Schools should be open for up to 10 hours-a-day in order to “work better with modern life", education minister Elizabeth Truss has said. The Evening Standard reports that Truss suggests schools could offer care outside formal lessons for children as young as two, as well as catch-up classes and extra-curricular activities for older children.
Members of the public could be allowed in to family courts to watch cases for the first time, the country’s leading family judge has said. The Daily Mail reports that Sir James Munby wants to talk to lawyers, judges and social work chiefs about “the possible hearing in public of certain types of family case”. Views on the idea will be gathered as part of a paper on ending secrecy in the family courts to be published shortly by Munby.
Girls as young as 11 are able to obtain e-cigarettes from shops, friends and parents, public health officials in Wales have warned. The BBC reports Public Health Wales wants an e-cigarette summit to discourage "trying and buying" following a survey of more than 1,100 girls in 34 secondary schools.
Education Secretary Michael Gove has approved 38 new free schools across England which could provide around 22,000 additional school places across England. One of the approved schools aims to specifically target white working class children in Barnsley, the BBC reports.
A consultation on how children’s centres across Hertfordshire could be run in the future is to start on Monday. The Hemel Hempstead Gazette reports that the proposals would see all of the county’s 82 existing children’s centres remaining open, but money would be saved through reductions in management and overhead costs.
Public service provider Catch22 has launched a new initiative to support efforts by individuals to tackle social problems. The fellowship scheme will involve the organisation providing support and facilities for individuals who have already demonstrated success in their work, to “take their ideas up to scale”. The first fellow will be Charlie Howard, founder of charity MAC-UK, which addresses the mental health problems of excluded young people.
