The Ferret: Taking a pop at fizzy drinks ban consultation
The Ferret
Tuesday, September 25, 2018
It seems some government departments have yet to get their heads around the Civil Society Strategy. Launched to great fanfare by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) in August, it sets out the government's ambition to involve children and young people more in decision-making about the design of services.
However, the strategy must have not yet reached the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), based a full 300 metres away from the DCMS's offices in central London. When launching recently a consultation on ending the sale of energy drinks to children, there was no mention in the document of canvassing the views of children and young people on the issue.
The glaring omission raised the ire of youth services campaigner James Cathcart, who lambasted the DHSC and health minister Steve Brine on social media, calling for them to extend the consultation to schools and youth councils.
Speaking to Ferret, Cathcart said: "My point is about the approach to engagement - which they articulated in the Civil Society Strategy on one hand in DCMS but have totally undermined that commitment by grouping all children/teens/young people together as one group whom they want to consult about with everyone else EXCEPT them."
Well said! Over to you, minister!
Selling the merits of the youth justice system
There are not many things Ferret looks to the US for inspiration at the moment. However, our Transatlantic cousins rarely miss a trick for selling merchandise. And by the look of the Global Youth Justice movement, it seems this applies to children's services as much as any other part of the US economy.
Global Youth Justice advocates for organisations and practitioners involved in the system and is keen to promote approaches that involve young people in the functioning of the judicial system. That's certainly something Ferret supports and there are a number of excellent examples of such schemes happening on these shores.
However, there's none that Ferret knows of that promotes itself by selling merchandise emblazoned with "peer court", "teen court" or "youth court" as Global Youth Justice does. Advocates of youth courts can display their commitment through buying T-shirts, sweaters, bags and hoodies displaying the logo and maxim.
Perhaps the Youth Justice Board or Youth Custody Service should try something similar here!
DfE needs to revisit its uniform approach
There are times of the year when the press's gaze turns onto schools. Exam results is one, as is the publication of league tables. Another can now be added to that list: clashes between parents, teachers and children over school uniforms in the first week of the academic year.
A quick online search reveals dozens of articles published in the national and local press about pupils sent home or barred from attending class due to wearing the wrong trousers or shoes, or having hair that is too long or tall!
Perhaps the most ridiculous involved Ryders Hayes Primary School in Walsall which, according to reports, rigorously enforced its new uniform policy causing much anger among parents - apparently, children had been coming to school with large bags and coats causing a health and safety hazard, so the school came up with a uniform that would be suitable to fit into lockers.
The DfE needs to revisit its guidance to schools on uniform if some sanity is to return so that children don't miss education for such trivial matters. Perhaps then newspapers will turn their attention to more important issues, such as cuts to teaching assistants and growing class sizes.
DfE toolkit can't solve school funding crisis
Talking of more important education stories, school leaders were left fuming by Education Secretary Damian Hinds' suggestion that the school funding crisis can be solved by better budgeting. The DfE has even come up with a funding toolkit to help schools strip out all that excessive spending on, well, staff mainly.
"The majority of schools have already pared their outgoings and costs down to the bone, and even with bulk purchasing and other economies of scale, they cannot match the scale of the problem facing schools," says Nansi Ellis, assistant general secretary of the National Education Union.
"As a result of a lack of government funding, schools have cut staff, increased class sizes, dropped subjects from the curriculum, cut school trips, postponed building repairs and cut back on resources."
Ferret wonders how feasible it is for a toolkit to solve the £2bn school funding black hole?
Online bullying campaign uses shock tactics
A campaign to highlight the impact of online bullying wanted people to reflect back to their own childhood experiences. The campaign, devised by "disruption company" TBWA\Helsinki for the Finnish Children and Youth Foundation, saw a digital billboard at the Kamppi Shopping Center replaced with a mirror. When passers-by looked into the mirror, insults began to appear on top of their reflection. These were authentic comments taken from real online conversations. Foundation executive director Olli Alanen said the campaign aimed to highlight how online bullying is no longer limited by place or time and "can intrude every moment of the day, never leaving the harassed alone".