School safeguarding, mental health, and healthy living

Child protection experts from Coventry Council are to visit 13 city schools in a bid to improve how they deal with suspected child abuse. Most of those schools were chosen after an audit by council child protection experts found their systems for dealing with concerns about possible child abuse were not sufficient. The checks arose from a report by Coventry Safeguarding Children’s Board into implementing recommendations made in the serious case review into the death of four-year-old Daniel Pelka, reports the Coventry Telegraph.

The Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has defended its decision to offer patients counselling sessions in Kent coffee shops. It said it wanted to ensure its child and adolescent mental health services were “as accessible as possible to young people”. But the MP for Tunbridge Wells and local parents told the Kent Courier they are concerned about psychiatric counselling and assessments are happening in public places like cafes.

Laws banning smoking in public places have had a positive impact on child health, an international study suggests. Researchers found a 10 per cent reduction in premature births and severe childhood asthma attacks within a year of smoke-free laws being introduced, the BBC reports. A research team analysed 11 previous studies from North America and Europe in what is one of the first large studies to look at how anti-smoking laws in different countries and states are affecting the health of children living in those regions.

The Department for Education is to move to a new central London office from 2017, Education Secretary Michael Gove has announced. The move from Sanctuary Buildings on Great Smithy Street to Old Admiralty Building in Whitehall will save £19m a year, £8.5m of which will go into the DfE's budget, the Evening Standard reports.

The vInspired national awards winners were announced last night at an evening ceremony at the O2 in London. The winners were: Best young volunteer: Kieran Strong, 14, Warminster; all round commitment to volunteering: Stephen Sutton, 18, Staffordshire; bringing communities together: John Humphreys, 25, Bournemouth; team activity: Positive Youth News, Haringey; outstanding contribution to youth work: Pauline King, Bradford; most outstanding NCS team NCS Bradford; and most outstanding social entrepreneur: Bethan Rimmington, 23, Sheffield.

Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee is the new president of the Community Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association (CPHVA). The CPHVA is a professional section in the health sector of the union Unite. Unite has 100,000 members in the health service.

And finally, instead of getting plenty of sleep during his first week in the job, new Action for Children chief executive Sir Tony Hawkhead spent Wednesday night sleeping rough. He was taking part in the CEO Sleepout, which aims to raise awareness about homelessness in the UK.