Daily roundup: UK Youth Parliament ballot, Prince's Trust report and Worcestershire children's homes

Young people are being urged to vote on the issues that they would like the UK Youth Parliament (UKYP) campaign on. The UK-wide ballot gives young people the chance to choose from 15 potential issues including same-sex marriage and votes for 16-year-olds. In November, members of the UKYP will debate the top four issues chosen in the ballot at their sitting in the House of Commons. One topic will then be chosen to be UKYP's national campaign for 2013.

One in five unemployed young people say that finding a job in the next year will be “unachievable”, according to a report by The Prince’s Trust and Royal Bank of Scotland. The research found that more than a third of unemployed young people have not received any responses to job applications in the past year. However, 57 per cent of self-employed young people were more positive about their future than this time last year, compared with 47 per cent of all young people and 19 per cent of those not in employment, education and training.

Three of Worcestershire’s four children’s homes have been judged outstanding by Ofsted with the fourth deemed good with outstanding features, the Worcester News reports. The latest inspection reports come 18 months after Worcestershire County Council was served with an improvement notice following a critical inspection report from Ofsted and Care Quality Commission, which branded the council’s safeguarding services inadequate.