Category Archives: Young people

UK should embrace foreign students or lose them to rival countries, warns Ucas chief

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Many institutions have become increasingly reliant on higher fees from international students to help cover costs

Britain should warmly welcome international students joining universities across the country or risk losing out to the US, Canada and Australia, the higher education admissions chief has said.

The intervention came amid concerns that domestic students hoping to begin undergraduate courses this autumn could lose out to international applicants. Some courses in clearing in the run-up to A-level results day this week are available only to overseas students.

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Scout jamboree in South Korea closes with regrets and K-pop concert

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Ceremony at Seoul’s World Cup stadium wraps up event beset by heatwave, unsanitary conditions and threat of typhoon

The 25th World Scout Jamboree has concluded with a concert in Seoul after a tumultuous 11-day journey across South Korea that was marred by a heatwave, unsanitary conditions and an evacuation owing to a typhoon threat.

“The last few days have not been easy, to say the least,” said Ahmad Alhendawi, the secretary general of the World Organisation of the Scout Movement during the closing ceremony on Friday at Seoul’s World Cup stadium.

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Youth say they need education and job skills to thrive in the modern world

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The pandemic, cost-of-living crisis and the climate emergency are influencing responses to the largest-ever survey of young people

Getting a good education and a job are the top priorities for 10 to 24-year-olds, according to the preliminary results of the largest-ever global survey of young people.

More than 700,000 were asked what would improve their wellbeing. About 40% cited education and work, while 21% said safety and 16% good health and nutrition.

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Fix ‘endemic’ problems in youth custody, urges prisons watchdog

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Monitoring boards chief warns of poor conditions at four young offender institutions in England

A prisons watchdog has warned that poor conditions are “endemic” at four young offender institutions in England and urged ministers to take urgent action to improve them.

In her new role as the national chair of the Independent Monitoring Boards (IMBs), Elisabeth Davies has taken the unusual step of writing a letter to the prisons minister, Damian Hinds, to raise serious concerns about the welfare of children in YOIs in England.

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Councils in England and Wales join calls for ban on disposable vapes

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LGA says single-use e-cigarettes are a litter blight and cause problems in bin lorries and recycling centres

Councils are joining paediatricians in calling for a ban on disposable vapes owing to the environmental damage they cause and the soaring number of young people taking up the addictive products.

The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils in England and Wales, said urgent action was needed to save taxpayers’ money – as single-use e-cigarettes are costly to recycle without going through special treatment – protect the planet and keep children safe.

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Hungarian bookstore fined for selling LGBTQ+ novel in youth section

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Heartstopper by Alice Oseman was on shelves for young people and did not have closed packaging as required by controversial law

A government office in Hungary has levied a hefty fine against a national bookseller over a LGBTQ+ graphic novel series, saying it violated a contentious law that prohibits the depiction of homosexuality to minors.

The bookseller, Líra Könyv, is Hungary’s second-largest bookstore chain. It was fined 12m forints ($36,000 or £27,400) for placing Heartstopper by the British author Alice Oseman in its youth literature section, and for failing to place it in closed packaging as required by a 2021 law.

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Five hundred days in solitary: Queensland teenager’s case ‘a major failure of our system’

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Exclusive: Staff shortages at Cleveland youth detention centre led to teenager being confined to his cell for more than 20 hours a day

An Aboriginal teenager with an intellectual disability was likely locked in solitary confinement for more than 500 days at Queensland’s troubled Cleveland youth detention centre, in a situation described to a court as a “major failure in our system”.

Michael*, now 19, spent more than two years on remand at the Townsville centre while the children’s court dealt with charges related to a violent sexual attack on a 16-year-old girl.

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Disruptive behaviour leaves excluded pupils’ units in England ‘full to bursting’

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Referral unit providers warn of overwhelming demand from unprecedented poor behaviour after pandemic lull

Referral units for children who have been excluded from mainstream schools are warning that they are full to bursting because of unprecedented levels of disruptive behaviour across the country.

Providers that take children excluded from mainstream schools say that after a lull during the pandemic, the situation has deteriorated, and they have seen permanent exclusions rising across the country in the past year. The situation had appeared to be improving with the latest government data on permanent exclusions in England showing that they fell in the spring term last year to 2,200 from 2,800 in 2019.

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‘My life and my home’: young people start to testify at historic US climate trial

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The plaintiffs note that Montana’s constitution pledges a healthy environment ‘for present and future generations’

The US’s first-ever trial in a constitutional climate lawsuit kicked off on Monday morning in a packed courtroom in Helena, Montana.

The case, Held v Montana, was brought in 2020 by 16 plaintiffs between the ages of five and 22 from around the state who allege state officials violated their constitutional right to a healthy environment by enacting pro-fossil fuel policies.

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Innocent Queensland children pleading guilty to avoid harsh bail laws, lawyers say

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Many children on remand who may be exonerated or not sentenced are pleading guilty to escape long periods of detention

Young people in Queensland are pleading guilty to offences they did not commit – or where there is little evidence to support charges – to avoid spending extreme periods on remand in the state’s buckling youth justice system, lawyers say.

Queensland has the nation’s largest youth prison population, and recent data obtained by Guardian Australia reveals 88% of children in detention centres and police watch houses were being held unsentenced.

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Young people harmed by nitrous oxide use most likely to be Asian men – study

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Study of patients in England with neurological damage related to laughing gas finds group overrepresented

Young people experiencing neurological harm after using laughing gas are most likely to be male and Asian, according to a small study of patients admitted to hospital in England.

Nitrous oxide is the second most common drug used by 16- to 24-year-olds in the UK. It is typically released into balloons from small silver canisters before being inhaled. Rishi Sunak recently announced plans to criminalise the drug.

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Ministers plan to ban retailers in England from giving children free vapes

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Promotional samples dodge rules forbidding sale of e-cigarettes to under-18s, who are vaping in rapidly increasing numbers

Retailers will no longer be able to hand out free samples of vapes to children after ministers announced plans to close a legal loophole.

Although it is illegal to sell e-cigarettes to under-18s, it is not illegal for retailers and marketing firms to hand out free samples. This is because vapes are not covered by the tobacco advertising rules prohibiting free distribution, as they are not considered a tobacco product.

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Major reforms to Welsh care system needed, finds Senedd committee

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Report raises concerns about near 23% rise in children in care over 10 years amid serious shortage of social workers

Radical reforms to the care system in Wales are needed to address a “shocking” rise in the number of looked after children, a Welsh parliament committee has concluded.

The committee said the number of children in care was up by almost 23% since 2013 while at the same time there were shortages of qualified social workers.

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Manchester Arena attack: nearly a third of young survivors have not had professional help

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Survey of 236 young people caught up in 2017 blast shows 29% have not received any mental health support

Nearly one in three children and young people caught up in the Manchester Arena attack have not received any professional help, a study has found.

A survey of 236 young people affected by the atrocity found that 29% had not had any psychological help, despite most feeling damaged by the blast six years ago.

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Child marriage in decline – but will take 300 years to eliminate

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UN children’s agency welcomes drop in number of underage brides, but warns 12 million girls still getting married each year

The number of child marriages is declining worldwide, but at too slow a pace for any hope of eliminating the practice this century, Unicef, the UN children’s agency, has said.

In a new report, Unicef tentatively welcomed the reduction but warned that it was nowhere close to meeting its sustainable development goal of ridding the world of the practice by 2030.

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Community-led approach needed to tackle youth violence in UK, report finds

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Calls for police powers to be rolled back in favour of funding for youth services and mental health initiatives

A community-led approach is needed to tackle serious youth violence, such as more funding for youth services and mental health initiatives while rolling back police powers, a report has said.

​​Education is central to the fight against serious youth violence, which must involve an end to school exclusions and the removal of police from schools, according to Holding Our Own: A guide to non-policing solutions to serious youth violence.

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Heads warn UK parents not to back pupil protests spreading via TikTok

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Teachers condemn family support for trend escalating on social media that leads to school ‘stampedes’

The TikTok videos show pupils throwing bins, tables and even urine. Across England and Wales, a handful of schools have been hit by protests against rules such as banning trips to the toilet during lessons or regulations against rolled up skirts.

Schools admit they are extremely worried about the copycat protests that have erupted in the last two weeks, typically sparked by videos shared on TikTok with many thousands of views. But what has shocked many leaders most is the number of parents on social media applauding pupils taking part.

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Dozens more Iranian schoolgirls taken to hospital after suspected poisonings

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Students from across five provinces receive treatment as president asks ministers to investigate latest cases

Dozens of Iranian schoolgirls across five provinces have been admitted to hospital in a new wave of suspected poisoning attacks, according to local media.

Hundreds of cases of respiratory distress have been reported over the past three months among schoolgirls mainly in the city of Qom, south of Tehran, with some needing hospital treatment.

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More Australian teenagers are sexually active and for one-third it’s unwanted

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Exclusive: National survey of young people also finds fewer than half used a condom during their latest sexual experience

More young Australians are sexually active than in previous years and, while many of them report positive experiences, a national survey of high school students found condom use is falling and there are still high rates of unwanted sex.

The seventh federally funded national survey of Australian secondary students and sexual health on Thursday published findings of its survey of 6,841 students from years 9 to 12 in government, Catholic and independent schools throughout 2021.

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Calls for more antisemitism teaching in UK schools to tackle rise in hate

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Adviser urges governments to act ‘before this form of racism poisons the minds of many more young people’

Schools should be required to teach about contemporary antisemitism, not only the Holocaust, as part of a drive to combat an “alarming” rise in hatred towards Jewish people among British pupils, a government adviser has said.

The former Labour MP Lord Mann, who now sits as a non-affiliated peer, urged ministers across the UK to take action after an investigation found antisemitic incidents in English schools had almost trebled over the past five years.

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