Chance of floods as yellow warning issued for parts of northern England and Scotland on Sunday
A yellow weather warning has been issued for thunderstorms for parts of northern England and Scotland on Sunday.
The Met Office said the storms could cause localised flooding and in some places hail up to 3cm in diameter along with strong, gusty winds.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Unknown artwork was barred from leaving the UK after surfacing at an auction in 2021
A painting has been saved for the UK in recognition of its “outstanding significance” for the study of race and gender in 17th-century Britain, it will be announced on Friday.
The anonymous artist’s portrait of two women – one black and one white, depicted as companions and equals with similar dress, hair and jewellery – has been bought by Compton Verney, an award-winning gallery in Warwickshire.
Continue reading...Simon Crump says the ordeal has cost him his career and relationship, and asks for his name to be cleared
An author and academic who received a suspended prison sentence for demonstrating against tree-felling work in Sheffield has made a plea for the council to help clear his criminal record and compensate him for the “mental, emotional and reputational harm” caused.
On Tuesday the local authority issued a four-page apology for its “flawed” programme to fell 17,500 street trees – many of which were healthy – after an independent inquiry found a “serious” mishandling of the long-running dispute.
Continue reading...Feedback argues ministers’ failure to include measures to reduce production of meat and dairy products was unlawful
Ministers broke the law by failing to make plans to cut consumption of meat and dairy in England, activists will argue in a legal challenge after they were granted permission for a full judicial review of the government’s food strategy.
Overturning two previous decisions, the court of appeal on Friday ruled that the food systems campaigners Feedback could challenge the national food strategy on the basis that it failed to take into account ministers’ duties to cut carbon emissions.
Continue reading...Sir Michael Wilshaw says he now thinks differently about use of one-word headline grades in England
The former chief inspector of schools in England Sir Michael Wilshaw has said Ofsted’s style of school inspections needs to change after the death of the headteacher Ruth Perry.
Wilshaw, who led Ofsted until 2016, said Perry’s death, following an inspection that downgraded her school from “outstanding” to “inadequate”, had changed his mind over the use of one-word headline grades to rate schools in England.
Continue reading...Open letter says burden on victims to prove intent leaves door open for perpetrators to claim they were joking
Proposals to tackle sexual harassment in the street in England and Wales do not go far enough because the bar for offences has been set too high, charities have warned.
The Fawcett Society, Girl Guiding and Refuge are among organisations who say the requirement to prove perpetrators intended to cause alarm or distress undermines the provisions of two bills intended to protect women and girls going through parliament.
Continue reading...Some hospitals record highest ever A&E attendance figures as heat, high pollen count and air pollution bring rise in demand
A&E units across the UK are experiencing a surge in patients seeking care as a direct result of the heatwave, which is leaving many people unwell with shortness of breath, heat exhaustion and sunburn.
The number of people suffering problems as a direct result of the sustained high temperatures in many parts of the country has resulted in some hospitals recording their highest A&E attendance figures.
Continue reading...Sister of Ruth Perry, who killed herself after her primary was downgraded, ‘disappointed’ single-word judgments not removed
Changes by Ofsted to the way it inspects schools have been criticised as “nowhere near enough” to reduce the resulting high levels of stress involved, which were linked to the recent death of a popular headteacher.
The reforms announced by Amanda Spielman, Ofsted’s chief inspector, are intended to ease the burden felt by school leaders such as Ruth Perry, 53, the head of a primary in Reading who killed herself earlier this year after an Ofsted inspection lowered her school’s grade from “outstanding” to “inadequate”.
Continue reading...Exclusive: £3.2m plan aims to curb rise in people sleeping rough as councils cut homelessness budgets
The NHS will deploy street mental health teams in English locations from Devon to Doncaster in an attempt to curb a rise in rough sleeping in England.
Fourteen outreach teams will aim to get more rough sleepers on to a path to counselling, medication or other treatments and will seek out people “who have often been through incredibly traumatic experiences to ensure they get the help they need”, said Prof Tim Kendall, NHS England’s clinical national director for mental health.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Research reveals only a quarter of primaries will have vital school-based support by end of 2024
Ministers have been accused of failing to grasp the “tidal wave” of mental ill health blighting children’s lives, after research found that only a quarter of English primaries will be able to offer vital school-based support by the end of next year.
With almost one in five pupils aged seven to 16 now thought to have a mental health disorder, specialist support teams were set up to work with children in schools, addressing early symptoms and reducing pressure on overstretched NHS services.
Continue reading...Children’s commissioner points to research showing some are so addicted to nicotine they can’t concentrate in school
The children’s commissioner for England has urged ministers to crack down on the “insidious” marketing of vapes to young people, which is leaving them so addicted to nicotine they can’t concentrate on lessons.
Rachel de Souza said the government would be “failing a generation” if these “highly addictive and sometimes dangerous products” were allowed to become mainstream.
Continue reading...Department for Education survey finds that 40,000 – almost 9% of workforce – left state schools in 2021-22 before retirement
Teachers in England are abandoning their profession in record numbers, according to official figures, with Labour claiming that “incompetent” government policies were to blame.
The latest workforce survey by the Department for Education (DfE) found that 40,000 teachers left state schools last year – almost 9% of the teaching workforce, and the highest number since it began publishing the data in 2011 – while a further 4,000 retired.
Continue reading...Residents will no doubt have to pay a price for their authority’s risk taking and subsequent bankruptcy
Winning in the rollercoaster business of commercial property development is hard. Look at the share prices of the two FTSE 100 titans, regarded as the most diversified and solid operators in the sector. Since the financial crisis of 2008-09, which caused commercial property prices to crater, Landsec’s shares have been as low as 350p and as high as £13 and are currently 626p. British Land’s trajectory is similar.
Their investors collect dividends (most of the time), largely funded from rental income, but they also know that the value of the assets can be volatile. Less diversified firms have done much worse. Intu, a former shopping centre giant, collapsed in 2020 and an air of financial crisis has hovered over Hammerson for years. This is territory for conservative financing and strong risk-management safeguards.
Continue reading...Georgia Bilham, 21, is on trial in Chester for 17 sexual offences after allegedly deceiving shortsighted girl
A teenage girl who pretended to be a boy in order to engage in sexual activity with a severely shortsighted girl also duped a second teenager, a court has heard.
Georgia Bilham, 21, is on trial at Chester crown court for 17 sexual offences after allegedly deceiving a teenage girl into sex by pretending to be a boy.
Continue reading...Thinktank says effective ban on planning permissions means country is way behind on much-needed renewable energy
It would take almost 4,700 years for England to build enough onshore windfarms to help meet the UK’s clean energy needs unless the government lifts an effective block on new turbines, according to the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR).
Only 17 small-scale onshore windfarms have been approved in England since 2015 when the government changed planning laws to create a de facto ban on onshore windfarms, according to the thinktank.
Continue reading...Public accounts committee warns that without more intervention, attainment gap could take decade to return to pre-Covid levels
It could take a decade for the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their wealthier peers to return to pre-pandemic levels in England without faster and more effective intervention, MPs have warned.
The estimate was made during evidence given to parliament’s influential public accounts committee (PAC) as part of its inquiry into education recovery after the disruption of Covid.
Continue reading...UKHSA figures also show gonorrhoea diagnoses rose by 50% to 82,600 – the most since records began in 1918
Cases of syphilis were at their highest level in 75 years in England last year while gonorrhoea cases reached a record high, figures show.
The UK Health Security Agency is urging people to use condoms, calling them “the best line of defence”, and advises people to go for a test if they have recently had unprotected sex.
Continue reading...Census data shows nearly half a million households that cater for someone disabled or in bad health are without car or truck
About one in five households with an unpaid carer for someone who is disabled or in bad health across England and Wales have no access to a private vehicle, new analysis shows.
The findings show that nearly half a million households across England and Wales (486,341) that include someone disabled or in bad health did not have a car or truck at the time of the 2021 census.
Continue reading...MPs call for new laws as data shows rise in number of dog seizures is not matched by action against owners
The Metropolitan police are dealing with at least one dangerous dog every day, figures show, as MPs call for ministers to introduce new laws to stop vicious dog attacks.
Police data shows the force seized 479 out-of-control dogs last year under the Dangerous Dogs Act – up from 333 in 2021 and 336 in 2019. As of the start of May this year the Met police had already seized 154 dogs.
Continue reading...Deza Powell and Paul Larochelle criticise authorities for delays in transferring Adonis to an ICU
The parents of a 10-month-old baby who died on holiday in Portugal have said their lives have been destroyed.
Deza Powell and Paul Larochelle said they wanted answers from the Portuguese authorities after their son, Adonis, died of sepsis on 19 May, 48 hours after he was first treated in hospital.
Continue reading...