Daily roundup: School safeguarding, child protection and young carers

Experts have said that new statutory safeguarding guidance for schools fails to recognise the opportunity to teach children how to keep themselves safe. Sexual health charity Brook, the PSHE Association and Sex Education Forum has issued a joint statement saying that the government guidance “misses a huge opportunity”. They say it only makes a passing reference to teaching sex and relationships education (SRE) despite a previous Ofsted report making a link between the quality of SRE and children's vulnerability to sexual abuse.

A High Court judge is considering an application from social workers for two young children currently being placed for adoption to be given completely new identities to prevent their abusive parents tracking them down. The Telegraph reports that the social workers also want to sever all contact between the children, aged two and three, and their five older brothers and sisters to make it more difficult for their parents, who are currently in prison for abuse, to find them.

Carers Trust has announced 21 projects that will receive £43,000 each through the first tranche of grants to provide services for young adult carers. The grants to carers’ centres and schemes are the first to be awarded in the About Time programme, which aims to transform the lives of 20,000 young adult carers aged 14 to 25 across the UK and is funded by the Co-operative group. In total there will be at least 50 grants awarded over the next two years.

Figures obtained by the Labour party show that just four per cent of those eligible for a government funded parenting scheme took part. The CanParent scheme, which saw parents given £100 to spend on classes, ended up costing £1,088 per parent, as just 2,000 of the 55,200 eligible took them up. The CanParent initiative offered classes for every parent and carer of children up to the age of five in three local authorities - Middlesbrough, Camden and High Peak between June 2012 and March 2014, the BBC reports.

Four out of five educational psychologists (EP) surveyed by the government last year reported demand for their services outstripped staff capacity. The Association of Educational Psychologists called the finding “worrying”, but added that it vindicated the government’s decision to increase EP training places.

Shane Danger, a member of children’s communication charity I CAN’s Talk about Talk project, won the Communication Champion award at the Shine a Light Awards yesterday. The 20-year-old from Yeovil, was featured in the 4-17 March issue of CYP Now talking about how he has benefited from being involved in the project. Shane’s award also shows that his work has helped other young people and groups.