Interesting links, articles, news and blog posts sent out to members on 17/04/25.
Report: Youth Violence and Social Media – Youth Select Committee
April 2025. “As a group of young people, we feel passionately about this issue, and have set out to better understand the impacts of social media on young people, the impact of youth violence, and what can be done to prevent that violence in the first instance”:
Report: Invest in Childhood – Centre for Mental Health
April 2025. This report explores the available evidence about how government can use its powers to boost children’s mental health, investing in what works, and stewarding its resources wisely:
Article: Playing and exploring outdoors brings risk – and that’s good for children – The Conversation
14 April 2025, Adele Doran, John Allan and Josephine Booth. “When climbing trees, building dens, riding a bike fast, constructing rafts to float on water, or exploring a woodland, children make their own decisions on which risks to take and which to avoid. This empowers children to be decisive and independent in other situations, such as in their transition to secondary school, rather than relying on adult prompting or direction”:
Article: More than £65 million in early years funding not spent on places in 2023/24 – Nursery World
10 April 2025, Katy Morton. An investigation by the National Day Nurseries Association (NDNA) into early years funding for two to five-year-olds across England reveals council underspends of millions of pounds at a time when settings are facing large hikes in costs:
Article: Leave school phone bans to head teachers, children’s commissioner says – BBC News Online
10 April 2025, Hazel Shearing. Banning phones in schools should be a decision for head teachers and not “imposed nationally by the government”, England’s children’s commissioner has said:
Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly11270npeo
News: Half of England’s state secondaries forced to cut staff in budget squeeze, poll finds – Guardian Online
10 April 2025, Sally Weale. More schools also reducing spending on trips, IT, extracurricular activities and GCSE subject choices:
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/apr/10/england-secondary-schools-staff-budget-cuts
Article: Child sexual exploitation and abuse is a multibillion-dollar industry – new report shows who benefits – The Conversation
9 April 2025, Deborah Fry. The sexual exploitation and abuse of children has become a multibillion-dollar global trade. The chilling reality of this profit-driven, highly lucrative industry is laid bare by new findings from the University of Edinburgh’s Childlight Global Child Safety Institute:
Policy paper: Tackling child sexual abuse: progress update – Home Office
9 April 2025. An update on the government’s work to tackle child sexual abuse and respond to the recommendations of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA):
Link: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tackling-child-sexual-abuse-progress-update
Article: Local authorities’ reduced spending on Family Hubs risks Govt’s school readiness target, warns think tank – Nursery World
9 April 2025, Katy Morton. New data from the Centre for Young Lives reveals funding cuts to Family Hubs and children’s centres, which it warns puts the Government’s Opportunity Mission at risk:
Article: BBC programme into safety of nurseries claims children are in ‘danger’ as settings able to ‘manipulate’ Ofsted inspections – Nursery World
7 April 2025, Katy Morton. A new BBC Panaroma programme examining the safety of nurseries claims thousands of children are being harmed by nursery staff as settings ‘manipulate’ Ofsted inspections:
Article: There have been almost 20,000 reports of serious childcare incidents in nurseries in England in the past five years, the BBC has found – BBC News Online
6 April 2025, Hayley Hassall, Eleanor Layhe and Alan Haslam. The parents of a baby who was killed at a nursery have told the BBC they want stronger safeguarding measures to be introduced: