Information Sharing

Wednesday's blog post talked about the role of children's trusts in coordinating services, so perhaps it's timely that this week the Government has chosen to issue some updated guidance on information sharing which is aimed at practitioners who work in health, education, or social care. The various booklets which have been released cover such topics as data protection, staying on the right side of the law, and ethical decision-making.

The central document is entitled Information Sharing: Guidance for Practitioners and Managers, and supersedes the previous advice issued by the Government in this area. There is also a shorter Pocket Guide version available, as well as a collection of case examples, and some further guidance on legal issues.

Family Support Workers

Today's post is aimed at our students on the Family Support Workers foundation degree course. I spoke with some of you in the library on Monday and it was mentioned that while many of you look at the blog regularly, you'd like to see more posts relating specifically to your course rather than general childcare issues. While in some ways this issue is out of my control as I usually just write about whatever is making the headlines (and children's issues are in the news a lot), here's a couple of pointers for you.

The first group of students who started this course last year were also interested in finding out more about good online information, and so I wrote a post for them with links to all of the best research websites in your subject; all of the sites that were covered are still very relevant 12 months on, so you can look at what's recommended in your area by clicking here. Also, if you look at the 'Hot Topics' list on the right hand side of this page and click on the 'Families' link you'll see that all of the posts on here that are relevant to your course are listed; among these are links to reports on Family Intervention projects, drug use in families and communities, family spending, and much more. Of course, new reports on family-related issues will be covered on the blog as and when they appear.

Are We There Yet?

Today's post title is nothing to do with children in the back seat of a car...

In 2003 the Victoria Climbie Inquiry delivered its final report into the circumstances of her death. Among its recommendations to prevent a recurrence of such an event was a proposal (later taken up by the Government) to establish children's trusts which would provide better outcomes for children and young people by coordinating children's services in every local area.

However, a new report from the Audit Commission suggests that the new children's trusts have not been effective; among the issues highlighted are a lack of clear direction and slow progress to date. The report, which is entitled Are We There Yet? is available online, or you can also look at a summary of the main points.

Children's Survey / Gifted Children

Ofsted has just published its annual Tellus3 survey which asks 10-15 year olds in England a range of questions covering the five Every Child Matters outcomes about their lives, concerns, and general wellbeing. You can read about some of the most interesting findings by looking at this news story, while the full figures are available by following this link, and then clicking on the pdf icon.

Also new is some research from the Sutton Trust which claims that one of the keys to improving the chances of gifted poorer children is to provide more effective careers advice. The report which contains these conclusions is entitled Increasing Higher Education Participation Amongst Disadvantaged Young People and Schools in Poor Communities. The Sutton Trust has also addressed the issue of poorer children in another recent report, Low Income Pupils in High Performing Comprehensive Schools.

New Child Poverty Research

Child poverty is one of those topics that seems to be perenially in the news, but even those who follow it closely may be surprised to learn that according to a new piece of research, from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, child poverty is costing Britain £25 billion pounds a year. This figure apparently takes into account government spending to alleviate the problem, the cost of benefits paid out to the public, a lack of taxes and national insurance contributions, and a lack of productive output.

The report which makes these claims is online now and is entitled Estimating the Costs of Child Poverty. Many of its conclusions have been drawn from evidence gathered in three other publications; these are The GDP Cost of the Lost Earning Potential of Adults who Grew Up in Poverty, The Costs of Child Poverty for Individuals and Society: A Literature Review (a good source of references for any of you studying this area!), and The Public Service Costs of Child Poverty.

Every Child Matters article

Today's post is simply to point you towards an article which appeared in yesterday's Guardian, which some of you may find interesting. Changes for the Better interviews several professionals who work with young people to ask them how children's services have changed in the five years since the publication of Every Child Matters.

Children's Emotional Development and Wellbeing

The Office for National Statistics has just released a lengthy new report entitled Three Years On, which takes a detailed look at the development and emotional well-being of children and young people. The report has made headlines for it's claim that children whose parents have separated are more likely to develop emotional disorders, although it also deals with a wide range of other issues relating to the mental health of young people. You can read a summary of it's findings online, or the full report is available by clicking on this link and then clicking on 'Download'.

For further information and research on children's mental health, try looking at this previous post from July last year, or this one from January. The Knowing Where to Look booklet which has been produced by the Young Minds charity is also very helpful.

Families & Relationships

The Centre for Research on Families and Relationships (CRFR) is a department of the University of Edinburgh. Research carried out by the Centre spans a wide range of topics, such as parenting styles, the treatment of older generations and cohabitation. Although much of their published output focuses primarily on Scotland, there are still many useful documents on the website which students may find useful; try clicking on the 'Research' or 'Publications' links from the homepage and see what's available.

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Children

Today's post may be the longest this blog has ever seen; last months issue of OnTheWeb (see this previous post for details of this excellent service) was packed with reports that students may find useful, covering topics such as mathematics, child obesity, preschool education, play, and much more. So without further ado, here's a list of new publications that may be worth a look:

• Mathematics: Understanding The Score is a new report from Ofsted which looks at how maths is currently being taught in UK schools
• Schemes to Promote Healthy Weight among Obese and Overweight Children in England examines the different ways in which the issue of overweight children is being addressed
• How to Halve Child Poverty by 2010: Options for Redirecting Resources to Reduce Child Poverty is a new report from Barnardo's
• 'Fun and Freedom' is the latest report from the Children's Commissioner's Office, and looks at what children have to say about their play experiences and the facilities available to them
• PreSchool Education and it's Lasting Effects: Research and Policy Implications is an interesting new publication from Arizona State University in the UK
• The OECD has published Raising Education Achievement and Breaking the Cycle of Inequality in the United Kingdom
• The Centre for Policy Studies has recently issued some research entitled Youth Mentoring: A Good Thing?
• Working with Challenging and Disruptive Situations in Residential Child Care: Sharing Effective Practice is a new publication from the Social Care Institute of Excellence (SCIE)
• Literacy Changes Lives: An Advocacy Resource is a National Literacy Trust report which looks at the relationship between a child's literacy ability and their achievement later in life
• The latest official statistics on Drug Use, Smoking and Drinking Among Young People in England are now available from the NHS
• Grief Matters for Young Asylum Seekers and Refugees examines the support services available for children who have lost parents or siblings while moving between countries
• For All Ages: Bringing Different Generations Closer Together is a new report from the '4 Children' charity
• Early Intervention: Good Parents, Great Kids, Better Citizens is the latest publication from the Centre for Social Justice

Phew! Normal service will be resumed tomorrow...

The Millennium Cohort Study

The Millennium Cohort Study is a huge ongoing project which is examining the social conditions which today's children will encounter as they grow up, and so looks at a wide range of topics such as education, parenting, social class and more. The project is so named because it gathers its data from observations of over 18,000 children born in the 12 months from 1st September 2000.

The latest report from the project suggests that girls have an established educational lead over boys even before they start school at the age of five. Although this claim is the one that has caught the headlines, the report also contains information about families, child health, child poverty and much more. As a snapshot of children's lives in the UK today, this is a wonderful resource.

The new report is the third study to be released by the project, and can be accessed by clicking here and following the appropriate link. To look at the previous reports, the first study and second study are also available online (again, you'll need to follow the links here and then click on the PDF symbols, as I'm unable to provide direct links).

ICT in Secondary Schools

Today's post is for our ICT bods. Last month Becta produced a series of reports on the subject of Web 2.0 within secondary school (for an explanation of 'Web 2.0', see this previous post). Each report considers different aspects of how such technologies can be used within schools, and their possible impacts on existing practices. Issues such as e-safety, learning styles, and future directions of learning and teaching are all discussed at length. To look at the separate reports, just click on the links below.

• Web 2.0 Technologies for Learning at Key Stages 3 and 4: Summary Report

• Implementing Web 2.0 in Secondary Schools: Impacts, Barriers and Issues

• E-Safety and Web 2.0

Children & Young Person's Bill

This week the Children & Young Person's Bill received another reading in the House of Commons, which means it is one step closer to becoming law; the Bill contains various measures intended to improve the planning and delivery of services for children in care. There are still various points which MPs are discussing so the final shape of the law that will be introduced is not yet clear, but you can read the Bill in it's present form by clicking here.

Poverty & The Media

Occasionally students make enquiries about how the media reports on early years or social issues, so if you're doing research in that area then today's post should interest you. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has recently published The Media, Poverty and Public Opinion in the UK, which makes a detailed analysis of media activity in this area, and the effect that it has on people's perceptions.

Also released at the same time was Reporting Poverty in the UK; while this report is actually aimed at journalists, it does contain some useful definitions of poverty, facts and statistics, and suggestions for sources of further information.

Round Up

I was away for most of last week, so here's a quick summary of some of the new reports and research which came out during that time:

• A report from the UN's Committee on the Rights of the Child made 120 recommendations for improving the rights of children in the UK; among its recommendations were calls for a ban on all corporal punishment and raising the age of responsibility. You can read the conclusions of the report by clicking here, also available are summaries from the BBC and the Guardian.
• The End Child Poverty campaign released new figures which show that 174 constituencies in the UK contain 50% of children living in or on the brink of poverty. In addition, there are areas of particular concentration in Birmingham and Glasgow where child poverty can run at higher than 80%. This map provides an overall picture of the situation across the UK.
• The 11th annual report of the British Education Suppliers Association (BESA) has suggested that many primary and secondary schools consider themselves underequipped with regards to their ICT provision. A summary of the findings is available by following this link and clicking on the PDF symbol.
• Children's Experience of Private Fostering is a new report published by Ofsted.
• Also new from Ofsted is Learning Outside the Classroom, which examines current provision in schools and colleges, and how they can overcome barriers in this area.

Sage Journals - Special Offer

This is just a short post to inform all readers that if you log onto Athens and choose the Sage Journals site, you will be able to access all of the articles there in full until the end of October. Sage has a lot of content that relates to education, childcare, social issues and social sciences, so if you're currently working on an assignment (or especially if you're preparing to write your dissertation) then now would be an excellent time to take a look at Sage and see what you can find.