Daily roundup: Alcohol abuse, nursery inspections, and classroom behaviour
Neil Puffett
Wednesday, March 5, 2014
Council seeks compensation for looked-after child affected by mother's drinking; third of early years providers rated less than good; and teacher suspended for taping noisy pupils' mouths shut, all in the news today.
A pioneering compensation claim on behalf of a child who was severely damaged by her mother's heavy drinking during pregnancy is to go before the court of appeal. Permission has been given for the court to hear allegations that the mother ignored warnings from social workers and antenatal medical staff that her heavy alcohol consumption risked harming her unborn baby, the Guardian reports. The lawsuit is being filed by a local authority in north-west England, which cares for the child, who is now six years old, against the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority. It maintains the mother's action constituted the crime of poisoning under section 23 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861.
Figures from Ofsted, show a third of nurseries and childminders were considered to be no better than satisfactory by inspectors. Inspections of more than 17,400 providers between 1 September 2012 and 31 October 2013 rated 25 per cent as "satisfactory" and eight per cent as "inadequate", reports the BBC. The figures, an update on those published in December, show 60 per cent were found to be "good", while seven per cent were considered "outstanding".
A primary school teacher has been suspended for taping over the mouths of her 10-year-old pupils after they refused to stop giggling and talking. The teacher allegedly put layers of sticky tape across their lips of 20 pupils at the Somerset school because they were being too noisy. The Daily Mail reports that parents said children were left with bleeding lips when the tape was removed, and several said that they were scared about returning to school.
Children who speak English as a second language are outperforming native speakers for the first time in GCSE exams, according to latest figures. Schools minister Lord Nash said pupils who speak English as an additional language are gaining better results than other children in the English Baccalaureate, the Daily Mail reports. The worst performing group was white British boys from working class families.
Latest figures show that 3,551 under-fives were present at domestic violence incidents to which Cleveland Police officers were called last year. A further 1,900 six to 18-year-olds were in the home when police arrived to a report of abuse in the family home. The figures have been released by Cleveland Police as part of a national In Focus week, which highlights the effects of domestic abuse and the services available to support victims, the Gazette reports.
Cornwall Council has defended its decision to put two morbidly obese children into care.
The local authority said during the past five years, two children from the county who are morbidly obese were placed into care for their own protection – but insists other factors were involved in both instances. "We can confirm that two children were taken into care where obesity was a factor," Jack Cordery, head of children's social care services at Cornwall Council, told thisiscornwall.
