More families with children are being forced to live in bed and breakfast accommodation as pressures on household finances increase, a report has found. Research by the National Housing Federation, found that 1,660 families with children were living in B&Bs between January and March this year, a 60 per cent increase on the same period last year. Of those families, 36 per cent had been in bed and breakfast accommodation for six weeks or more. David Orr, chief executive of the National Housing Federation, said increasing rents, insecure short-term rental tenancies and the recession are to blame. “It means families who never dreamed of being homeless could end up on the streets. They are the new face of England’s homeless,” he said.
Childcare and youth work staff are lagging behind other professions in terms of job satisfaction, a study has found. Childcare and youth workers were the lowest paid profession surveyed as part of the City & Guilds’ Career Happiness Index, with 57 per cent earning £14,999 or less. Out of 2,200 workers surveyed, people working in childcare or youth work came twelfth in the list of happiest workers. Nick Bradley, group director at City & Guilds, said: "It’s disheartening to see that workers in child and youth care have scored so badly. There seems to be a clear link between the lack of career progression and happiness at work.”
The government’s adviser on early intervention has called for a Royal Commission on child abuse to be launched. Graham Allen, Labour MP for Nottingham North, said the commission should not examine specific allegations, but focus instead on “why child sexual abuse takes place at all”, and “how the cycle of sexual abuse can be broken”. Speaking in parliament, Allen described child sexual abuse as “the public health issue of our time”. “We need to step up and tackle it in a serious and strategic way,” he added.
The Scottish government has pledged to reform services for children with complex additional support needs following a review into the issue. The Doran review is calling for good practice in existing services to be more widely shared and for increased strategic commissioning of specialist services. The government’s minister for learning, Alasdair Allan, announced that £10m in additional funding would be made available. He said: “We are fully committed to supporting the 98,000 children and young people with additional support needs in Scotland, and providing them with the best opportunities to fulfil their potential.”
A mandate outlining what improvements the government expects to be made in the NHS over the next two years has been praised for recognising the needs of children and young people. The National Children’s Bureau (NCB) said new requirements to report on premature child deaths and the importance placed on joined-up care for vulnerable children, early years, and disabled children are “particularly pleasing”. But Zoe Renton, head of policy, warned there is “still more to do”. “Central to creating a NHS that delivers better healthcare for children and young people is involving them meaningfully in the development of the health services they use,” she said.
And finally, individual childminders and childminding networks can now join the Pre-school Learning Alliance. The organisation, which has more than 14,000 members, said it has been preparing and developing services for registered childminders over recent months. Neil Leitch, chief executive, said: “We have been inundated with childminders asking for bespoke membership support. Given we all operate within the same framework, we see this as a natural alignment and it will certainly not distract the alliance from representing its existing members’ interests at the highest level.”
