Examining the Covid-19 impact on children in care this Children's Mental Health Week

Discussions for Children’s Mental Health week have never been more important than this year. As we enter 2021, we leave behind us a truly unpredictable year, only with months of uncertainty ahead – it’s no wonder the conversation around young people’s mental health is a top priority. The mental health of this generation’s children has never been more critical, or more precarious. But what about children in the care system? Often overlooked in the wider discussion on young people’s mental health, the pandemic has brought heightened struggles. Many looked after children are suffering from the trauma of constant change, uncertainty, fear and distrust i...

EARLY INTERVENTION INVESTMENT COULD SAVE COUNCILS £7BN

EARLY INTERVENTION INVESTMENT COULD SAVE COUNCILS £7BN, RESEARCHERS SAY Joe Lepper Thursday, April 15, 2021 Councils in England with above-average rates of looked-after children could save a total of £7bn over the next decade by focusing on early intervention policies that target vulnerable families, according to researchers. Early intervention services could prevent poor mental health outcomes for looked-after children, research shows. Picture: Adobe Stock The research focuses on the long-term savings that can be achieved through early intervention strategies across four areas, which have a higher than England's average rate...

MPS CALL TO END USE OF HANDCUFFS ON CHILDREN IN CARE

Dozens of MPs have joined forces to call on the government to ban the use of handcuffs on children in care. MPs have called for an end to handcuffing children in care. Picture: Adobe Stock Ministers are backing the Hope Instead of Handcuffs campaign, launched by emily aklan, chief executive of children’s social care provider Serenity Welfare, which is calling for legislation allowing a child in care to be handcuffed during secure transportation to be scrapped....   View Full Article...

Children in care are being handcuffed on their way to school and foster homes

Children in care are being handcuffed on their way to school and foster homes Children in care can be handcuffed under the law as a last resort. Image: Pixabay MPs are backing a campaign to make private companies accountable for handcuffing children in care while transporting them. MPs want to ban vulnerable children as young as 10 from being handcuffed and “treated like animals” while being taken to and from school and foster homes. Private companies transporting children between care and foster homes, schools and hospitals – often in “caged” vehicles – are legally allowed to handcuff and physically restrain them as a last resort to stop a...

CARE-EXPERIENCED YOUNG PEOPLE MORE LIKELY TO RECEIVE CRIMINAL CONVICTION THAN PEERS, FIGURES SHOW

More than half of looked-after children born in 1994 had a criminal conviction by the time they were 24, official figures have shown. The data, published by the Office for National Statistics, shows that 52 per cent of care-experienced young people were handed a criminal conviction by age 24, compared with 13 per cent of their non care experienced peers of the same age. One in seven care experienced children, whose data was examined for the research, received an immediate custodial sentence by the time they were 24, compared with one per cent of young people with no experience of care of the same age. Special report: Social, emotional and mental health...

Britain’s most inspiring women in business crowned at national awards

The business women leading the way in their industries have been named in the second annual Great British Businesswoman Awards. The programme launched in 2021 to recognise the growing number of trailblazing women in business leadership and entrepreneurship, champion their peers and advocates, and inspire the next generation of businesswomen. In 2021, over 140,000 female-founded companies were established, a figure that is growing by a third every year, and the number of women in leadership positions in FTSE 100 companies increased to 32.5%, from 30.6% in 2020. It’s thought that this increase in representation of women in business could unlock a huge amount...