Category Archives: England

Nurseries in England say new rules have reduced care to ‘crowd control’

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The first study into Tory shake-up of childcare shows staff are overwhelmed

The first major study into the Conservatives’ controversial shake-up of childcare has revealed that nursery staff are often doing more “crowd control” than education, because of the increased number of children they are looking after.

Since September last year, nurseries in England have been allowed to increase child-to-staff ratios, so one adult now looks after five two-year-olds rather than four. The change was intended to help deliver the party’s pledge of 15 hours’ free childcare a week from this month for working parents of children aged from nine months to three years.

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TfL to refund drivers wrongly issued with Ulez fines after cameras vandalised

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Two cameras in Chingford were twisted around to face roads outside the low-emission zone boundary

Transport for London (TfL) has said it will refund drivers wrongly issued with ultra-low emission zone (Ulez) charges because of vandalised enforcement cameras.

The transport body confirmed two cameras in Chingford, north-east London, “became misaligned” for a short period and many fines were issued incorrectly. It is understood the cameras were twisted the wrong way so that they were facing roads outside the Ulez boundary.

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Teenager arrested after deaths of three people at property in Luton

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Man, 18, held after emergency services find three people with injuries who were pronounced dead at scene

A teenager has been arrested after the deaths of three people at a property in Luton on Friday morning.

Officers were called at about 5.30am to reports of concerns for welfare at a flat in Leabank, off Wauluds Bank Drive. Emergency services attended and discovered three people with injuries. All three were pronounced dead at the scene.

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Experts raise concerns over ‘unreliable’ marking of GCSE English

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Some high-achieving pupils in England received lower than expected grades that rose after being re-marked

Concerns have been raised about the reliability of the marking of GCSE English this summer, after complaints that normally high-achieving pupils in schools in England were awarded lower than expected results, which then went up after being re-marked.

In some cases, marks for individual questions doubled after a review, and at least one pupil’s grade jumped from 6 to 9. GCSEs are graded on a scale of 1 to 9, with 9 the highest grade.

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‘The UK is invited’: Bradford reveals 2025 City of Culture lineup

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West Yorkshire city to host magic, music, film and theatre performances celebrating local talent, plus Turner prize

A city centre magic show, the Brontës as you’ve never seen them before, and a bassline house symphony are all part of Bradford’s City of Culture lineup, which its organisers call a celebration of everything that makes the West Yorkshire city great.

Shanaz Gulzar, the creative director of Bradford 2025 UK City of Culture, said the whole of the country was invited to come next year to a place she billed as young, diverse, creative and “the heart of the UK”.

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NHS restricting access to obesity services across England, BMJ finds

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Budget cuts to local services fell disproportionately on care for obese patients, leading to ‘postcode lottery’

The NHS is restricting access to obesity services across England, leading to patients in nearly half the country being unable to book appointments with specialist teams for support and treatments such as weight-loss jabs.

An investigation by the British Medical Journal found budget cuts to local services fell disproportionately on obesity care, with patients living with the condition often deemed less worthy of care than others.

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Police ‘left to deal with fallout’ of poorly planned early release of 1,700 prisoners

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Police association chief says criminals potentially being freed in England and Wales without proper rehabilitation plans

Police are at “the centre of a storm” caused by poor planning after 1,700 prisoners were released early across England and Wales to ease overcrowding, a senior officer has said.

Amid concerns that hundreds of inmates could end up homeless or return to crime, the president of the Police Superintendents’ Association, Nick Smart, said some inmates were being set free without a programme and that the police would be left to deal with the consequences.

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Some crime victims ‘unaware’ of offenders’ early prison release in England and Wales

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‘Sizeable minority’ of survivors of crime have not been informed that perpetrators will be freed on Tuesday

Hundreds of survivors of crime are unaware that their perpetrators will be freed on Tuesday despite requests that this would not happen, the victims’ commissioner has claimed.

As the government prepares to release 1,700 offenders to ease overcrowding in prisons in England and Wales, Helen Newlove said some victims were “unaware of their offender’s release” and could not seek protective measures.

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Couples may soon be able to marry in the sea in Cornwall

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Bude Sea Pool could become what is believed would be only the seawater wedding venue in England

Couples may soon be able to get married while floating on the tide, should Bude Sea Pool in Cornwall become the first such venue in England to receive a wedding licence.

A mass commitment ceremony was held earlier this month to raise funds for the application, with organisers saying they believe it would be the only place in the country where people would be able to marry in seawater.

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Heavy rain to hit parts of UK over weekend as flooding risks remain

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Met Office says new band of ‘heavy and thundery rain’ to sweep north through southern and central England and Wales

Heavy rain is due to sweep across large parts of the UK this weekend, with many at risk of flooding.

A new band of “heavy and thundery rain” will arrive on the south coast on Saturday and move northwards overnight, affecting central and southern England and Wales, the Met Office said.

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Lucy Letby victims’ families call for CCTV on neonatal wards

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Lawyer for relatives says Thirlwall inquiry into case of killer nurse, due to begin next week, is ‘vitally important’

Families of some of Lucy Letby’s victims are calling for CCTV on neonatal wards, tighter control of insulin in hospitals and more protection for NHS whistleblowers, their lawyer has said before a public inquiry begins next week.

The Thirlwall inquiry, which starts on Tuesday, has been set up to examine what happened at the Countess of Chester hospital, where Letby worked. She has been convicted of murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more while based there as a neonatal nurse.

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Target for cutting premature birthrate in England will not be met, minister says

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Gillian Merron tells Lords the goal of reducing rate of preterm births to 6%, which was set in 2019, may be changed

The women’s health minister has admitted there is no chance the government will meet its target of reducing the premature birthrate to 6% in England by 2025.

Preterm birth, when a baby is born before 37 weeks of pregnancy, is the biggest cause of death among children under five in the UK. The previous government set a target in 2019 to reduce the preterm birthrate to 6% by 2025.

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US playwright donates £1m to save home of Shakespeare’s daughter

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Exclusive: Ken Ludwig gives Shakespeare Birthplace Trust largest private donation in its 177-year history

The charity that cares for historic Shakespeare sites in Stratford-upon-Avon has received an unprecedented donation of £1m from the Olivier award-winning US playwright Ken Ludwig.

The Shakespeare Birthplace Trust (SBT) can now pay for crucial conservation work on Hall’s Croft, the home of Shakespeare’s daughter Susanna and her physician husband, John Hall, who is believed to have advised his father-in-law on medical matters.

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School exclusions rise by fifth in England in past year, study finds

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Increasing amounts spent on educating pupils outside mainstream ‘where quality and safety is less guaranteed’

Suspensions and exclusions from schools in England went up by more than a fifth in the past year, according to analysis of live attendance data in a new report that raises concerns about children being shifted out of mainstream education into alternative provision.

Research by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) found that cash-strapped councils are spending increasing amounts on educating pupils outside the mainstream schools “where quality and safety is less guaranteed”.

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Councils in England draining reserves to stay afloat, leaders say

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Survey of 24 city authorities finds two in five plan to sell off assets and reduce services

Local authority leaders say they are having to drain their financial reserves to keep services afloat and avoid effective bankruptcy.

A survey of the mid-tier group of English city councils, which includes Southampton, Hull, Sunderland and Norwich, found that many that had previously avoided financial difficulties during periods of austerity were close to running out of funds.

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Boy, 14, held on suspicion of murdering 80-year-old man in Leicestershire

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Bhim Kohli died in hospital after alleged attack while walking his dog in Franklin Park 20 metres from his home

A 14-year-old boy is being held on suspicion of murdering an 80-year-old man, named by police as Bhim Kohli, who died on Sunday after being allegedly attacked while walking his dog just 20 metres from his home.

Leicestershire police said Kohli was found at about 6.30pm in Franklin Park, Braunstone Town. Four other children who had been arrested have been released.

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UK’s methane hotspots include landfills and last coalmine

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Greenpeace urges Labour to ‘fulfil international obligations’ as critics question accuracy of official data

The UK’s worst methane hotspots include the last coalmine, livestock farm clusters, landfills, power plants and North Sea oil and gas wells, according to an analysis.

The process has also thrown up serious doubts over the UK’s ability to calculate its methane emissions.

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Pregnant women and older people in England offered RSV vaccine on NHS

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Programme for respiratory syncytial virus could prevent estimated 5,000 hospitalisations annually in infants

Pregnant women and older people across England will be routinely vaccinated against the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) for the first time, the NHS has said.

From 1 September the NHS will vaccinate pregnant women from 28 weeks onwards and adults turning 75. Adults aged 75 to 79 will be offered a catchup vaccine to make sure they are protected.

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Rochester prison given urgent notification after ‘systemic failure and decline’

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It is the first time such notification has been given to a category C prison focusing on training and resettlement

A Kent prison has become the first of its kind to be issued with an urgent notification after a decade of “systemic failure and decline”, the chief inspector of prisons has confirmed.

HMP Rochester is the seventh prison to have received such a notification since November 2022, but has become the first category C prison, which focuses on training and resettlement, to receive one. The urgent notification process was introduced in 2017 and is a means of raising immediate concerns following an inspection and requires a response and action plan from the secretary of state within 28 days.

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Seven years after Grenfell disaster, thousands live in fear of cladding fire

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As the final report on the fatal London blaze looms, many developers have not begun safety work

• Rowan Moore: The Grenfell inquiry is exposing a culture of contempt that has run deep in Britain

Grenfell was an avoidable tragedy, the inquiry’s counsel said on the final day of hearings. Yet with the report into the blaze that claimed 72 lives due this week, residents of other tower blocks fear that not enough has been done to prevent another catastrophe.

One of them is Gemma Lindfield. The 45-year-old barrister is still waiting for flammable cladding to be removed from her eight-storey apartment block in east London. It took three years before anyone even realised there was a problem. The following four years have been mired in indecision and wrangling about exactly who will pay to fix it.

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