Daily roundup: Further education cuts, tax credits and drugs statistics

Cuts to further education are depriving young people of the chance to contribute fully to society, Unison has warned. According to freedom of information requests sent to all 248 further education colleges in England, 60 per cent of institutions have closed courses and 70 per cent are experiencing falling rolls. Many colleges blamed the drop in student numbers on the loss of the education maintenance allowance.

The UK’s deepening recession is likely to have been exacerbated by the £3bn cuts to tax credits that have hit families since in April, the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) has claimed. The charity has called for ministers to “urgently reconsider” welfare cuts and do more to create jobs and help parents move into work by providing better childcare. 

Drug and alcohol use among 11- to 15-year-old school pupils has dropped since 2001, the latest NHS statistics have shown. The figures show that in 2011, 17 per cent of pupils had taken drugs at some point, compared with 29 per cent in 2001. There were also falls in the number of pupils who reported taking drugs in the last year and the last month. Meanwhile the proportion of pupils who drank alcohol in the last week fell from 26 per cent in 2001 to 12 per cent in 2011.

The Children’s Commissioner for England has called for action to address an “over representation” of children with special educational needs (SEN) and black and ethnic minority children among exclusion figures. Maggie Atkinson said “it cannot be right” that children with SEN are nine times more likely to be excluded and black and ethnic minority children three times more likely.

A local authority’s plan to privatise all its youth centres has a received a big thumbs down in a public consultation, according to the South Gloucestershire Gazette. The council also wants to invite bids from organisations to run nine of its 15 Sure Start centres, as part of a drive to make savings of around £1.65m, but almost two thirds of local residents are against proposals.

The National Offender Management Service (NOMS) is to produce a commissioning strategy for young adult offenders aged 18-24, justice minister Lord McNally has said. Up until now the service has only focussed on identifying what type of intervention programmes work with adult offenders in general. The move has been welcomed by the Transition to Adulthood Alliance (T2A), which is currently running three pilot schemes on reducing offending among 16-to 24-year-olds.