Coronavirus daily round-up: Friday 4 December
Derren Hayes
Friday, December 4, 2020
Latest analysis of council data highlights the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic had on children’s services work in the first quarter of 2020/21.
- Each day, CYP Now will summarise the key issues affecting the children and families sector as it tackles the effects of the pandemic. The daily update signposts children’s services practitioners and leaders to the latest developments, expert views, advice and resources.
Rise in children in care during pandemic lockdown
Figures gathered by the Association of Directors of Children’s Services shows that the number of children in care had risen by three per cent on 30 June 2020 compared with the same date in 2019.
The figures are included in interim findings from the ADCS’s latest Safeguarding Pressures study, which also shows that there was a six per cent fall in the number of children leaving council care.
ADCS president Jenny Coles said the findings revealed the “drastic impact” that the pandemic is having on children’s services.
Covid-19 impact deepens wellbeing decline
England is heading for a sharp and prolonged fall in national wellbeing, according to Carnegie UK Trust.
The Trust says swathes of data points it uses to track the state of the nation are already in decline, with many more likely to follow as a result of the pandemic.
These include the rising rate of unemployment; dwindling trust in national government; rising public debt; deteriorating ratings for life satisfaction, happiness and anxiety; and the impact of loneliness on wellbeing.
The gross domestic wellbeing score for England last year was 6.89, but the data shows that life in England has been getting progressively worse for the past five years.
Williamson criticised for vaccine comments
Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has been criticised for claiming the UK was the first country to approve a coronavirus vaccine because the country has “much better” scientists than those in France, the United States and Belgium.
Williamson, speaking on a radio show yesterday, said he was not surprised the UK was the first to roll out the immunisation because “we’re a much better country than every single one of them”.
On Twitter, former Conservative foreign minister Alistair Burt criticised Williamson’s “boastful and questionable” comments for being “crass and insensitive”.
