Category Archives: England

Texting parents may help schools tackle ‘truancy crisis’ in England, say experts

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Call for more personalised approach on back of broader efforts to build deeper relationships with families

Personalised text messages to parents could be used to help improve school attendance rates, as teachers struggle to re-engage children and their families after the disruption of Covid, according to experts.

Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said there was a “national persistent truancy crisis” in England, with significantly more children now missing lessons compared with before the pandemic.

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Revealed: NHS England chair fixed meeting for client of bank he advised

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David Prior helped arrange a meeting between NHSX and the private care company Teladoc, said to be keen to expand in the UK

The former Tory minister who chaired NHS England helped arrange a meeting for an American private health firm that paid millions of pounds to the investment bank that employed him.

David Prior emailed Matthew Gould, a senior NHS executive, in February 2021 asking him to “have a conversation” with Jason Gorevic, chief executive of Teladoc, a multibillion-pound virtual medicine firm.

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Police release of Nicola Bulley’s personal details ‘as sexist as it comes’

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Former victims’ commissioner Vera Baird says revelations likely to hamper future missing person cases

The release of sensitive details about the missing woman Nicola Bulley was “as sexist as it comes”, the former victims’ commissioner has said, as Lancashire police come under further pressure over their handling of the case.

Dame Vera Baird condemned the force’s “dreadful” decision to divulge medical information about Bulley, saying it was “the biggest error that I have seen for quite a long time”.

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Lancashire police maintain ‘no evidence’ of crime in Nicola Bulley case

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Force says it has been ‘inundated’ with false information about missing 45-year-old

Police have said there is still no evidence of crime in the case of Nicola Bulley, who went missing near her home in Lancashire nearly three weeks ago, but they are being inundated with false information, accusations and rumours.

Bulley was last seen in St Michael’s on Wyre, not far from her home in Inskip, Lancashire, on the morning of 27 January.

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‘He’s a bit of a prat’: voters in Ashfield turn on Lee Anderson

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The Tories’ new deputy chairman thinks he has the support of his constituency. But a tour around the market town says otherwise

Depending on your political instincts he’s a prime candidate for the “worst man in Britain”, no-nonsense voice of the people, or pugnacious darling of the Tory right.

Lee Anderson defends his inability to swerve controversy by claiming that what might make parliamentarians blanch, the people of Ashfield in Nottinghamshire, unequivocally back.

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Children in mental health crisis spent more than 900,000 hours in A&E in England

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Exclusive: Children as young as three in emergency departments for mental health problems, data obtained by Labour reveals

‘We are letting young people down’: the secret psychiatrist on NHS delays

Children suffering mental health crises spent more than 900,000 hours in A&E in England last year seeking urgent and potentially life-saving help, NHS figures reveal.

Experts said the huge amount of time under-18s with mental health issues were spending in A&E was “simply astounding” and showed that NHS services for that vulnerable age group were inadequate.

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Students should be told of university course job prospects, says commission

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Social Mobility Commission says students should be informed of ‘earnings implications’ of course choices

Students should be given more details about how the courses they study after leaving school might affect their employment prospects, it has been suggested, as figures show near-record numbers of 18-year-olds applying to university.

A review of research into the employment effects of higher and further education by the government’s Social Mobility Commission showed wide variations in earnings, with some courses failing to boost salaries, while the most lucrative courses for graduates often admitted few students in England from disadvantaged backgrounds.

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NHS faces worst day of disruption as nurses and ambulance staff in England strike

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Industrial action expected to be biggest in history of health service as minister insists pay will not be renegotiated for this year

A health minister has insisted there can be no re-examination of NHS pay for this year as the health service in England faces what is expected to be the biggest strike in its history, with no signs of a government plan to end the impasse.

The industrial action on Monday will be the first time that both NHS nurses and ambulance staff in England have stopped work simultaneously, amid an ongoing dispute over pay and staffing.

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Witness comes forward in Nicola Bulley case as police warn against speculation

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Police had released CCTV images of a woman pushing a pram near where the dog walker went missing, urging her to get in touch

A woman described as a “key witness” by police searching for missing mother Nicola Bulley has come forward, as the force warned against “totally unacceptable” speculation and abuse on social media.

On Saturday, officers released CCTV images of a woman, dressed in a yellow coat and pushing a pram, who was in St Michael’s on Wyre on the morning of 27 January, when Bulley was last seen.

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Woman pushing pram in critical condition after hit and run in London

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Woman in life-threatening condition but baby unharmed, say police, after driver fails to stop in Southall

A woman is in a life-threatening condition after being knocked down by a hit-and-run driver while pushing a pram.

Metropolitan police officers said they were called to the junction of North Hyde Lane and Raleigh Road in Southall, west London, at about 12.30pm on Friday to reports of a collision involving a car and pedestrian.

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Water firms in England urged to upgrade sewage works for new homes

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Campaigners in Oxfordshire, Cotwolds and Cumbria say houses should not be occupied until system can cope

Campaigners are intervening to prevent new houses being occupied in several areas of the country until sewage treatment works are upgraded to cope.

In Oxfordshire, the Cotswolds and in Cumbria, the failure of water companies to invest in sewage infrastructure means new homes would just add more sewage into treatment works that are at or beyond capacity, and increase pollution into rivers, they say.

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‘Charmouth crocodile’ identified as new genus of croc-like creature

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Remains of 2-metre-long animal were discovered in 2017 by two fossil hunters for whom it has been named

Scientists have identified a new genus of fearsome crocodile-like creature that once hunted off what is now Dorset’s Jurassic Coast.

The remains of the 2-metre-long animal were discovered by fossil hunters after a series of landslips on to a beach in 2017, and the newly recognised beast has been named Turnersuchus hingleyae in honour of the finders, Paul Turner and Lizzie Hingley.

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Every household in England ‘to be within 15 minutes of green space or water’

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Major environmental plan includes tackling sewage spills and restoring wildlife habitats but critics question lack of funding

Every household will be within a 15-minute walk of a green space or water, under a major environmental improvement plan for England set out by the government on Tuesday.

The long-awaited measures will include commitments to restore at least 500,000 hectares (1.2m acres) of wildlife habitat, and 400 miles of river. This will include 25 new or expanded national nature reserves and 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres) of new woodland along England’s rivers. A new species survival fund will target some of the most threatened wildlife, including hedgehogs and red squirrels.

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Doctors in England and Wales urged to monitor people’s drinking habits

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More than 10m people consume alcohol at levels that pose a risk to their health, experts say

GPs in England and Wales are being urged to ask patients detailed questions about their drinking habits amid concerns that thousands of people with alcohol issues are “slipping through the net”.

More than 10 million people consume alcohol at levels that pose a risk to their health, according to experts. Millions are mildly or moderately dependent on alcohol, while about 600,000 people have severe alcohol dependency and will, as a result, benefit hugely from professional alcohol treatment.

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One in 10 children ‘have watched pornography by time they are nine’

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Report by children’s commissioner for England finds worrying amount of content involves violence

One in 10 children have watched pornography by the time they are nine years old, according to “disturbing” new research by the children’s commissioner for England.

The report found a quarter of pupils in their final year of primary school have already been exposed. It also showed much of the material being consumed by children and young people features violence.

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Farmers will be key to plan to restore England’s green spaces and wildlife

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Environmental improvement plan includes many ambitious pledges but hard-pressed agricultural sector will need effective support

It has taken years of campaigns and mass trespasses for the government to put access to green space in England at the top of its agenda, as it has today in the environmental improvement plan.

During the pandemic, the importance of nature for our physical and mental wellbeing became ever more apparent – as did the inequality in access, with the poorest in society less able to access green space.

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Hospitals in England cancel 88,000 appointments in seven weeks due to strikes

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NHS leaders warn disruption to patients could become even worse as healthcare staff plan further strikes

Hospitals in England have had to cancel 88,000 appointments because of strikes by nurses and ambulance staff over the last seven weeks, figures have revealed.

NHS bosses warned on Tuesday that the already “shocking scale of disruption” to patient care could “skyrocket” in coming weeks as unions intensify their campaign and walkouts over pay become commonplace.

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England’s coast faces ‘multiple threats’ of dredging, sewage and pollution

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Environment Agency paints bleak picture of coastal regions with eco-systems and people coming under increased pressure

Dredging is likely to increase around the English coast, while pollution and sewage are piling pressure on coastal eco-systems, and an increasing number of people are at risk of coastal flooding, the Environment Agency has warned.

Three quarters of shellfish waters around England failed to meet “aspirational” standards for environmental protection in 2021, the report by the agency’s chief scientist’s group found.

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Almost one in 10 local bus services axed over last year in Great Britain

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Exclusive: cuts come despite government’s levelling up promise to improve transport connectivity

Almost one in 10 local bus services were axed in Great Britain in the last year despite government promises to improve local transport connectivity being a key pillar of its levelling up agenda.

The reductions – equivalent to more than 1,000 registered routes – follow the publication of a national bus strategy for England in 2021, aimed at improving routes and service frequencies. The figures suggest the “bus back better” strategy, conceived under the then prime minister Boris Johnson, has failed to halt the decline in local bus services.

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Yellow weather warning issued for dangerous ‘freezing fog’

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Dense fog that could reduce visibility to below 100 metres set to blanket UK after sharp overnight frost

A yellow weather warning was issued on Friday, with a dangerous “freezing fog” set to blanket parts of the UK after a sharp frost overnight.

By Saturday morning, the fog could be so dense that visibility drops to below 100 metres in some places, the Met Office said.

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