Daily roundup: Children missing meals, partnership working on adoption, and 'legal highs'

More than two thirds of project managers at Action for Children have reported that children are missing out on regular meals. The charity says many of the 50,000 children supported by its projects “do not know where their next meal is coming from”. It fears the situation could be getting worse, with 83 per cent of its 500 projects reporting that more families are “struggling to make ends meet”. Action for Children chief executive Clare Tickell said: “Food is something many of us take for granted, but what is worrying is that we're seeing hungry children at our projects.”

Local authorities should create partnerships with neighbouring councils in order to improve adoption services, the former children’s minister Tim Loughton has said. Giving evidence to the Lords select committee on adoption legislation, Loughton said “local jealousy over territory” can lead to children not being placed with suitable families in neighbouring areas. “I think that has been most harmful to children where there have been potential adopters for them,” he said.
 
Deaths linked to now banned “legal highs” have risen dramatically according to latest figures. A report by the International Centre for Drug Policy (ICDP) found that deaths involving methacathinones, such as mephedrone, rose from five in 2009 to 43 in 2010. Professor Hamid Ghodse, director of the ICDP, said: “This is a great concern and it is clear that much work is still required in improving access to effective treatment and rehabilitation services, and, most importantly, finding prevention strategies to stop people being at risk in the first place.”

Politicians in Lancashire are set to decide today whether young people in the county who are struggling to find work should be allowed to travel free. The Lancashire Evening Post reports that the proposed scheme, which would be introduced next month, would provide free bus travel to all young people who are not in education, employment or training, aged from 16- to 18-years-old.

Former children’s minister Sarah Teather has made an official request for information about serious case reviews on asylum-seeking children and families. Teather, who is leading an inquiry investigating whether the asylum support system meets the needs of children and young people, has made a freedom of information request to the Department of Education. She is asking whether any serious case reviews relating to this group have taken place in the past five years, and for copies of any reports.

And finally, a review into the future of children’s heart surgery has launched today. ITV Tyne Tees reports that the review, being conducted by the Independent Review Panel, will decide whether proposals for changes to children's heart services were the right decision and whether they are needed. It was announced earlier this year that Newcastle's Freeman Hospital would became a major surgical centre, leading to the removal of services from Leeds. The review will look again at the decision to close the units at Leeds General Infirmary, Glenfield Hospital in Leicester and the Royal Brompton in London.