Coronavirus daily update: Thursday 16 July
Derren Hayes
Thursday, July 16, 2020
Children's charity chief executives have called on the government to require councils to prioritise housing support for care leavers amid the coronavirus pandemic.
- 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.
Call to prioritise care leaver housing
A group of charity chief executives have written to Education Secretary Gavin Williamson calling on him to extend homeless ‘priority need’ status to all care leavers up to 25.
The charity chiefs – including Barnardo’s Javed Khan, Just for Kids’ Law’s Enver Solomon and Katherine Sacks-Jones of Become – say the move is needed to avoid a spike in youth homelessness caused by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Such a move would mean that all homeless care leavers up to 25 would be eligible for emergency accommodation from their local authority and would not be at risk of sleeping rough.
“For the many young people we work with, this would be a lifeline, which would enable them to take the first step towards getting their life back on track, finding a permanent home, continuing their education or getting a job and ultimately making a positive contribution to society in the long-term,” the letter states.
Warning on impact of lack of childcare support
The Labour Party has warned that by refusing to provide targeted support for the early years sector the government risks setting back the country’s economic recovery from Covid-19.
Lack of funding will lead to a “wave” of nursery closures, impacting the ability of parents, especially mothers, to return to work, the opposition said.
Tulip Siddiq, shadow minister for children and early years said these closures could lead to many parents losing their jobs altogether.
Parents want say on school returns
Three-quarters of parents want to have the ultimate say over whether their child attends school next term, compared to 19 per cent who did not, a survey by Parentkind has found.
Schools are set to open to all pupils from September, yet 26 per cent of those surveyed said they would not or might not send their child back, compared to 74 per cent who said they will.
Parents’ biggest concern was about how social distancing will be managed - selected by two thirds of parents.
The survey also found that parents and carers wanted schools to focus on the mental wellbeing of pupils more than any other issue (70 per cent), followed by curriculum learning (57 per cent) and peer and staff relationships (50 per cent).
Youth unemployment more than doubles
The number of young people claiming unemployment benefit has risen to over half a million, latest data from the Office for National Statistics shows.
From March to June, the claimant count for 18 to 24 year olds has more than doubled from 235,000 to 517,000.
Figures released in April showed young people were four times more likely to be unemployed as the rest of the working age population and today’s figures show they are 4.4 times more likely to be unemployed.
Jonathan Townsend, UK chief executive of The Prince’s Trust, said: “We’re on the brink of a major jobs crisis and know young people will be among the hardest hit. Today’s figures show that the number of young people claiming unemployment benefit has continued to rise to over half a million. Sadly, we expect this trend to continue for months to come.”
Report highlights Covid-19 impact on prospects
A new report highlights the impact of Covid-19 on young people’s education, employment and future prospects.
The Resilience: A New Youth Skill for the Fourth Industrial Revolution study by the Global Business Coalition for Education, an initiative of global children's charity Theirworld, says that stress management, critical thinking, problem solving and tenacity are among the skills that young people will need to deal with the pandemic.
The virus has forced more than 1.5 billion children out of school and the World Bank predicts that the current generation of students are at risk of losing $10 trillion in lost earnings.
