Daily roundup: Megan Stammers, health workforce statistics and a new DCS in Peterborough

Concerns about child protection at the school of missing teenager Megan Stammers were highlighted in a letter to Education Secretary Michael Gove prior to her disappearance, it has been claimed. The BBC reports that child protection campaigner Lucy Duckworth said she wrote to Gove about Bishops Bell School because she feared the school’s protection policy was inadequate. Megan Stammers, 15, has not been seen since travelling to France last week with 30-year-old maths teacher Jeremy Forrest. The school has said it has a robust safeguarding policy.

The total number of midwives, nurses and health visitors working in the NHS is in decline, according to official figures. The NHS Information Centre statistics, show that 840 posts were lost in June alone this year. The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said that the loss of staff is likely to “profoundly affect patient care”. Peter Carter, chief executive and general secretary of RCN, said: “A reduction on this scale, happening over a short period of time, is something that the NHS as a whole will struggle to adapt to. It will also cost the health service money in the long run, as patients will start to be admitted to hospital unnecessarily.”

A new director has been appointed to head up the troubled children's services department at Peterborough City Council, which has been judged inadequate in safeguarding by Ofsted four times since March 2009. Sue Westcott, who is currently assistant director for safeguarding families and communities at the council, will take up the post in January. Sheila Scott, lead member for children’s services at the authority, said Westcott has played a “vital role” in assisting interim director Malcolm Newsam in making sustained improvements in the service in recent times.

Children who are overweight in their school years may be storing up health risks for the future, an Oxford University study has found. Analysis of 63 separate studies showed that being obese as a child has a larger effect on children’s bodies than was previously realised. Researchers found that obese children and adolescents display several risk factors for heart disease such as raised blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. Claire Friedemann, one of the report’s authors, said: “What we saw was really quite astounding. There were big effects.”

The chief constable of South Yorkshire Police is to be grilled by MPs over revelations of alleged sexual exploitation of young girls in the county. The BBC reports that David Crompton will appear before the home affairs select committee in the wake of concerns over the way police have dealt with cases of possible child sexual exploitation. Crompton said: “I will fully assist the home affairs select committee in answering any questions they may have”.

And finally, more than 500 under-18s have received specialist help for alcohol problems in Greater Manchester. Figures published by the Manchester Evening News show that the National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse helped 40 children aged 12 and 13, 254 aged 14 and 15, and 241 aged 16 and 17. Alan Higgins, public health director for Oldham, said: "Work is being done across Greater Manchester to reduce the number of both young people and adults who drink at harmful and hazardous levels. We have been leading efforts to encourage the government to introduce a minimum price per unit of alcohol, which particularly aims to tackle alcohol consumption in young people.”