted missing school when feeling self-conscious. The study, conducted by the University of the West of England, examined a range of research from across the world, reports the Times.