Home Office accused of leaving mothers and traumatised children stranded for months while priority is given to Ukraine refugees
British couples who travelled to Pakistan to adopt children have been left stranded after the Home Office told them to expect months of delays in processing visas because of the Ukraine refugee crisis.
The delays are part of wider failings in visa processing that have left families around the world stuck waiting to return to the UK.
Continue reading...Report singles out failings by police and council and suggests senior officials may have misled MPs
Vulnerable children were left exposed to sexual exploitation in Oldham because of “serious failings” by the police and council, a damning independent review has found.
The report found there were multiple missed opportunities to prevent abuse stretching back to 2005, including offences committed by a council welfare officer who was later convicted of 30 rapes.
Continue reading...Bold experiment uses sport to boost social mobility while bringing organised games to state schools
St Paul’s and Winchester are facing a new rivalry at fives – the handball game that for hundreds of years has largely been the preserve of the most rarified public schools.
Children at Stoke Newington school in Hackney, east London, are leading a new wave of state school rugby fives players who have started training to take on their privileged counterparts in matches that will reach across one of the UK’s most entrenched social divides.
Continue reading...UN expert says minors have been beaten and forced to endure mock executions
Scores of children have been killed in Myanmar since last year’s coup, not just in the crossfire of conflict but as deliberate targets of a military willing to inflict immense suffering, a United Nations expert has said.
Minors had been beaten and stabbed and had fingernails or teeth removed during interrogation, while some were made to endure mock executions, according to a report published on Tuesday from the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews.
Continue reading...Children’s and refugees charities raise concerns after detention of three children misjudged as adults in offshoring programme
Concerns are mounting that children wrongly assessed as adults by the Home Office could end up being offshored to Rwanda.
The Guardian understands that three age-disputed children who the Home Office declared to be adults and detained in preparation for offshoring to Rwanda have now been released. It is understood that concerns have been raised about whether at least three more detainees threatened with removal to the east African country are children rather than adults.
Continue reading...Analysis: in a botched upgrade the fruit and veg Healthy Start scheme turned away numerous eligible low-income families
As the cost of living crisis blew up in March, and millions faced “starve or freeze” choices, it emerged – with dismal timing – that the rollout of the government’s newly digitised Healthy Start fruit and veg voucher scheme for low-income mothers was in chaos.
About 550,000 mothers who are pregnant or who have children aged three or under are in theory eligible for the scheme, which is worth between £4.25 and £8.50 a week. Designed to ensure their kids get their five-a-day portions, milk or formula, it should have been a timely boost.
Continue reading...Figures shows 10% rise in FSM across England and school leaders say real child poverty level is even higher
Nearly one in three children in the north-east of England are receiving free school meals (FSM), according to figures that reveal a 10% rise across England, as school leaders say the real level of child poverty is even higher.
The figures released in the Department for Education (DfE) annual school census show that 22.5% of state school pupils are on FSM, up from 20.8% last year, reflecting the increasing number of households receiving universal credit and earning less than £7,400 a year after tax.
Continue reading...Examination of People of Praise comes as supreme court seems poised to reverse Roe v Wade
The founder of the People of Praise, a secretive charismatic Christian group that counts supreme court justice Amy Coney Barrett as a member, was described in a sworn affidavit filed in the 1990s as exerting almost total control over one of the group’s female members, including making all decisions about her finances and dating relationships.
The court documents also described alleged instances of a sexualized atmosphere in the home of the founder, Kevin Ranaghan, and his wife, Dorothy Ranaghan.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Report for Aberlour children’s charity reveals scale of school meal debt for first time
More than £1m is owed by families across Scotland who are unable to pay for their children’s school meals, new research has found.
The report for the Aberlour children’s charity, seen exclusively by the Guardian, reveals the scale of school meal debt for the first time, and details an “alarming” rise in hidden hunger among Scotland’s school pupils.
Continue reading...Force claimed it approached groups before launch of Project Alpha which scours social media sites
Youth violence experts have said they had no involvement with a police scheme that collects children’s personal data, despite the Met claiming to have consulted them.
Project Alpha, involving more than 30 staff and launched in 2019 with Home Office funding, scours social media sites looking at drill music videos and other content. It has prompted concerns about racial profiling and potential privacy violations.
Continue reading...Timothy Tymoshenko was sent to Poland because of his distress but does not qualify for Homes for Ukraine scheme
A British man who has turned his Polish castle into a makeshift hotel for Ukrainian refugees has accused the UK government of showing “no humanity whatsoever” for not allowing a severely autistic teenager to come to live with an approved foster carer in Lancashire.
Pleas are mounting for compassion to be shown to Timothy Tymoshenko, 16, who fled the war in Ukraine without his parents. He is living with his 17-year-old brother, Yurii, in what was once a private palace for the prince-bishop of Wrocław in Piotrowice Nyskie, a tiny Polish village near the Czech border.
Continue reading...Biden economic adviser says US to see more baby formula on shelves as 70,000lb of product lands in Indianapolis on Sunday
A top White House economic adviser on Sunday said he was hopeful there would be more baby formula on American store shelves this upcoming week, especially after a plane full of the product arrived from an airbase in Germany.
Brian Deese, the director of the National Economic Council, told CNN State of the Union host Dana Bash that the plane carrying 70,000lb of baby formula – enough for half a million bottles – from Ramstein airbase in Germany which landed in Indianapolis on Sunday morning should cover about 15% of the product’s nationwide shortage. About 45% of baby formula products were out of stock across the US last week, according to figures that Bash cited during her interview of Deese, who didn’t dispute them.
“We’re going to see more formula … in stores starting as early as this week,” said Deese, adding that the incoming Nestlé product was “a specialty medical grade formula, the type that we most need in this market”.
Continue reading...Wic voucher requirements are being waived to allow holders to purchase any brand of infant formula as it becomes available
The Senate approved a bill Thursday aimed at easing the baby formula shortage for families participating in a government assistance program that accounts for about half of all formula purchased in the US.
The House passed the bill the day before, so it now goes to Joe Biden to be signed into law.
Continue reading...The acute lower respiratory infection has surged after Covid restrictions eased, experts say
Respiratory syncytial virus is killing 100,000 children under the age of five every year worldwide, new figures reveal as experts say the global easing of coronavirus restrictions is causing a surge in cases.
RSV is the most common cause of acute lower respiratory infection in young children. It spreads easily via coughing and sneezing. There is no vaccine or specific treatment.
Continue reading...Heads reluctant to increase burden on families already caught in cost of living crisis
At St Jude’s, a small Church of England primary school in south London, the morning breakfast club is exceptionally busy. Over the past six weeks the number of pupils coming in to have porridge, scrambled egg and fruit smoothies before the school day begins has climbed from eight to 22 – nearly a quarter of the Southwark school’s population.
Families hit by the cost of living crisis are increasingly desperate, says the acting deputy head, Matt Jones. They need help with their debts; they can’t pay their bills. Staff are making more and more referrals to StepChange, a debt charity, and the school has made discretionary payments to help families unable to afford gas, electricity or nappies.
Continue reading...Only about a third of children and young people are meeting recommended activity levels, Bristol study finds
Children have become more sedentary and their physical activity levels have deteriorated in the wake of the pandemic even after the lifting of restrictions, a study suggests.
Researchers said child physical activity levels fell below national guidelines during the Covid-19 crisis and did not recover when lockdowns ended.
Continue reading...Emmanuel and Emmanuella were last seen about 6pm on Saturday at their home in Lambeth
Six-year-old twins have been reported missing in south London.
The Metropolitan police said Emmanuel and Emmanuella were last seen playing in the front garden of their home in Cowley Road, Lambeth at 6pm on Saturday. A relative went to check on them an hour later and found they were not there, Scotland Yard said.
Continue reading...A study found PFAS substances in clothing, pillow protectors, bedding and furniture, some labeled ‘environmentally friendly’
Nearly 60% of children’s textiles labeled “waterproof”, “stain-resistant”, or “environmentally friendly” that were tested as part of a new study contained toxic PFAS substances known as “forever chemicals” due to their persistence in the environment.
Among products checked were clothing, pillow protectors, bedding and furniture.
Continue reading...With hunger across Horn of Africa and 600,000 children out of school, ‘desperate’ parents push more girls into early marriage
Drought-afflicted areas of Ethiopia are seeing “dramatic” increases in child marriage as the worst climate-induced emergency for 40 years pushes people to the brink, the head of Unicef has said.
Three consecutive failed rainy seasons have brought hunger, malnutrition and mass displacement to millions of people in the Horn of Africa, including parts of Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya and Djibouti.
Continue reading...Concerns rise about surge as scientists say lack of exposure to viruses during Covid restrictions could be factor
The number of children in the UK suffering from severe hepatitis has risen to 145 as concerns mount about the mysterious surge in cases.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) announced an increase of 34 cases but said most children have recovered and no children have died. There has been no increase from the 10 children who have required a liver transplant, reported on Monday.
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