Daily roundup: Care leavers' charter, missing children in Kent, and homeless families in B&B accommodation

Children's minister Edward Timpson has launched a Charter for Care Leavers at a debate hosted by Barnardo's and chaired by CYP Now editor Ravi Chandiramani. “I want every council to take the charter, embrace it wholeheartedly and absorb the deep messages in it”, Timpson said. On the present postcode lottery affecting care leavers' grants across the country, he said: “A minimum of £2,000 per care leaver would be an acceptable level but too many local authorities are failing to deliver anywhere near that amount.” Scott King, one of the care leavers who designed the charter, launched a video at the debate, aimed at helping professionals understand the "conscious mind" of children in care.

Children in Kent who go missing from care are not being asked about the reasons why they ran away, a report by the county’s police authority has found. According to the Kent Messenger, the police authority report found that in some cases, vulnerable children in residential homes or with foster families have been reported missing in excess of 50 times in a year. It said social workers from councils outside Kent often fail to meet the statutory requirement to conduct interviews with at-risk children when they are found or returned. Kent County Council has referred the issue to the county’s safeguarding children board to assess the scale of the problem.

Increasing numbers of homeless families in Westminster are living in bed and breakfast accommodation beyond the six-week limit set out in law. Latest figures from the council show that more than 130 families in Westminster have been in temporary bed and breakfast accommodation for longer than they should have been, an increase of 35 families since two months ago. Paul Dimoldenberg, leader of the council’s Labour Group said: “The Westminster housing crisis is getting deeper and the situation for the homeless is getting worse with every month that passes. There is a need for more homes at prices that people can afford.”

Advice and guidance for organisations considering taking on payment-by-results contracts in the youth sector has been published. A report by Social Finance, produced for the Catalyst consortium, draws on case studies of existing programmes in social care, youth justice and youth employment. Beth Parker, director of service development at National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS), which is leading the government-funded Catalyst project, said: “We hope the report successfully demonstrates considerations that organisations of all sizes must demonstrate to take on outcomes based contracts.”

Universal Credit could leave people worse off and struggling to manage their finances, a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) has claimed. The report found that the new system does not necessarily incentivise work, and warns that technology failures could lead to people not receiving any money and facing “severe financial hardship”. Julia Unwin, chief executive of JRF, said: “The principle of Universal Credit is sound, but our research has found the actual roll out could unintentionally trap people in poverty and hardship. Universal Credit reforms are approaching at break-neck speed, so the Department for Work and Pensions must show similar urgency to address the very serious concerns outlined in this report.”

Children as young as ten are carrying dangerous weapons into schools in Cambridgeshire. The Cambridge News reports that “deadly weapons” such as knives, knuckle-dusters, a hammer, a snooker ball in a sock, and even a ninja star, have been seized by police on school premises. Freedom of information requests by the paper found that since 2006, 20 school children have been arrested in the county’s schools for having offensive weapons. Three children, including a 12-year-old and an 11-year-old who had knives, were not arrested.

And finally, young volunteers in Derby are working to highlight the issue of homelessness. The young people taking part in the “Team v” project, supported by volunteering charity vInspired, hope to challenge perceptions of young homeless people and raise awareness of the support available to them. Lucy Dean, Team v leader, said: “75,000 young people in England experience homelessness each year, with many more ‘hidden homeless’ staying on friends’ sofas with no fixed address. There’s a negative stereotype around being homeless so we’re going to showcase the hopes and dreams of young people in that situation to encourage people to think twice before they make an assumption.”