Daily roundup: Further education, childcare and lone parents

The government has unveiled details of its new practical alternatives to A-levels designed to prepare more pupils for jobs in traditional trades, The Telegraph reports. The “Tech Level” qualifications will be offered at schools and colleges under plans to give students a grounding of subjects such as engineering, construction, manufacturing, IT and agriculture. The first wave of 142 qualifications for 16- to 19-year-olds, including motorcycle maintenance and patisserie baking, were unveiled by the Department for Education.

Grandparents should be given the right to request unpaid leave as they are so involved with childcare, the TUC says. It has called for an extension of their right to ask for time off to look after grandchildren, which currently only applies in emergencies, the BBC reports. The government plans to extend the right to request flexible working to all employees from April 2014, and the TUC estimates that seven million grandparents provide regular childcare.

The first in a series of studies looking at the impact of austerity policies finds that many single parents on low to middle incomes are struggling to cope financially with the impact of shrinking spending and the rising cost of housing, food, utiility bills and childcare. Research by lone parent charity Gingerbread found one in five lone parents said they had lost £100 a month or more since benefit reforms were introduced in April 2013. Nine out of 10 said they had been forced to cut back on spending on basics such as food and children's clothes, with two-thirds skipping meals to ensure their children had enough to eat, the Guardian reports.

A panel of experts convened by Barnardo's is to hear from child victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking as part of its inquiry  into the issue. The children will tell the inquiry about their experiences and how they were treated by the police and other agencies. The inquiry, a partnership with MP for Rotherham Sarah Champion, aims to explore the response of authorities to the crimes. The session is the first of four that will test the effectiveness of the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

A new head of children’s services has been appointed by Bradford Council. Michael Jameson, who is executive director at Oldham Council, will take over in early 2014 from Kath Tunstall as the strategic director of children’s services when she leaves the job after seven years. Jameson joined Oldham as the director of children’s services in 2009, since when its children’s services have moved from ‘adequate’ to ‘excellent’, the Bradford Telegraph reports.