Following the submission of a petition against the proposed change to relax childcare ratios, which has been signed by over 10,000 people, the Pre-School Learning Alliance has requested a detailed response from the Department of Education.  Neil Leitch, chief executive of the alliance, has said that this is not the end of their campaign and they aim to get 100,000 signatures in order to trigger a parliamentary
debate. (Source CYP) .

A survey carried out on behalf of the Southampton Rape Crisis has looked at the extent of sexting amongst children.  They surveyed 7000 children and found that girls as young as 12 were sending explicit pictures of themselves to their boyfriends. (Source: CYP)

The ChildProtectionCompany.com e-Safety for parents course has a module on Sexting and below is an extract from the course:

It cannot be stressed enough that when a picture is texted or put onto the Internet you have lost control of that picture and it is vital that children are made aware of what could happen to these images; for example: a sexually explicit image will become a “collectors item” for a paedophile; a child abuser could use this image as a way of blackmailing the young person in to producing more images; so-called friends could pass this image around the school etc.

The potential issues surrounding sexting are four-fold:

• Loss of control of the images
• Cyberbullying
• Legality
• Grooming

Taking explicit images between teenagers may seem innocent to some. Many believe that this is a natural part of the growing up process and the exploration of sexuality. However it must be remembered that taking and distributing these types of images is illegal and could render the perpetrator onto the sex offenders register.

For further information on e-Safety training, to learn how to mitigate the risks, click here

The Ofsted consultation Good early years provision for all opened on the 19th April and runs until 24th May. The consultation focuses on how Early Years providers will be inspected and proposes that from September 2013 :

•  a single judgement of ‘requires improvement’ will replace the current ‘satisfactory’ judgement for all early years providers
•  early years non-domestic settings judged as ‘requires improvement’ will be the subject of a full re-inspection within two years; they will have a maximum of four years to become good
•  where an early years non-domestic setting fails to become ‘good’ following two consecutive inspections, we propose that this would be likely to lead to an ‘inadequate’ judgement and subject to the monitoring arrangements as set in the early years inspection framework
•  where any inadequate early years setting has failed to improve sufficiently and is still judged to be inadequate when reinspected, it is likely that we may take steps to cancel that setting’s registration.

An article in Nursery World reports on some of  the reactions to the consultation with concerns having been made by some early years organisations related to funding and loss of local authority support.

The new report  How safe are our children?, from the NSPCC, identifies nine factors which put children at a higher risk of abuse or neglect.  The report considers “the evidence available about why some children and young people are at greater risk of suffering from abuse and neglect than others”

One of the high risk groups identified is Children whose parents misuse drugs/alcohol.

These children can be impacted in two quite different ways:

• Maternal substance abuse can lead to impaired physical, behavioural or cognitive development of the unborn child, and possible drug withdrawal symptoms after birth.
• More than half the parents who have been found to neglect their children do themselves misuse drugs and/or alcohol. The impact of the substance misuse on the parent can lead to the parents not being able to adequately care for the child on both a practical and emotional level.

How common is this risk factor?  The Advisory council on the Misuse of Drugs estimates that between 250,000 and 350,000 children live with a parent who has a drug problem.  It is also estimated that up to 3.5 million children have lived with a parent who is a binge drinker.

UNICEF have published an updated report looking at the well-being of children in wealthy countries. The report shows that many factors have improved for UK children since the first UNICEF report in 2007 with a fall in childhood obesity, drinking, smoking and bullying.

On the negative side the report states figures showing the UK as having the lowest rates of further education in the developed world, although the report only uses data up to 2010, and since then the government has increased the school leaving age in the UK.

In terms of happiness the UK has moved up from 16th to 11th place for life satisfaction, one of the biggest increases among the countries surveyed, with more than 85% of British children saying they have a high level of overall life satisfaction.

(Source: BBC news)

The full report can be accessed via the UNICEF website.

Childcare organisations have raised about the new childcare reforms.  The government reforms include a change to the staff to child ratio in early years settings, the changes would require less staff for the same number of children and aim to make childcare more affordable.

The National Children’s Bureau has conducted a survey of 320 childcare providers and has “found fierce hostility to the reforms” reporting “Three-quarters raised concerns about the effect the move would have on children’s welfare, safety and wellbeing.”

(Source: The Guardian)

What are the benefits of doing child protection training on line?

All the child protection training courses from the ChildProtectionCompany.com are available online and all give the following benefits:

• It’s convienient – you can do it at a time and pace to suit you
• It’s flexible – you can stop and start as many times as you like
• It’s straightforward to buy and use the training – there is a easy to use help feature on the website.
• Never loose your certificate – Your personalised certificate can be downloaded as many times as required so you will always be able to put your hands on it.
• Refresh your knowledge – You can access the course content and downloads the whole time your certificate remains valid; check facts, get a reminder, look up more details at any time.
• It’s excellent value – in terms of both time and money.

An article in the Telegraph reports how Professor Tanya Byron is claiming that sleep deprivation amongst children  is having drastic effects on children’s lives.

Professor Byron’s new television programme, Bedtime Live on Channel 4, will examine this issue and look at how sleep deprivation can affect the behaviour and learning of children. Writing in this week Radio Times Professor Byron claims that the results of  studies into sleep have found that a lack of sleep leaves children “unable to concentrate and learn, angry and impulsive and relying on high-sugar and high-fat foods to boost flagging energy levels”.

She suggests that parents are failing to teach their children to get sufficient sleep.

The first episode of Bedtime Live can be seen on Channel 4, Tuesday 19th March at 8pm.

An article in Nursery World looks a the new Ofsted inspection framework for early years settings.  Some of the duties, responsibilities and focus highlighted in the article include:

• Robust recruitment processes including DBS (formely CRB) checks for all staff.
• Managers will be invited to carry out a joint observation during an Ofsted inspection
• Three key judgements areas: meeting needs, contribution to well being & safeguarding and leadership & management.

The full article can be accessed here.

Inspections in Portsmouth

This week Ofsted inspectors are conducting coordinated inspections in schools throughout the Portsmouth area.  Their brief is to look at why the area has a disproportionate number of under performing schools – and whether improvements are being made.  The quality of external support and direction given to the schools by the local authority will also be investigated and results are expected to be shared with with the local authority as well as schools, parents and the wider local public.

See more at www.edexec.co.uk

School Data Dashboard

Osfted have announced a new Data Dashboard for Schools which will show how a school is performing in the three-Rs, attendance and pupil progress measures.  This Dashboard is due to be updated annually (presently Ofsted reports are usually only made every 3 -4 years) and will be available on a single page, allowing parents to easily compare schools in their local area.

See more at www.telegraph.co.uk