Daily roundup: Seaside towns, social media and Neets
Gabriella Jozwiak, Neil Puffett, Tristan Donovan
Friday, August 23, 2013
More money for deprived coastal towns, warning over children posting self-portraits online, and fewer Neet young people, all in the news today
Struggling seaside towns are to receive additional funding to address issues including deprivation, the Independent reports. The Treasury announced that the Coastal Communities Fund will be worth £29m from 2014, an increase of five per cent from last year.
Young people who post pictures of themselves on social media sites such as Facebook risk damaging their self-confidence, a clinical psychologist has warned. Doctor Jessamy Hibberd told the Telegraph the practice of publishing 'selfie' photographs in order to gain online 'likes' or comments could also lead to cyberbullying.
There has been a fall in the number of teenagers not in education, employment or training (Neet) in England. The BBC reports that figures for the second quarter of this year show the proportion of 16- to 18-year-olds who were Neet was 9.1 per cent, down 1.4 percentage points on the same quarter in 2012.
A special educational needs school criticised by Ofsted for its handling of a pupil’s claim of rape is to close. A letter issued by Stanbridge Earls School in Hampshire states that insufficient finances and a lack of parents taking up places had forced the decision.
Police and crime commissioners should be able to hire and fire prison governors, a report has suggested. The Policy Exchange think tank says the 41 Commissioners in England and Wales are currently operating “with one arm tied behind their backs” because they have no influence over important parts of the criminal justice system
And finally, nine per cent of children get their first mobile phone at the age of five according to a poll of 1,420 parents by comparison website uSwitch. Sky News reports that the survey found that the average child gets their first phone at 11 and under 16s spend an average of £11 per month on their mobiles.