HuffPost UK reports that a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to the Department for Education (DfE) shows that government ministers have been asked to intervene 72 times over the last three years to use their powers to force academies to accept looked after children. Local authorities can force a council-run school to accept children, while […]
Access to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services
The Education Policy Institute (EPI) has published its Annual Report on access to child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). The study examines access to specialist services, waiting times for treatment, and provision for the most vulnerable children in England, and is based on new data obtained through freedom of information (FOI) requests to mental […]
Homeless young people
Centrepoint has published a report looking at homelessness and young people. Figures from Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to local authorities in England were used to estimate that during October, November and December 2018 over 22,000 under-25-year-olds approached a local authority for help because they were homeless or at risk of homelessness. Findings from […]
Independent Visitors for children in care
Barnardo’s report that responses to a Freedom of Information (FOI) request sent to 152 local authorities in England show an increase in children in care who are not matched with an Independent Visitor, adult volunteers who provide support to children in care. The FOI shows that: 1,202 children were waiting to be matched with […]
Looked-after children miss out on right to independent visitors
Increasing numbers of children in care are waiting to be matched with independent visitors, with some councils admitting to not providing the statutory service at all, new research shows. A Freedom of Information (FOI) request submitted by Barnardo’s revealed that 1,202 looked-after children were missing out on their legal right to be matched with a visitor, which […]