Daily roundup: Sexual exploitation, migrant children and early years inspections

Police in Lancashire are to conduct a week-long campaign to raise awareness of child sexual exploitation, the Lancashire Evening Post reports. Lancashire police received reports of 1,500 suspected cases of child sexual exploitation in the 12 months up to March this year. The force wants to increase people’s understanding of the issue to prevent child abuse, aid victims and bring offenders to justice. The campaign gets under way on 17 September.

An inquiry into the human rights of unaccompanied migrant children and young people in the UK has been launched by the Joint Committee on Human Rights. The inquiry will explore whether the treatment of migrant children is consistent with the UK's obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Written evidence must be submitted by Friday 26 October. Ilona Pinter, policy advisor at The Children’s Society, welcomed the inquiry. She said: “Failures within the system are leaving thousands of these vulnerable young people inappropriately housed".

The Pre-school Learning Alliance has called on Ofsted to level the playing field on inspections, following the introduction of “short notice" checks for nurseries attached to schools. Short notice inspections involve Ofsted contacting the setting on the afternoon before the inspection. But day nurseries and pre-schools are currently subject to no-notice inspections. Neil Leitch, chief executive of the alliance, said: “If Ofsted is confident that the prior notice will allow inspectors to see things ‘as they really are’, I am sure our members will want to know why Ofsted has not immediately extended the same notice criteria to all settings.”

A youth programme that helps young people gain employment skills through art, has secured £60,000 in funding. The Youth Navigator programme, run by Turner Contemporary in Margate, pairs local school pupils with gallery staff and a philosopher, enabling them to lead discussions with gallery visitors about artists’ work and ideas. Karen Eslea, head of learning at Turner Contemporary, said: "We now have funding to work with a further 90 disadvantaged young people, and develop the programme to a stage where is can be replicated across the country.”

Winners of the annual Philip Lawrence Awards have been celebrated at a Downing Street reception, with six projects receiving the accolade. The awards, which champion young people and their achievements, were set up in memory of head teacher Philip Lawrence who was murdered outside his school in 1995. This year’s winning projects were Just Ask Nottingham, Mentality, from Bristol, Reclaim Our Name, from Manchester, Vale Youth Speak Up, from Wales, Voices Against Violence, from Scotland, and Young Citizens, from London.

And finally, a schoolgirl from Sunderland has won praise after donating her hair so that wigs could be made for sick children. The Sunderland Echo reports that Sophie Evans, 11, had her waist-length hair snipped to help make wigs for children who have lost their own through either cancer treatment or alopecia. Her mum Andrea Evans said: “It was a big thing for her because she has always had long hair, it was right down to her bum and people knew her for her hair.”