Daily roundup: Bedroom tax, What Works Network, and strip-searching

Ten disabled and vulnerable children have launched judicial review proceedings, challenging the government’s proposed "bedroom tax". The children claim that the Department for Work and Pensions' new housing benefit regulations, due to come into force on 1 April, will mean they are expected to share a bedroom with their siblings. Hopkin, Murray, Beskine Solicitors, who are representing the children, say they have all been assessed as needing their own bedrooms – either due to their disabilities, because they are at risk of violence from a sibling, or because of the trauma as a result of abuse and domestic violence.

A network linking independent policy advice centres across government has been launched. The What Works Network will consist of two existing centres of excellence – the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) and the Educational Endowment Foundation – alongside four new independent institutions, with early intervention being delivered by the Early Intervention Foundation. The government hopes both national and local policymakers will benefit from access to evidence to guide decision making. Graham Allen, chair of the Early Intervention Foundation, said: “By taking ‘what works’ to scale we can help break intergenerational cycles of dysfunction, reduce the costs of failure to the taxpayer and strengthen local communities.”

Children and young people in custody were stripped naked and searched more than 43,000 times in two years. The Daily Mail reports on information released following a Freedom of Information request by Carolyne Willow, former national co-ordinator at the Children’s Rights Alliance for England (Crae). Willow has described the practice as “institutionalised child abuse”.

Councils have identified half of the most challenging families in England and have started working with one in six of them, the government has said. The BBC reports government figures showing that, as of December, local authorities had identified 62,000 troubled families out of the target of 120,000. They have started to help 23,000 families and payments have so far been made to councils for “turning round the lives” of 1,675 families.