Daily roundup 4 November: Childhood obesity, welfare cuts and social workers

A record level of children left school classified as "obese" last year, data from the National Child Measurement Programme for England has shown. The Telegraph reports that in 2015, 19.8 per cent of Year 6 pupils were obese - meaning they had a body-mass index of 30 or above - compared with 19.1 per cent the year before.?


Government plans to cap support for out-of-work households could put children's health, wellbeing and mental health at risk, The Children's Society has warned. The charity says the average loss across all families affected will be £260 per month, which could be the difference between "just about managing" and "spiralling into problem debt or homelessness".


Keeping social worker caseloads low is key to improving children's services, Ofsted national director for Social Care Eleanor Schooling has said. She discusses the importance of social worker caseloads in a commentary she has written about the success factors in children's services.


The number of 18- to 24-year-olds in England entering treatment for addiction to heroin has plummeted 79 per cent in 10 years, statistics from the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System show. The Guardian reports that in 2015/16, a total of 2,367 young people presented with heroin and opiate addiction, compared with 11,351 a decade earlier. ?


The Catholic Church in England and Wales has apologised for its lack of sensitivity around adoptions of children born to unmarried mothers in the 1950s to 1970s. ITV News reports thousands of babies were separated from their birth mothers and placed with adoptive families under the supervision of "moral welfare officers" acting on behalf of various agencies - the majority of which were overseen by religious organisations.


A father that shook his 13-day-old son to death has been jailed for a minimum of 15 years. The Birmingham Mail reports Daniel Sanzone, aged 23, from Wolverhampton, was imprisoned after being found guilty of the murder and child cruelty of Joshua Millinson, who died of "catastrophic" head injuries. ?