Daily roundup: Childcare funding, youth homelessness and school dinners
Tristan Donovan
Friday, June 21, 2013
Survey shows free childcare funding gap, no referrals for 60 per cent of young claiming 'housing need', and closure threat for thousands of school canteens, all in the news today.
A widening gap in government funding for free early years places is pushing up the cost of childcare, according to a National Day Nurseries Association survey carried out in partnership with Nursery World. The survey found that the average rate of funding nurseries receive for providing free places for two-year-olds is £4.89 per child per hour – under the indicative rate of £5.09 set by the government.
Almost six out of 10 young people who approached councils with housing needs were not referred directly to children’s services, according to a report by Homeless Link. The charity’s No Excuses report also said that 17 per cent of homeless 16 and 17 year olds are being placed in unsuitable accommodation.
As many as 8,000 primary school canteens in England could be at risk of closure. Sky News said the canteens are under threat because they are losing money and head teachers are finding them to be a drain on school finances. The founders of the restaurant chain Leon, who are advising the government on school meals, have called on schools in trouble to seek help rather than shut their canteens.
The Care Quality Commission has named the officials alleged to have been involved in a cover up of its failures over child deaths at a Cumbria hospital, BBC News reports. The NHS regulator named its former chief executive Cynthia Bower, deputy chief executive Jill Finney and media manager Anna Jefferson has being being present at a meeting where the burying of a critical internal report was discussed. Bower and Jefferson have denied involvement. Finney has yet to comment.
And finally, children in London are the more likely than those from other parts of England to go onto higher education, according to statistics released by the Department for Education. The figures, which cover the 2010/11 academic year, found that 56 per cent of school leavers in London went on to attend a higher education institution, three percentage points ahead of the North West. The South West had the lowest proportion of young people entering higher education at 40 per cent.
