The HPV vaccine should be made available to schoolboys in the UK, a charity has said. According to the BBC, the Throat Cancer Foundation wants the vaccine, which was introduced in 2008 for girls, to be available to boys as well, because it can immunise against other forms of cancer in addition to cervical cancer, such as throat cancer. Professor Christopher Nutting, lead clinician of the head and neck unit at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, said: “We are seeing a rising number of cases of throat cancer in our clinics in the UK. At the moment girls are routinely vaccinated against HPV but boys are not, meaning they are routinely being exposed to a virus that can cause life threatening cancers.”
Two thirds of hospitals are failing to meet a requirement to share violent crime data with police. The BBC reports that a Department of Health audit found that only a third of hospitals in England are sharing information on where knife or gun attacks are happening – since a coalition pledge to require them to do so. The audit revealed information is being shared “effectively” in just a third of community safety partnership areas, and not at all in one-fifth.
Kingston's former head of children’s services has demanded an apology following criticism over allegations she made about poor practice at the council. The Kingston Guardian reports that Olivia Butler raised concerns that there may have been a “cover-up” relating to the failure of social workers to help a 37-year-old mother Charito Cruz, who was murdered in 2011. Speaking at a council meeting this week, Liberal Democrat leader of the council Derek Osbourne said: “I am not satisfied the representation of events she is now making is consistent with the record we have.” But Butler said councillors “are trying to cast doubt” on her credibility, by quoting her “selectively”.
The National Children’s Bureau (NCB) has called for a child-friendly version of the NHS Constitution to be created. The organisation said children are denied an understanding of their rights as patients, because the document is not accessible for them. The constitution document is currently in the process of being revised. Dr Hilary Emery, NCB chief executive, said: “To be truly effective for children and young people and help them take responsibility for their health they need an accessible and relevant version. Producing such a version can empower them to get better health care by understanding what they should expect and how to access information held about them.”
New research has cast doubt on the accuracy of England’s rankings in the global education league tables. A Sutton Trust report found that rankings are misleading because different countries are included in different league tables, and some league tables exaggerate the importance of raw test scores. Sir Peter Lampl, chair of the Sutton Trust and of the Education Endowment Foundation, said: “Global education tables have become an increasingly important tool in the political debate in Britain as well as in other developed nations. But league table rankings are not always what they seem, hence the see-sawing in the rankings that we have seen over the years.”
Local authorities must do more to ensure disabled young people can access youth provision in their area, research by Ofsted has found. The report reveals the proportion of disabled young people that access local authority youth work provision is low, while some disabled young people are not known to councils, so potentially miss out on services. National director for learning and skills at Ofsted, Matthew Coffey, said: “Better planning of services in relation to local need and better training for adult workers and volunteers would ensure more young disabled people benefit from the opportunities and support that youth work affords.”
