Daily roundup: Foster care legal challenge, clinical trials on children, and teacher training standards
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
A Welsh teenager in foster care fights for his rights in the Court of Appeal, high UK child mortality rate linked to lack of clinical trials, and government statistics on the calibre of trainee teachers, all in the news today.
A teenage boy in Wales has launched a legal challenge in the Court of Appeal after he was placed in foster care despite wanting to live with his mother. The BBC reports that the 15-year-old boy was placed in long-term foster care by Carmarthenshire Council after his mother said she wanted to work abroad. The Court of Appeal heard that the mother had hoped that the placement could be temporary until she returned home. The boy, who wants to return to his mother’s care, claims his rights were ignored by the family judge who presided over his case.
A reluctance to carry out clinical trials on children are contributing to the UK’s high child mortality rate, it has been claimed. A report by the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health argues that declining numbers of doctors involved in research projects, and “a fragile funding base”, are also to blame for the fact that child mortality for under fives is 30 per cent higher in the UK than the western Europe average. Professor Neena Modi, vice-president for science and research at the RCPCH, said: “We need to work together to effect a sea change in the recognition of the importance of child health research for the entire population.”
More than seven in ten trainee teachers now have a “high quality degree”, according to government figures published today. The Teaching Agency said the number of graduates with a 2:1 degree level or higher choosing to go in to teaching had risen by six per cent since 2011. This rise was recorded across all key English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects, including maths, physics, chemistry and modern languages. Education Secretary Michael Gove said nothing matters more than having a high-quality teacher in Having a high-quality teacher in each and every classroom. “These figures show we are on the right track to achieving this, especially in those key EBacc subjects,” he said.
Domestic abuse services are saving £2.90 for every £1 spent, despite coming under pressure from public sector funding cuts, research has found. A report by the charity Coordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse, claims that more lives and public money could be saved if specialist services were to become “mainstreamed” in the future. It also suggests that services should be located in hospitals, and that support for child and teenage victims of abuse must be improved.
vInspired and the music TV channel 4Music have unveiled a joint campaign to highlight youth unemployment. The partnership will last a year, promote volunteering as a career development tool, and offer online volunteering opportunities for young people through vInspired.com. 4Music will also air a series of short films about the benefits of volunteering and how it can make applicants more attractive to prospective employers.
More than one in ten of England’s professional elite attended the same ten private schools, research has found. The Sutton Trust analysed the backgrounds of 8,000 people who appeared in the birthday lists of national newspapers in 2011, and discovered ten leading independent schools accounted for 12 per cent of the group. Included in this list were Eton College, Westminster School and Harrow School. “This analysis shows how dominant leading universities and schools remain across the professions,” said Sir Peter Lampl, chair of the Sutton Trust and the Education Endowment Foundation. “That’s why it is so important that access to our leading schools and universities is on the basis of ability alone.”