Daily roundup: Academy U-turn, female genital mutilation, and Teach First to expand

Governors at a London primary school have reversed their decision to convert to academy status. The National Union of Teachers (NUT) said Petts Hill Primary in Ealing, West London, had been due to become an academy school on 1 December, but governors changed their mind about the plans at a meeting last week after reviewing their initial decision. Christine Blower, general secretary of the NUT, said: “This is a clear demonstration that academy status can be opposed and local democratic accountability can be upheld.”
 
The Crown Prosecution Service has launched a 10-point action plan on improving prosecutions for female genital mutilation. It intends to “improve detection rates, strengthen investigations and get offenders into court”. The action plan outlines the need to gather more data on allegations so the scale of the problem can be gauged, and identify issues that have hindered investigations and prosecutions. Keir Starmer, director of public prosecutions, said: “It's critical that everything possible is done to ensure we bring the people who commit these offences against young girls and women to justice.”

A scheme to recruit top graduates into teaching is to be expanded, the Education Secretary Michael Gove has announced. Gove said the Teach First programme will expand into new areas including Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire by 2014. By 2015/16 the programme will aim to train 2,000 graduates as teachers – four times the number in 2010. “Teach First helps get some of our brightest graduates into some of our most challenging classrooms,” Gove said. “We are committed to supporting the charity in their efforts to reach more schools.”

Two London boroughs have moved a step closer to setting up a company to jointly manage their children’s services departments, after publishing detailed plans for the endeavour. The proposals for Richmond and Kingston councils, which have been drawn up over the last 18 months, will see Nick Whitfield, Richmond’s director of children’s services, take command of the new company from next April. The plans will be discussed at Kingston council next week, before going to Richmond council’s cabinet in December.

The number of families receiving working tax credits to top-up wages has risen by 50 per cent since 2003, a report has found. Research by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) found that 3.3 million families were in receipt of working tax credits in 2012, while a total of 6.1 million people live in a working household in poverty. Julia Unwin, chief executive of JRF, said: “The most distinctive characteristic of poverty today is the very high number of working people who are also poor. Tackling poverty requires a comprehensive strategy, but overcoming the frail jobs market must be the starting point.”

School children in Wales are to be taught about healthy relationships in an attempt to tackle domestic abuse. The BBC reports that the Welsh government’s white paper on changing attitudes towards domestic abuse includes a pledge to deliver education on “healthy relationships” in schools. The Ending Violence Against Women and Domestic Abuse Bill will also give councils and local health boards duties to assess what services are needed by victims in their areas.