28th October

Half Of All Children Worry About The Future
Half of all ten to 15 year old are concerned about the future and worry about school exams, an Ofsted survey has found.

The third annual Tellus survey, which questioned 150,000 young people, asked respondents how they view their lives in terms of the five Every Child Matters outcomes.

While 69 per cent reported being happy and 95 per cent have one or more good friend, 27 per cent worry about being bullied frequently.

Body concerns affected more than a third of children and caused more children to worry than schoolwork, family or crime.

The number of respondents who said they smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol decreased this year, but one in six said they drink regularly and four per cent smoke cigarettes daily.

Christine Gilbert, Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Education, Children's Services and Skills, said the results of the survey would be shared with local authorities, schools and policy makers.

She said: "The survey finds much that is positive in their lives, and encouragingly some things have improved since last year's survey. However, more needs to be done to support concerns for those children who do not feel safe in schools, those who are bullied and children who smoke, drink and misuse drugs."

source: Lauren Higgs, Children & Young People Now

27th October

Child Benefit Changes Could Increase Poverty Warns Charity
Changes to child benefit which kick in today could increase child poverty according to charity One parent Families/Gingerbread.

From today single parents on benefit have to decide whether to continue receiving benefit from the Child Support Agency, make private arrangements with the child's father or do without child maintenance.

One Parent Families/ Gingerbread, which provides support for single parent families, said research from the National Centre for Social Research showed that up to one in four single parents on benefits might stop using the Child Support Agency after the reforms are introduced. The reforms are designed to simplify the benefits system. The charity said it supported the move towards voluntary arrangements for those parents who can come to a fair and sustainable agreement, but feared "the Government may be too keen to reduce the numbers of poor families using the Child Support Agency, without considering whether the children involved will get the child maintenance they need."

Fiona Weir, chief executive of One Parent Families/ Gingerbread, said: "We fear that many poor single parents on benefit will struggle to agree private child support arrangements and their children may end up doing without. This would be disastrous for the children involved and for the Government's child poverty targets."

From November 1 the Child Support Agency's functions will transfer to the new Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission.

source: Children & Young People Now