Daily roundup 14 June: Abuse cases, Ofsted and law firm apology
Jess Brown and Adam Offord
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Children's commissioner to call for rethink on how to interview children in abuse cases; Ofsted backtracks on reason for not challenging school; and law firm apologises over gloating tweets, all in the news today.
?The Children's Commissioner for England will call for a radical rethink of the way children are interviewed in abuse cases, at a meeting later. The BBC reports that Anne Longfield thinks the current system can add to the trauma for children, with some facing hostile cross-examination by defence lawyers. She wants to see the introduction of "children's houses" - a method used in Iceland where complainants have a single interview.?
Ofsted has changed its account of why it failed to properly assess the safety of pupils at a school run by a Muslim sect. Sky News reports that Ofsted's national director of education, Sean Harford, initially said the inspector did not challenge the school when they said they were celebrating Eid and he could not talk to pupils. But Harford has now said the inspector "felt unable to talk to pupils".
A law firm that specialises in contesting claims for children with special educational needs has apologised after publishing a series of tweets that appeared to gloat at parents. The Guardian reports Baker Small, a law firm that acts for local authorities, triggered anger among parents of children with disabilities with the remarks made on social media last weekend. It has since deleted them and made a donation to charity.?
Young people have been "let down" by the closure of a sexual health clinic in Sheffield, the chief executive of a youth sexual health charity has said. The Sheffield Star reports that Steve Slack of The Sheena Amos Youth Trust, said young people will be left with "little provision" for sexual advice, testing and contraception.
Cuts to funding for children's centres in Cambridgeshire could see spend per child fall to half of neighbouring areas, a report by the county's head of family work has found. Cambridge News reports that the proposed cuts to the country's children's centres budget from £6.3m to £2.5m would work out at £65 investment per child, compared to £157 in Hertfordshire, £151 in Northamptonshire and £126 in Luton.
Unions representing youth and community workers across England and Wales have called for an end to the fall in youth worker pay. The call by Unite, UNISON, the National Union of Teachers, and University College Union, which represent staff on the Joint Negotiating Committee for youth and community workers, comes in their joint annual pay claim calling for a £1,000 pay rise on all pay grades and allowances from September 2016.?
