Daily roundup: child poverty, social work bonuses and apprenticeships
Laura McCardle
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Claims the government will miss its child poverty targets; Doncaster Council offers cash incentives to social workers; and the Sutton Trust calls for more apprenticeship places, all in the news today.
The government will miss its target of ending child poverty by 2020 by a “considerable margin”, according to a report by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission. State of the Nation 2013: social mobility and child poverty in Great Britain has found a 275,000 increase in the numbers of poor children in poverty since 2010, despite the number of children living in workless households falling by 15 per cent.
Doncaster Council is offering cash incentives to social work team managers who work in its troubled children’s services department. The Star reports they are being offered bonuses of up to £6,000 over a period of two years. The council says that attracting a permanent workforce will be beneficial to the children and young people who use the service.
Around 300,000 extra three-year apprenticeship places are required each year to improve social mobility, according to a report published by the Sutton Trust. Real Apprenticeships, compiled by the Boston Consulting Group, found a shortfall of apprenticeships in England compared with other countries, including Germany and Switzerland. The report calls for a “major cultural change” by employers to meet the demand for places.
Brighton and Hove City Council has cut the number of young people entering the youth justice system in its area over the past year by nearly a third. The East Sussex council said the dramatic fall in local 10- to 17-year-olds entering the youth justice system was down to an increased use by youth offending teams of alternatives to custody for dealing with offending behaviour, with restorative justice replacing reprimands and final warnings.
Children’s Minister Edward Timpson has said young people leave foster care too soon and that more needs to be done to support them when they do. Speaking at the Fostering Network Annual Conference yesterday, Timpson urged local authorities to priorities young people’s staying-put arrangements and said: “No one would throw their children out at 16, and our care system shouldn’t either.”
And finally, thousands of teachers in London, Cumbria, the South East, North East and South West are taking strike action today. Members of the NUT and NASUWT are striking in a row over their pay, pensions and working conditions. Christine Blower, NUT general secretary, said members had “no other choice” but to take action.