Daily roundup: Police detention, adoption leadership, and self-harm
Neil Puffett
Tuesday, January 14, 2014
Police detain children in cells unlawfully; new ceo of voluntary adoption agencies consortium announced; and self-harm rates higher among students with poor GCSE results, all in the news today.
Police forces are breaching the law by detaining children in police cells overnight, a leading police officer has said. The BBC reports that Manchester assistant chief constable Dawn Copley told a group of MPs that police and councils needed to be reminded of their statutory duties that should prevent the practice from taking place.
Mark Owers has been appointed as chief executive of the Consortium of Voluntary Adoption Agencies (CVAA). Owers had previously worked in a senior leadership role at Core Assets Children's Services alongside being a director at CVAA. He will take up the new role on 3 March.
Young people with fewer than five A to C GCSEs are more likely to self-harm than those with good results, the Prince's Trust has warned. The charity surveyed 2,161 16- to 25-year-olds finding that one in five said they did things like cut or burn themselves. For young people with poor GCSE results, the rate rose to nearly one in three, Radio 1 Newsbeat reports.
A specialist nursery earmarked for closure by Kent County Council will remain open. According to Kent Online, the Children’s Resource Centre for children with severe, complex and life limiting illnesses and disorders was saved following a campaign by local residents.
A survey claiming that the cost of childcare has risen by 19 per cent over the past year has been dismissed by the early years sector. Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of the National Day Nurseries Association, and Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Pre-school Learning Alliance, both say that the findings of the findababysitter.com survey fail to reflect the reality of childcare provision because it excludes early years providers and childminders.
The BBC Proms has launched a competition searching for budding young composers aged 12- to 18-years-old. The BBC Proms Inspire Young Composers’ Competition gives young musicians the opportunity to have their music performed by professionals and broadcast on BBC Radio 3. Deadline for entries is 22 May.