Daily roundup: Hugging children, healthy diets, and benefit cap
Gabriella Jozwiak
Monday, August 12, 2013
Health minister calls on nurseries to reverse 'no-hugging' policies; concerns raised over long-term impact of too little fruit and veg in children's diets; and LGA report shows impact of cuts in household benefit, all in the news today.
A health minister has called on nurseries that ban physical contact with children to rethink their policies. According to the Telegraph, Dan Poulter who works as a hospital doctor in women’s and children’s health, said research that showed nurseries are telling staff not to cuddle or comfort children was “alarming”. “There is increasingly strong evidence to suggest that a lack of emotional support and physical reassurance from parents and carers during the early years can be damaging to a child's health, wellbeing, and future life chances,” Poulter said.
The British Heart Foundation has warned that children face serious health problems in later life because they are not eating enough fruit and vegetables and are not doing enough exercise. Sky News reports that the BHF report, alongside Oxford University research, estimates that 30 per cent of children and young people are overweight or obese, which can lead to problems including diabetes and heart disease.
A study carried out for the Local Government Association, shows that by 2015/16 the income of households claiming benefit will be lower on average by £1,615 per year (£31 per week). However, a shortage of jobs and affordable homes in many areas means that four out of every five of those households are likely to need some form of assistance from their council to help them cope with the reduction in welfare. It is estimated that the combined impact of housing reforms on these tenants is likely to be £1 billion each year, but government has pledged less than £200m to councils to offset the benefit cuts.
Ofsted has ordered Somerset County Council to take urgent action to improve child protection services. A report by the watchdog, following an inspection in June, calls for the council to "review all children on child protection plans to ensure that the measures taken to protect them are sufficient and effective". The inspectors found that Somerset's service to protect children was inadequate, reports This is Somerset.
Almost a fifth of children who use social networking sites suffered a negative experience last year, the NSPCC has found. A survey of more than 1,000 11- to 16-year-olds also showed large numbers of users of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were under the minimum age of 13. The BBC reports that the full results of the research will be published in November.
More than half of young people would opt to do an apprenticeship if it were available, a study has shown. Research commissioned by the National Apprenticeship Service found that 54 per cent of young people in England would choose an apprenticeship if one were available. This rises to 56 per cent for those who are already university students and 66 per cent of those who are already employed, but receiving no training.