Daily roundup: Job support, family courts and child poverty

Young people aged 16 and 17 who are not in education, employment or training and not in receipt of an income-based benefit are to be offered access to Jobcentre Plus work coaches so that they can get individual help to find work and training. The trained work coaches will help young people navigate services on offer and tap into local employment and training opportunities. The approach is to be trailed in Lewisham, Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Sheffield and applied England-wide if successful.

A final adoption hearing had to be abandoned because of a lack of translation services, the Law Gazette reports. The case, involving Slovak-speaking parents, has prompted the head of the family division Sir James Munby to criticise translation services covering the family courts.    

A report by Save the Children has found that families with children have been disproportionally hit by the recession. Its A Fair Start for Every Child report reveals that falling standards of living could see child poverty rise to five million by 2020. It has created a petition that calls for a minimum income for families with children under five, access to high quality childcare and a raising of reading standards by the age of 11 to combat the problem.