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Headlines and top stories relating to children, youth and families around the world. Click links for full story at original sites

September 2005

 28 SEPTEMBER

Urie Bronfenbrenner dies
Urie Bronfenbrenner, a Cornell University professor emeritus who helped found the national Head Start program, died at his home Sunday.

The Russian-born Bronfenbrenner - who was credited with creating the interdisciplinary domain of human ecology - was widely regarded as one of the world's leading scholars in developmental psychology and child-rearing. See today's "People" feature

New Zealand: Child, Youth and Family staff to strike on Friday
More than 2,000 Child, Youth and Family staff are taking strike action this Friday following a breakdown of their pay talks.

The 24-hour strike from 8am is being undertaken by members of the Public Service Association (PSA). The strike will affect all offices nation-wide, the Department’s call centre and its residences.

PSA National Secretary Richard Wagstaff said it is ironic that strike action is being taken in the same week as Social Workers Day (today, Wednesday 28 September 2005).

“Child, Youth and Family staff do the toughest job in social work, looking after the most vulnerable, disadvantaged and difficult children in our society.
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UK: Prisons inspector reveals 18 children held in adult jails
Eighteen children were locked up in adult prisons, including Barlinnie in Glasgow, in the past year, a report revealed today.

One child spent 155 days behind bars during two separate periods in custody, while another was imprisoned for 66 days.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child states imprisonment of a child shall be used only as a last resort and for the shortest appropriate period of time.

In his third annual report, Andrew McLellan, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, said it was always "very disturbing" to find children in jail.

He found 18 were held in prisons including Polmont in Stirlingshire, Kilmarnock, Greenock and Barlinnie, in the past year because of a shortage of secure accommodation places.
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UK: Youth Justice: Rise in number of young in custody
The number of young people in penal custody has risen by more than nine per cent in the past year, according to the Howard League for Penal Reform.

The organisation revealed the rise from 3,130 to 3,423 at the launch of a national campaign to end the use of penal custody for under-18s, at the Labour Party Conference on Monday (26 September).

The organisation is accompanying its campaign with an exhibition focusing on the 29 children and young people who have died in custody since 1990. It is also gathering signatures for a national petition.
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New Zealand: Bad behaviour keeps hundreds out of schools
More than 1200 students aged under 16 years have been banned from schools nationwide so far this year because of out-of-control behaviour.

Education Ministry figures showed a total of 1205 students had been banned or "excluded" for the year to September 23.

Exclusion is the formal removal of a student aged under 16 from the school with the requirement that the student enrol elsewhere.

However, some students had slipped through the system and were currently unaccounted for, according to figures.
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LA County probation officers walk off jobs
Hundreds of deputy probation officers and other county employees walked off the job Tuesday as part of a longstanding contract dispute with Los Angeles County.

The workers' union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said insufficient staffing and unpaid overtime have created a dangerous work environment. They voiced their complaints with a demonstration outside the county Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday.

Rigoberto Abrego, a senior detention officer at one of the county's three juvenile halls, said each staff member at the facility is supposed to have no more than 10 juveniles to supervise.

"In recent months I've been running with just one staff to 20 kids, one staff to 25 kids," Abrego said. "It's just a matter of time before a kid takes advantage of the situation."
Full story

 27 SEPTEMBER

Rwanda: 7,000 Kids On the Street
Startling figures indicate that more children are joining the street and are now estimated at 7,000, mostly in major towns with Kigali city having the majority. "Street children are vulnerable to poor health, malnutrition, violence, unwanted pregnancies, defilement and sexually transmitted infections like HIV/Aids. We have got many cases of street children being defiled," said Minister of Gender and Family Promotion, Valerie Nyirahabineza.

She blamed the problem on diseases like HIV/Aids that have claimed parents, exposing children to hunger, diseases and bad habits. It was also said that children are pushed to the street by violence and abuse at the hands of foster parents, peers and relatives.
Full story

UK: NSPCC launch child abuse initiative
A children's charity and police are launching a landmark new initiative to tackle child abuse on the internet. Child protection officers from the NSPCC have joined Greater Manchester Police internet investigators in an effort to hunt paedophiles and trace internet child abuse victims.

The NSPCC has worked with police before on specific cases, but the "E-spy" project placed them full-time with investigators. NSPCC director Wes Cuell said he hoped the initiative would bring child abusers to justice and save exploited children from further victimisation.
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UK: Advisers consider U-turn on Blunkett's softer cannabis law
The decision to downgrade cannabis taken last year by David Blunkett could be reversed, and the drug reclassified as dangerous, with its possession even for personal use made an arrestable offence. The Government's drugs advisory panel met yesterday to consider the reclassification after renewed fears over its side-effects, including serious mental illness.

Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, asked the panel for guidance on the dangers of cannabis, with emphasis on its high-strength version, skunk, after recent studies linked it with psychotic symptoms, including the hearing of voices.
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Philippines: ‘20,000 children in jails mixed with hardened crooks’
Twenty thousand juvenile delinquents are languishing in different jails all over the country mixed with hardened criminals, the Philippine Bar Association (PBA) said at the weekend. These young offenders are detained in crowded and filthy detention cells, and are made to live in subhuman conditions with little food to sustain their health, the PBA reported.

Quoting a study by the Save the Children Foundation of the United Kingdom, Martinez said Filipino children and teenagers are in danger of becoming hardened criminals themselves because of how they are being ignored and deprived of their rights as minors, who do not deserve to be jailed with adults. These adult detainees, he noted, face crimes ranging from simple theft to murders and other capital offenses punishable by death.
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 26 SEPTEMBER

Germany: Adoption rates decline
Recent figures published by the Federal Statistics Office show that adoption rates in Germany are in a state of systematic decline. In 1994, some 11,453 children were adopted but the figure has been gradually falling ever since then, and reached an all time low of just 5,064 last year.

Some say this is indeed good news: The fewer children, who need to be separated from their natural parents, for whatever reason that might be, the better. Others say it is a sign of the times, a reflection of the struggling economy and the fact that there are simply fewer babies being born in Germany.

While birth and adoption rates continue to dwindle, the number of foster children, however, has remained fairly constant over the past 10 years. On average, 10,000 children are taken into temporary care each year, bringing the total number of foster children to around the 50,000 mark.
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Western Australia: Child protection workers demand staff increase
Child protection workers with the WA Department for Community Development say they are being swamped by the number of children who need help and they have issued the State Government with an ultimatum.

The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) says it is only a matter of time before more children in care are hurt and wants an additional 50 case workers and six psychologists appointed.

The union's Jo Gaines says there has been little increase in the number of staff in the past eight years, but a jump of 43 per cent in the number of children in the care of the department.
Full story

Angola: American NGO Holds Youth Workshop On Conflict Resolution
A workshop on how to solve conflicts, leadership and development, promoted by the U.S. non governmental organisation, Search For Common Ground (SFCG), in partnership with the embassy of Holland in Angola, is being held since Wednesday in the south-western Benguela Province.

The seminar directed to youths of different social background, mainly aims at developing the skills of youths, in order for them to take part in the process of decisions that affect their lives, promoting peaceful socialisation and the interaction between youths of different organisations, viewing their participation in the process of consolidation of peace and development of the society at all levels.
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UK: Big rise in 'at risk' juveniles in prison
More than 40 per cent of under-18s in British prisons are officially classed as 'vulnerable' and are at serious risk of suicide or self-harm, according to the government's youth justice agency. The statistics cover people with drink, drugs or mental health problems and will lead to calls to cut the use of custody for young offenders.

The number of under-18s in custody has risen from 3,130 in October 2004 to 3,423 this month. The figures from the Youth Justice Board show that more than 1,400 of those are designated as being at serious risk.

Monday the Howard League for Penal Reform will launch a campaign at Labour Party conference to end custody for all but the most dangerous offenders under 18. It will include an exhibition on the lives of the 29 children who have died in prison since 1990.
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Manitoba: Public forum to tackle crystal meth concerns
It’s hoped a little information will go long way to stop Brandon youth from getting hooked on a highly-addictive, potentially lethal drug. The Brandon Alcohol and Drug Education Coalition is hosting a free forum on crystal meth Wednesday at Crocus Plains school.

“The drug is here in Brandon,” said Terry Gryschuk, the western Manitoba director for the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba. “What we do know is that it is not yet as available as it is in many other places.”

“We want to prevent people from thinking that this is a safe drug to use and unwittingly becoming addicted.”

Crystal meth has already taken hold in British Columbia, Alberta and Saskatchewan. “It is one of the most addictive street substances and it is also one of the most harmful,” Gryschuk said.
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 23 SEPTEMBER

Australia: Indigenous children 'worse off'
THE suicide rate for Queensland's male indigenous teenagers is four times higher than the state's average for the age group, a new report shows.
The report, entitled A Snapshot: Children and Young People in Queensland 2005, shows the state suicide rate for males aged 15 to 19 is also higher than the national average.
Commissioner for Children and Young People and Child Guardian, Elizabeth Fraser, said the data also showed Queensland indigenous children were worse off in all their basic needs.
Ms Fraser said all levels of government needed to act to rectify the situation.
"Indigenous children suffer higher levels of abuse, mortality, morbidity and social disadvantage and lower levels of health and education than other children and young people in the state," Ms Fraser said.
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Korea: More Children Abandoned Due to Parents’ Divorces
About 1,000 children are sent to orphanages or child welfare centers every year due to the disintegration of their families amid a rising number of divorces.
A total of 4,394 children were placed in welfare centers from 2001 through August 2005 because their divorced parents refused to raise them, according to a report by the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
``A growing number of children are left in orphanages as more parents divorce or separate, or if a parent leaves the home. The main reason is the financial difficulty that follows the divorce rather than divorce itself,’’ Lee Jung-hee, an employee at Seoul Children’s Welfare Center, told The Korea Times.
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France pushes for more children
Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin is expected to announce today new incentives, including a boost in the monthly stipend for parents who take unpaid leave to care for a third child from the current $622 to between $850 and $1,215.
France isn't alone in worrying about the need to encourage births. Across Europe, juggling parenthood and modern life has led many couples to hold down family size, resulting in a decline in fertility rates that some fear could lead to economic decline.
In the 25-nation European Union, the average fertility rate has sunk below 2.07 children per woman — the minimum needed to prevent a drop in population without immigration.
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600m Muslim children live in poverty: UN
A United Nations press release on Wednesday said action is urgently needed to tackle a range of problems facing over 600 million children in the Islamic world, from poverty and disease to education and protection.
At the same time, the report reflects a determination on the part of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) to mobilize its member states to provide financial and technical resources, share experience and expertise and organize practical support that will bring about improvement and lasting progress in the lives of their children.
OIC member states account for a quarter of the world’s 2.3 billion children — in nations spanning Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Titled ‘Investing in the Children of the Islamic World’ and jointly issued by the OIC, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) and Unicef, the report says that meeting the needs and guaranteeing the rights of children in Islamic countries will in large part determine the success of overall efforts to combat poverty, accelerate human development and promote global peace and security.
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UK: Plans to cut safety checks put children at risk, say carers
Government moves to end compulsory checks on carers including after-school clubs, playschemes and creches risk jeopardising children's safety, child care workers fear. The plans, which ministers argue would lighten the burden of regulation for those providing only brief periods of daycare, would be a backward step in a sector which has faced claims of poor quality, according to campaigners and professionals working with children.
The government and the inspection body, Ofsted, have been trying to ensure parental confidence in the expanding daycare sector by introducing a more rigorous inspection regime. However, while this would remain for care for children up to five, and for any care provided by schools, proposals outlined in the government's planned childcare bill would scrap current compulsory checks on provision for youngsters aged five to eight.
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Scotland: School gloom for poor children
THE academic prospects of children from Scotland's most deprived areas will not improve for another generation, Peter Peacock, the education minister, admitted yesterday.
Mr Peacock spoke out as he unveiled plans to give extra help to pupils in the poorest parts of the country. Research showed that in Scotland's 15 most deprived areas, 11 per cent of pupils left school with no qualifications. Across the rest of Scotland, the figure is just 3 per cent.
"Too many children are not getting the range of support needed to overcome the challenges they face," he said. "To date we have not gone far enough to tackle this issue."
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Canada: MPs face question of sexual consent
Members of Parliament will face a contentious decision when they return to the House of Commons next week to vote on whether to raise the age of consensual sex between adults and youth to 16 from 14.
Although the Liberals, Bloc Québécois and NDP are all on record as opposing the Conservative motion, Tory justice critic Vic Toews said he hopes several MPs will break ranks with party lines.
Even if, as expected, the Tories lose the vote next Wednesday, Mr. Toews said his party will keep the issue alive in any coming federal election campaign.
Full story

 22 SEPTEMBER

'Street Kid Tag is Discriminatory'
THE African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) has said the street kid tag is discriminatory and creates stigma to children on the streets.
ANPPCAN Zambia chapter programmes officer Kelvin Mulembe said in an interview in Lusaka yesterday that the name street kid had a negative psychological impact on children even when they were taken off the street.
He said that his organisation was working with the ministry of Youth, Sport, and Child Development in alleviating the problem of streetism in Zambia.
Full Story

UK: Truancy soars 43% in eight years
THE number of children playing truant has risen by more than a third to 1.4 million since Labour took office, according to official figures published yesterday. The Department for Education and Skills revealed that more than 55,000 pupils skipped class every day in the past school year; a rise of 4,500 since 2003-04 and the biggest jump since the figures were first recorded in 1994.
In spite of the Government spending £1 billion on initiatives tackling absenteeism since 1997, the annual number of pupils playing truant from school has soared by 43 per cent. Jacqui Smith, the Schools Minister, said that school attendance was higher than ever, with fewer children going sick or taking term-time holidays, but said that she was disappointed that a “stubborn minority” of teenagers were skipping school.
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UC Berkeley opens new youth violence research center
The Institute for the Study of Social Change at the University of California, Berkeley, has been awarded a $4.3 million grant to open a new center to study youth violence.
The five-year grant by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was announced today (Wednesday, Sept. 21) by the institute. The new center at UC Berkeley is one of eight approved by the CDC as part of its program to foster academic excellence in the area of youth violence prevention.
The Center on Culture, Immigration and Youth Violence Prevention will open Oct. 1. It will focus on the causes and prevention of youth violence, particularly among Asian Pacific Islander and Latino immigrants in Oakland, said Frank Zimring, principal investigator for the new center.
The center will be jointly run by the Institute for the Study of Social Change (ISSC), the National Council on Crime and Delinquency (NCCD), Boalt Hall and UC San Francisco.
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Scotland 'is failing the most deprived children'
Scotland's Education Minister has admitted that not enough has been done to end the link between poverty and poor performance at school and says that it could take a generation or more to turn things around.
Peter Peacock, launching a scheme to tackle the problem, also revealed plans yesterday for an intranet system linking pupils and teachers across Scotland. When the project, the first of its kind in the world, is up and running in 2007 it will allow students and teachers to access resources from computers at home and enable them to communicate electronically with one another.
Scotland has the fifth highest rate of young people not in education, employment or training among the world’s most developed countries.
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Toronto summit to tackle gun violence
ougher federal gun laws and new funding for crime prevention topped the list of requests expected yesterday at a one-day "summit" called to respond to a summer of gun violence in Toronto.
As of last weekend, Toronto had recorded 59 homicides this year, 41 of them involving firearms.
Mayor David Miller, one of about 120 people expected at the event organized by federal Liberal MPs from the Toronto area, said "it is time for the federal government and the provincial government to make significant investments in Toronto's neighbourhoods. I hope [today's meeting] is a very important part of that process," he said, noting there already are a number of successful programs that give young people alternatives to a life of crime. "
He also urged amendments to the federal Criminal Code to impose harsher penalties for possession of an illegal firearm. "The only reason you have a handgun is to shoot someone," he said.
Full story

 21 SEPTEMBER

12 inmates dead at Guatemala youth prison
Police stepped up security around a youth prison outside Guatemala's capital Tuesday, a day after a gang members armed with guns and grenades burst inside and slaughtered 12 inmates - leaving behind a gruesome, bloody scene.

Police found five bodies piled in one room and six others in a hallway near a prison patio. Authorities say members of the Mara Salvatrucha launched a well-organized attack on imprisoned members of the rival Mara 18 gang as they slept at Etapa II, or Phase II prison.
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States ban same-sex adoptions
Florida, Arizona, Utah, Mississippi and Nebraska have banned same-sex adoption.

It was the contention of these states and especially Florida that married heterosexual families provide children with a more stable home environment.

The American Civil Liberties Union has been promoting homosexual adoption. The ACLU forwarded a reported 80,000 e-mails urging a repeal of the law to Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. A lawyer who argued for the state of Florida said he was gratified that the court ruled unanimously that "Florida has a right to pass laws in the best interest of Florida's children and that adoption is a privilege, not a right."

There is no issue more paramount for a state than promoting the very best social structure for educating, socializing and preparing children to become productive citizens. The very best family structure possible is to place children in homes that have both mother and father.
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Half of Angola's children malnourished, UN warns
Almost half of Angola's children are severely malnourished and at risk from preventable diseases, the World Food Programme said yesterday.

A shortage of funds was hindering efforts to expand food deliveries, the UN agency added as it launched an appeal for £16.5 million to help feed 700,000 people until the end of the year.

Malnourished children in the country were particularly vulnerable to diseases such as tuberculosis and pellagra. In the central highlands, 850,000 people were living on one meal or less a day, the WFP said. "We have had to cut our food distribution due to a lack of money," said a spokesman.
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46,000 Londoners are using crack
The highly-addictive drug is relatively cheap Crack cocaine is being used by up to 46,000 Londoners according to new research, a much higher figure than previously thought. A report out this week suggests one in 100 Londoners aged 15 to 44 is using the highly-addictive drug.

One of the authors, Matthew Hickman from Imperial College London, said: "We must be cautious, but analysis suggests there is a substantial problem."

Research was based on data from drug centres, hospitals and police arrests.

Addicts often live chaotic lifestyles, committing crime to fund their habits while crack houses can bring threatening behaviour to neighbourhoods.
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Mental health: Suicide in youth custody avoidable
Failure to tackle treatable mental illness is to blame for the high proportion of young men who take their own lives in prison, according to a leading academic who has been studying prison suicide data. Dr Seena Fazel, from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, compared prisoners who committed suicide between 1978 and 2003 with the number of suicides in the general population. He found that 15- to 17-year-olds were 18 times more likely to take their life if they were in prison.

Fazel said: "Half of the prisoners that commit suicide have a treatable mental illness."

Next week, the Howard League for Penal Reform is launching a campaign calling for an end to the imprisonment of children and young people.
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Northern Ireland: Children's watchdog in plea over mental health provision
One in five of all complaints handled by Northern Ireland children's watchdog Tom Williams involves mental health services for vulnerable youngsters. Teenagers at risk of serious self harm or even suicide are being put on wards alongside adults with alcohol and drug addictions, parents claimed.

At least 15 cases have been handled by Mr Williams` legal and complaints team in the last year - each taking up to a month to resolve.

Amid fears their health could worsen due to the lack of proper services, he has urged young people to lobby Shaun Woodward, the Health Minister who has set up a suicide task force.

Mr Williams, the Northern Ireland Commissioner for Children and Young People, said: "At a time when my message to the minister campaign is continuing to receive impassioned pleas for support on suicide and self-harm it is clear from the time required to deal with complaints that these services need to be improved.
Full story

 20 SEPTEMBER

UK: Teachers call for clear discipline codes
Clear discipline codes are needed to deal with unruly school pupils, Britain’s biggest teachers’ union has warned. The National Union of Teachers has launched its charter on pupil behaviour, which is calling for the adoption of discipline codes, developed with the support of teachers and pupils and backed by parents. The charter also calls for better clarification of teachers’ rights when dealing with violence and disruption in the classroom. The union said that many teachers feared prosecution if they restrained pupils involved in disruptive behaviour. The charter also called for tougher exclusion powers, which would allow pupils to be excluded for persistently disruptive behaviour.
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UN: Scotland most violent, says UN survey
A UN report has labelled Scotland the most violent country in the developed world, with people three times more likely to be assaulted than in the US.

The study found that more than 2000 Scots were attacked each week, almost 10 times the official police figures. They included non-sexual crimes of violence and serious assaults.

Violent crime has doubled in Scotland over the past 20 years, and levels per head of population are now comparable with cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg and the Georgian capital, Tbilisi.

The attacks have been fuelled by a "booze and blades" culture in the west of Scotland, which has claimed more than 160 lives over the past five years. Since January there have been 13 murders, 145 attempted murders and 1100 serious assaults involving knives in the country's west.
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Uganda President Appeals to UN On Kids
President Yoweri Museveni has asked UNICEF to mobilise funds for post-primary education of HIV/AIDS orphans.

Museveni made the appeal on Wednesday while meeting the executive director of the UN children's agency, Ann Veneman, who called on him at Uganda House in New York.

The President is in the US for the UN General Assembly.

State House said Veneman reaffirmed UNICEF's commitment to improving the plight of children, especially by providing clean water.
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Ireland: Kids' psychiatric services a scandal
As many as 100,000 children in Ireland have a moderate to severe mental health disorder at any one time, yet mental health services for children and adolescents remain severely under-developed, the Irish College of Psychiatrists (ICP) has said.

It has just published a new position paper, A Better Future Now, to highlight this issue.

According to the paper, children under 18 years of age comprise 25% of the population, or one million people. Furthermore as many children as adults are affected by mental health problems and these can lead to long-term implications.

"Overall one in five children have a mental or behavioural disorder at any one time. One in 10, i.e. 100,000, will have a moderate to severe disorder, such as depression, anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), eating disorders, autistic spectrum disorders and psychotic disorders", the ICP paper said.
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First child receives anti-social order in Scotland
A boy who terrorised a community for months has become the first child in Scotland to receive an under-16 anti-social behaviour order (Asbo).

The 14-year-old from Renfrewshire, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was given an interim Asbo at Paisley Sheriff Court yesterday. It was issued almost a year after the orders were first enacted as a flagship measure by Jack McConnell, first minister.

The court banned the boy from assaulting or endangering others, using threatening words or actions, damaging other people's property, moving property he does not own, entering land without being invited, making noise likely to cause alarm or annoyance and inciting others to do the same. He has also been prohibited from entering certain areas in Renfrewshire.
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Research challenges ADHD treatment
New research has found there is little evidence that the drugs used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) actually work or are safe in the long term.

The Drug Effectiveness Review Project at Oregon State University conducted the study reviewing more than 2,000 studies into 16 drugs, including Ritalin and dexamphetamine.

More than 50,000 children in Australia take stimulants like Ritalin or dexamphetamine for their ADHD, which makes this country the third highest consumer of these drugs in the world after the United States and Canada.
Full story

 19 SEPTEMBER

China says one-child policy must be maintained
China is in no position to relax its Draconian one-child policy as it struggles to keep its population within 1.37 billion by the end of the decade, state media reported Saturday.

Continued tough implementation of the policy is needed even though China is now in the "low-birth-rate" club with 1.8 children per couple, down from 5.8 three decades ago, the Xinhua news agency said.

"China's low birth rate is unstable," Zhang Weiqing, the head of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, told a conference in east China's Shandong province.

"Many people fail to fully understand that keeping a low birth level is an arduous and long-term task for China," Zhang said.
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NJ: State's child advocate calls Bergen facility unsafe
Citing fire hazards, security concerns and the potential for suicide attempts, the state's Child Advocate wants children removed from a Bergen county facility.

"The Bergen County Detention Center is one of the most rundown, inadequate detention centers in the state of New Jersey," Child Advocate Kevin Ryan told The Record of Bergen County for Sunday's newspapers. "I support every effort to remove children from there immediately."

Ryan made the comments after reading a report about the 41-bed building in Paramus. Although the report, written by the state's Juvenile Justice Commission, was dated May 31, Ryan only saw it last week.
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UK: Soccer child abuse culture?
Hundreds of cases of child abuse in football, including the Premiership, will be exposed in a report this week. The Independent Football Commission has conducted an 18-month study into inappropriate behaviour and bullying in the game.

According to The Observer, the report will show that 250 suspected child abuse cases are being investigated by the Football Association.

In the Premiership itself, six cases have been investigated since 2003 - two of which are still ongoing. The FA says it deals with around 10 cases a week where criminal record checks show some individuals in the game could be child abusers. Up to 70 people have been banned from football by the FA after they were judged to be a danger.
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Scotland: Men slow to come forward to sit on Children's Panel
MORE than 542 people in the Lothians have volunteered to join the Children's Panel - but fewer than a quarter are men.

The latest figures from the recruitment hotline show that of the volunteers from Edinburgh and West, East and Midlothian, only 126 were male.

Deputy Education Minister Robert Brown has called for more volunteers to fill the gaps in the panel, which helps address the needs of vulnerable children.

The panel consists of a hearing of three lay people who deal with children who have serious problems, such as abuse, in their lives. The child, parents and relevant professionals attend the hearing, which considers and makes decisions on the child's needs. Across Scotland, a total of 3000 people have already signed up.
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Aid fails to save starving Niger children
Children are still starving to death in Niger despite a flurry of aid efforts and media attention, a French medical charity says, as relief workers argue over where help is needed most.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) says thousands are still going hungry. It criticises the United Nations food agency, the World Food Program (WFP), for acting too late and failing to assist those requiring immediate help.

Emergency donations have risen sharply in recent months in response to harrowing images of emaciated children in the world media. Aid operations to help 3.6 million hungry people finally picked up after months of appeals by the Government had fallen on deaf ears.

The WFP, which has blamed the crisis on a tardy donor response, began distributing emergency food rations in August and says it has reached more than 1.2 million people. However, MSF says the situation is getting worse in some areas.
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Louisiana trying to find 500 foster children
Louisiana officials working to rebuild families torn apart by Hurricane Katrina are being especially challenged in trying to locate some 500 foster children still unaccounted for by guardians.

Marketa Garner Gautreau, an official with Louisiana's Department of Social Services, said Friday that of the approximately 2,000 foster children in hurricane-affected areas, three-quarters of have been located.

However, "We have 500 children that are in the state's custody that are in foster care that I cannot tell you 'Tommy is in Lake Charles in this location,' " she told reporters, according to Reuters.
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4,000 Filipino youth offenders to move to rehabilitation centers
The Philippine government Saturday announced that almost 4,000 youth offenders would soon to be transferred to rehabilitation centers from congested adult jails.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita told a press conference that a special task force composed of the justice, social welfare, interior and local government departments as well as the Council for the Welfare of the Children reached an agreement to ensure the speedy transfer of these juvenile offenders.

"Our overcrowded jails especially at the municipal and city levels are a perennial problem that deserve a long-term solution. Right now, we are focused on prison reforms that would include expanded rehabilitation programs for youth offenders and children in conflict with the law," Ermita said. Ermita said the transfer would be done in phases since proper court procedures must be followed by the agencies concerned.

Contrary to a CNN report that there are as many as 20,000 Filipino children behind bars, the records of the Bureau of Jail Management and penology show that as of July this year, there are only 3,705 children.
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 16 SEPTEMBER

Teenage suicide rate 18 times higher among young offenders
Teenaged boys in custody are 18 times more likely to kill themselves than those in the general population, research has found.

Experts said that boys and young men with serious drug, alcohol and mental health problems were being left untreated in overcrowded and understaffed prisons.

This was highlighted yesterday when a judge refused to return a mentally disabled prisoner to a young offender institution because of concerns about his welfare.
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Sweden: Longer parental leave proposed
Parents should be able to take out fifteen months parental leave, of which five months should be reserved for each parent.

This is the proposal from the Karl-Petter Thorwaldsson, who has carried out a government inquiry into the issue, and who presented his findings on Thursday.

In addition, he suggests that mothers should get 30 days paid leave before they are expected to give birth, and that both parents should be able to take 30 days off after their child is born.

"Taken as a whole, the proposals place a great emphasis on what is best for the child, as well as giving an incentive for both the mother and the father to take sufficient time off to develop close contact with their child."
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Scotland: Male volunteer plea for hearings
More male volunteers are being urged to serve on Scotland's children's hearings in order to avert a gender imbalance. A three-week Scottish Executive drive to attract more adults to help the youth justice system resulted in 3,000 requests for information.

However, only a fifth of those who responded were men and ministers are concerned since panels must contain male and female members.

The executive said the imbalance would not see hearings being postponed.
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Colorado: New foster youth centers already at full capacity
Adams County residential treatment centers for abused and troubled youth fill up as soon as they are built.

At the same time, funding for them and other social services for children continues to be cut or allocated to other priorities, according to Adams County director Donald Cassata.

"We saw the feds cut $50 billion from social services this year, mostly from Medicaid. But the number of children who need these kind of centers is not going down," Cassata said.

Cassata knows that money for the war in Iraq and recovery from the effects Hurricane Katrina take priority in federal funding. Current budgets say the Iraq situation runs $60 billion annually, while estimates for assistance to the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the reconstruction of New Orleans run as high as $150 billion. With Congress also considering additional tax cuts, Cassata is concerned that more treatment centers will not be built.

"Where will the money come from?" he asked.
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 15 SEPTEMBER

UK: Future dark for 16-year-old school leavers
The large number of Britons who leave school at 16 are condemning themselves to a life of poorly paid work and a higher risk of unemployment, according to an international study published yesterday. Research by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development found that more teenagers leave school at 16 in the UK than in most industrialised countries, and that the social divide between this group and those who go on to university has widened dramatically.

The report, Education at a Glance, is an annual study comparing the results of education policies in 30 developed countries. It found that the 25% of people who dropped out of education in the UK were least likely to re-enter or get well-paid jobs, and that the number of young people with basic qualifications had failed to increase. The organisation's Andreas Schleicher said it was crucial to get basic qualifications because "the consequences of not [doing so] are severe in this country".
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Dutch to open electronic files on children
The Dutch government plans to open an electronic file on every child at birth as a tool to spot and protect the troubled kids of the future. Beginning Jan. 1, 2007, all citizens will be tracked from cradle to grave in a single database — including health, education, family and police records — the health ministry said Tuesday.

As a privacy safeguard, no single person or agency will be able to access all contents of a file. But organizations can raise "red flags" in the dossier to caution other agencies about problems, ministry spokesman Jan Brouwer said.
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UNICEF alarmed by number of Mexican children trying to cross into U.S.
The United Nations Children's Fund expressed alarm Tuesday over the growing number of minors attempting to enter the United States illegally, often on their own.

"In 2004, 39,690 Mexican children were found at the border, of whom 10,920 were traveling alone," said Karla Gallo, a consultant for UNICEF. "These minors are looking for a better quality of life, for work or they are hoping to rejoin their families."

Mexican authorities in the United States say that since 1994 they have provided assistance to 87,757 children who have crossed illegally into the United States.
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Northern Ireland: Study highlights drug use among schoolchildren
Almost half of all school children in the North have taken drugs by the time they are 15, a study showed today.

Even more worryingly, more than one in ten 15-year-olds have made the transition to more regular drug use.

The details have been uncovered by Queen’s University , Belfast, which has been tracking 3,500 young people for five years since they entered secondary school .

The Youth Development Study research team from the Institute of Child Care research collected information on key aspects of adolescent life including smoking, alcohol and drugs use.

The details are being disclosed at a conference in Belfast today.
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Dublin: Treatment of abusers to be discussed
Working with the parents of young people who have sexually abused others and managing sex offenders throughout the country are just two of the topics set to be discussed at a major conference in Dublin this week.

The annual conference of the National Organisation for the Treatment of Abusers (NOTA) takes place in Dublin City University over the coming days. This organisation covers both Ireland and the UK.

The theme of this year's conference is 'Harmful sexual behaviour - innovative practice, effective management'.
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 14 SEPTEMBER

Vaccination of 10 Million Children Against Polio Begins
Local health authorities and UNICEF launched a drive on Monday to vaccinate 10 million children against polio in six provinces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) bordering Angola, Health Minister Emile Bongeli said.

"Those provinces are threatened by a wild polio virus that has been detected in the neighbouring country. In DRC, we have already almost managed to eradicate the disease," Bongeli said in Kinshasa, the nation's capital.

The vaccination drive is also to take place in two provinces in the north, bordering the Central African Republic and Sudan, where cases of polio have been registered.
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UK: Doubts over value of £3bn Sure Start
The first major evaluation of the government's flagship £3bn Sure Start programme for deprived preschool children and their families has revealed no overall improvement in the areas targeted by the initiative. Although some Sure Start schemes were successful, an independent study by academics at Birkbeck College, London - due to be published by the government next month - revealed that Sure Start as a whole failed to boost youngsters' development, language and behaviour. It also showed children of teenage mothers did worse in Sure Start areas than elsewhere.
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Scotland: Campaigners back judge's drugs call
Drugs campaigners have welcomed a former High Court judge's controversial call for doctors to provide heroin for addicts.

Former Solicitor General, Lord McCluskey, entered the debate by suggesting both drug deaths and crime would be cut if substances such as heroin were offered to addicts "in a medically controlled setting".

The call echoes that of another senior legal figure last month. Former procurator fiscal David Hingston urged the Government to move drugs into a "legalised field".

Graeme McArthur of the Scottish Drugs Forum described the view as "quite sensible". He said: "What Lord McCluskey is saying is that, if people are addicted to heroin, lets provide it for them in a safe environment.
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US: Groups challenge abstinence curriculum
Two organizations that promote sex education are taking an unorthodox approach in their fight against federal funding of abstinence-only education programs.

Relying on a little-used law that allows "affected persons" to seek the correction of information disseminated by federal agencies, the groups said Tuesday that the abstinence education programs contain erroneous and ineffective information. They asked the Health and Human Services Department to correct it.

The two sex-ed organizations, Advocates for Youth and the Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, support educating youth about contraceptives as a means of avoiding pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
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SA: 'Pupils' suicide risk
One out of every five pupils in KwaZulu Natal have considered attempting suicide.

This shocking disclosure was made by KZN Minister of Education Ina Cronje at the international World Congress for Suicide Prevention at the International Convention Centre in Durban yesterday.

A 2002 National Youth Risk Behaviour Survey conducted by the Medical Research Council and the Department of Health further revealed 21% of pupils in KZN felt "sad" or "had such hopeless feelings they wanted to stop living". Nineteen percent considered attempting suicide while 14.2% of those who indicated their feelings of hopelessness, actually made a plan to commit suicide.

The KwaZulu Natal Department of Education has the biggest number of school-going children in the country - 2 764 435 pupils in 6 014 schools.

Cronje told delegates the suicide rate for children between the ages of 10 to 14 years had more than doubled over the past 15 years.
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PA: Jailed juveniles drain budget
A few juvenile offenders locked up for serious crimes are breaking the Lebanon County budget.

"About 3 percent of our caseload accounts for a third of our placement costs," Chief Juvenile Probation Officer Bill Sullivan told the Lebanon County commissioners.

Those 3 percent, or about 15 juveniles convicted of sex crimes, account for a large chunk of a nearly $600,000 increase in delinquent placement costs over what the commissioners budgeted for 2004-05 and over what placement services cost the year before.

The probation office's placement budget includes secure and nonsecure placements. Sullivan said the 15 juvenile sex offenders were placed in the most secure and expensive facilities.
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 13 SEPTEMBER

8,000 HIV/AIDS patients displaced by storm

About 8,000 people with HIV and AIDS who were displaced by Hurricane Katrina now face the massive challenge of trying to manage their disease without their doctors, their clinics and their support systems.

“I’m very frustrated right now,” said Noel Twilbeck, executive director of the NO/AIDS Task Force, the oldest HIV/AIDS service organization in the Gulf South. “We absolutely have to get people their medication. This is a frightening situation.”

HIV-infected people typically take a “cocktail” of medications that can include upward of 20 pills a day. When patients go off their medication, the virus can multiply and they develop resistance to the drugs. Studies have repeatedly shown patients have a better chance of keeping their HIV under control by not missing doses.
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Northern Ireland: Justice centre deal sealed

A Portadown construction company has won a contract to build the replacement £16.8m juvenile justice centre in Bangor.

The facility, expected to be fully operational by January 2007, will provide safe, modern and secure accommodation for young offenders to prepare for reintegration into the community. It will provide up to 48 places for 10 to 17-year-olds placed in custody by the courts.

The project was first initiated in 2000 when then Minister of State Adam Ingram announced that a new centre, the main juvenile custodial facility in Northern Ireland, was to be provided.
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Kenya: Many Pupils Still Out of School

A majority of children in North Eastern province were still out of school a year after the Government introduced free learning, a UN report reveals.

Only eight out of every 100 children were enrolled in primary schools in two of the province's districts - Garissa and Ijara- despite the introduction of the free primary education programme in 2003.

The two districts had a primary school enrolment of 8.8 per cent. Wajir and Mandera with 14. 24 per cent respectively completed the poor enrolment figures in the province. The total average enrolment for the province was 14 per cent - the lowest in the country.
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Scotland: Website for young people in bid to halt homelessness

YOUNG people at risk of becoming homeless will have access to a 24-hour on-line advice service from today. Homeless charity Shelter says it hopes the new website (www.shelter.org.uk/knowyourrights) will "stem the rising tide" of homelessness among 16 to 25-year-olds.

The move comes after a recent study by experts at Stirling University found teenagers and young adults don't know where to get help when at risk of homelessness or living in poor-quality housing.

"This new Shelter web portal means that for the first time, young people will be able to access the full range of expert information and advice on housing matters online."
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Africa: FDA Tentatively Approves Child-Friendly Aids Drug

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has tentatively approved the first generic oral anti-AIDS medication for children.

Retrovir is the latest in a string of approvals for use in the US presidential plan to tackle HIV/AIDS in developing countries. The drug is a generic version of Zidovudine, manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline and copied by India-based drugmaker Aurobindo Pharma.

Dr Murray Lumpkin, the FDA's deputy commissioner for international and special programmes, said in a statement, "Working together with colleagues in the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Office of the US Global AIDS Coordinator, FDA is delighted to help to ensure that anti-AIDS products available to children through the President's Emergency Programme are safe and effective."
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Australia: Call goes out for more carers during Foster Care Week

The New South Wales State Government has called for more people to consider becoming foster carers.

The call comes during Foster Care Week which runs from September 11 to 17 which is held to raise awareness of the importance of foster carers and recognise the invaluable work carried out by them. The NSW Minister for Community Services and Youth, Reba Meagher, the demand for foster carers is very high.

"With an average of six children or young people entering foster care in NSW each day, there is always a demand for new carers,” Ms Meagher said.

"Foster carers in NSW do an amazing job caring for children and young people and many of these children have suffered abuse or neglect at home and the support of a foster carer can change their life.

On any given day there were approximately 3700 children and young people in foster care across the state.
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Australia: Judge advocates lower youth detention

THE president of the Children's Court of Victoria claims that record low figures in the sentencing of juveniles vindicates the humane use of rehabilitation rather than punishment.

Judge Jennifer Coate said statistics showed the numbers of young offenders sentenced to youth training centres were at a five-year low. And juvenile crimes rates coincided with falls in youth centre incarceration rates.

She argued that despite "moral panics" by groups advocating more punitive responses to young offenders, the statistics proved otherwise.

Judge Coate said: "If our YTC incarceration rates were going down, but our juvenile offending rates were remaining the same or going up, we would have to say that something's not right and that perhaps we are not sentencing appropriately.

"But it is to the undoubted benefit of us as a community generally that we are able to say that a humane and rehabilitative approach to our young offenders is what is producing positive results for Victoria."
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 12 SEPTEMBER

Experts concerned about children's trauma

In a disaster within a disaster, unprecedented numbers of shaken children left in Hurricane Katrina's wake are testing the nation's network for emergency psychological help, according to caregivers and experts.

Counseling teams have been dispatched to shelters across the South where, beside overwhelmed parents, some children rested on cots with their heads covered, stared into nothingness, or cowered at a simple rain shower.

The storm victimized hundreds of thousands of children, wrenching apart their families, washing away their homes, and separating them from everything else that was familiar, from friends to pets to stuffed animals. "They're trying to process what happened to them. So much has changed in their little lives," said counselor Keith Gordon in Jackson. "Their concerns are as real as ours."
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Canada has bigger role to play in fight against child soldiers: Trudeau

Canada must play a leading role in the international fight against child soldiers by helping war-torn countries address basic needs, such as food, jobs and health care, filmmaker Alexandre Trudeau told a conference Friday. Trudeau discussed his documentary about Liberia's child soldiers during a conference on children affected by war, hosted by the University of Winnipeg.

Children as young as seven told him in 1997 they started to kill as retaliation or because they wanted a better life. They fought in units with names such as Peanut Butter and carried AK-47 assault rifles they admitted were a little heavy for their small frames.

"In these places the main problem is these children have no food, no job, no opportunities, no future and no schooling," said Trudeau, son of former Liberal prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

"Therefore they are available for any cause, to be manipulated by greedy people for their own uses."
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Nevada: Census to be taken on homeless youth

Local nonprofits have partnered with research firm Strategic Solutions to recruit and train 250 volunteers for the Clark County homeless youth census set for Oct. 5. Volunteers are expected to complete a one-hour training course prior to the October count and receive an assigned area that they will canvass to identify homeless individuals under 18.

In the second phase of the census project, Strategic Solutions will interview more than 200 homeless youth to gather information that will help local officials and providers understand how to best serve the growing population.
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Ethiopia: Unicef Receives Swedish Funds for Work With Aids Orphans

As the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) struggles to help a growing number of AIDS orphans in Ethiopia, it has received today nearly $5 million from Sweden which it will use for the well-being of these hundreds of thousands of vulnerable youngsters.

UNICEF and partners in the orphans and vulnerable children national taskforce have been seeking $11 million to implement the first phase of the National Plan of Action for children orphaned and made vulnerable by HIV/AIDS to cover 56,000 orphans initially.

"Despite our modest initial goals, responses from donors towards the Plan of Action have been poor," UNICEF Representative in Ethiopia Bjorn Ljungqvist said. "This Swedish contribution is the first major contribution we have received since the plan was announced last December. In Ethiopia, this poor showing from the donor community has meant that our response to HIV/AIDS, particularly with regard to orphans, remains at very rudimentary levels."
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New Zealand: Struggling CYFS to farm out cases to charities

Controversial government agency Child Youth and Family Service is to begin farming out much of its work to charities like Barnardos and Plunket. The first changes in how it operates will begin next month.

CYFS is the government agency with the legal power to intervene to provide care and protection for children who are being abused or neglected.

Shannon Pakura, CYFS general manager service development, said the new model was the most significant change for the service in a decade.

She would not say how much CYFS work could be handed over to other organisations. CYFS would still make a preliminary assessment for all care and protection reports, Pakura said.

The department had been struggling to deal with the volume of notifications 53,000 in the last year. Some might be better dealt with by other departments, or by non-government agencies involved in family support, she said.
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 9 SEPTEMBER

Louisiana: Youth prisons office sets up phone lines to connect families
Families of teenagers in Louisiana's juvenile prisons who were moved to other facilities before and after Hurricane Katrina have several phone numbers to call to find out the status of those children.

Juvenile inmates from detention centers in Jefferson, Orleans, St. Bernard, Plaquemines and Terrebonne parishes all were relocated to other facilities around the state. The state Office of Youth Development said it could only contact about 25 percent of family members after juvenile prisoners were moved, because of telephone problems and evacuations.
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Sweden: Steep rise in underage prisoners
The number of people under the age of 18 who are serving sentences in juvenile detention centres has risen sharply over the last five years.

According to prison service figures, there were 123 young people in Sweden's youth units last year. That's an increase of 151% compared to 1999, reported Dagens Nyheter.

"Violent crime committed by young people is rising and that is worrying," Minister for Public Health and Social Services, Morgan Johansson, told the paper.

Johansson also tried to paint the picture in a more positive light by claiming that another reason for the increase was that more serious crimes involving young people were being solved by police.
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Burundi's President Pledges to Provide Free Primary Schooling for All Children
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has applauded Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza's pledge to provide free primary education for every child as the country emerges from years of civil war.

"This is an incredible opportunity for Burundi to be engaged in meeting the Millennium Development Goals - to meet the objective of universal primary education for all children, "UNICEF Representative in Burundi Catherine Mbengue said yesterday. "We applaud the decision made by President Nkurunziza. He has put the children's right to education on the agenda of his government."

The primary school enrolment ratio for Burundian children is estimated at 59 per cent for boys and 48 per cent for girls, according to UNICEF estimates.
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Scotland: Mother demands sex offenders law
The mother of a murdered schoolboy has welcomed a decision by MSPs to look into her call for a new law telling parents if a sex offender is living in their area.

Margaret Ann Cummings' eight-year-old son Mark was assaulted, killed and thrown down a rubbish chute by Stuart Leggate, a known sex offender who lived in the same Glasgow tower block.

The proposals, enshrined in "Mark's Law", also calls for a review of where convicted sex offenders are housed.

MSPs on Holyrood's Public Petitions Committee have agreed to take up the call with ministers.
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 8 SEPTEMBER

Scots youth choose DVDs over sport
SCOTLAND'S young people would much rather watch television or listen to music than take part in cultural activities or sport, according to new research published yesterday.
Nearly 90 per cent of 11- to 16-year-olds who took part in a survey for the Executive said they were most likely to watch DVDs and videos or listen to music in their spare time.
The other most popular activities included texting friends, surfing the internet, playing computer games and hanging about on the streets. By contrast, only 5 per cent of young people said they go to their local youth club in their spare time, while only 4 per cent visit museums.
When asked what they would like to become more involved in, more than a quarter of the 2,150 young people surveyed said "going clubbing", compared to only 14 per cent who wanted to take part in sport.
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NY group translates text books for blind children
The new school year has local Braillists transcribing textbooks for blind students across the nation.Across the country many blind school children are integrated into classrooms and need Brailled textbooks to keep up with their peers.At the start of the school year, orders for Braille textbooks flood into Central New York.
The Mohawk Valley Braille Transcribers Braille thousands of pages of textbooks for blind school children across the country and they get most of their requests now, especially for math books.Math is actually a different, more difficult Braille code than regular Braille, so the demand is high and some local Braillists focus all their efforts on that subject.
The Braille Transcribers are a division of the Central Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired.Last year, the 24 volunteers, mostly retired schoolteachers, transcribed textbooks for children across 25 states.
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Liberia: Study finds many girls gelling sex to pay for school
- Save the Children
As many as four out of five schoolgirls in war-scarred Liberia are resorting to having sex for cash so they can pay for their education, a study by British-based charity Save the Children has found.
A whole generation of Liberians had their schooling interrupted by 14 years of civil war. Many youths say the main thing they are longing for after elections in October, the first since the conflict ended in August 2003, is the chance to get a proper education.
But in the West African country, where unemployment is estimated at 85 percent, sending a child to school costs half the average annual income of around US $115.
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Finland: Ombudsman for Children Starts Work
Former MP, Ms. Maria Kaisa Aula has started work as Finland’s first Ombudsman for Children, based in the city of Jyväskylä. The Ombudsman is an independent post operating in conjunction with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Health to promote children’s interests and rights in society.
The Ombudsman also collaborates with other official bodies and with various organisations, and monitors the living conditions of children and youth, legislation and public decision making. She also assesses the application of child and youth rights and welfare in Finnish society.
The Ombudsman can make initiatives and offer advice and guidance on child and youth affairs. She also maintains contacts with children and youth and conveys information from them to decision makers. The Ombudsman also promotes the carrying out of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
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Scotland: Youth tagging law used just once
Just one youngster under 16 has been electronically tagged by the courts since new anti-social behaviour legislation came into effect last year, MSPs have heard.
But six youngsters have been tagged by the children's hearing system, they were told. The figures were given by deputy justice minister Hugh Henry in response to a Holyrood question from Liberal Democrat MSP Mike Rumbles.
Mr Rumbles said tagging could be used as an alternative to secure accommodation for youngsters and he questioned whether the figures showed that policy being pursued rigorously.
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 7 SEPTEMBER

Ghana: Sixty Percent Child Deaths Caused By Malnutrition
Available statistics indicate that malnutrition is the underlying cause of about 60% of all child deaths. About a third of children aged less than five years in Ghana are underweight and a quarter of them are stunted or too short for their ages. These conditions are the results of chronic under feeding, and or inappropriate childcare practices.
Studies have shown that there is decreased Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and therefore stunted children do not perform well at school. There is also reduced physical endurance, work and reduced productivity output as adults, thus making them less useful to society and more susceptible to poverty. The children of such adults are likely to follow the same path thus leading to intergenerational or endemic poverty.
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UK: Spending of £1bn to curb truancy 'wasted'
Spending of more than £1bn has had no impact on truancy rates over the past decade, a report says today.
Despite measures intended to tackle poor attendance and behaviour, at least 70,000 children do not turn up to school each day, according to research by New Philanthropy Capital.
NPC, which carries out research into charities, said the lack of a single national or local agency to deal with truancy was partly to blame.
It said the true scale of the problem remained unseen since official data did not include pupils who registered for school but missed particular lessons - something it claimed two-thirds of pupils admitted to.
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Wales: No more binbags for kids in care!
Children in care in Denbighshire are to be given suitcases or holdalls instead of plastic binbags for carrying their belongings.
It follows a study which revealed that youngsters felt embarrassed by the binbags, which gave the impression that they themselves were unimportant.
In a report to county councillors the authority's head of children and family services Nicola Francis says that those in care should be treated with the same respect and dignity as any other youngsters.
It would cost £3,500 to supply each child with suitable luggage, but private sponsorship is to be sought for the move.
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Indiana: Court Decides Not To Privatize Juvenile Detention Center
After months of consideration, the Marion County Superior Court has decided not to privatize the juvenile detention center
The big reason they voted against privatizing this facility is they want to stop depending on it so much, and start thinking of it as a last resort for troubled kids.
Judges say the 144 beds at the juvenile detention center are full nearly every day, but Monday the Criminal Justice Planning Council announced they don't want it that full in the future.
"We'll still need incarceration space here in Marion Country, but we're trying to develop alternatives to incarceration, because quite frankly, if we just keep doing the same thing over and over again, we're going to get the same results. We gotta try something different," Cale Bradford, presiding judge in Marion Co. Superior Court said.
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 6 SEPTEMBER

Children 'define' family, survey finds
A new study into social attitudes has shown Australians are more likely to view couples with children as a family, rather than couples without children.
Social researchers from around the country contributed to the study, which is the first in a decade to canvass attitudes towards areas such as family, work and government.
Researcher Ann Evans says the report shows 65 per cent of younger Australians believe same-sex couples with children are families... that compares with only 14 per cent of people aged over 65.
Dr Evans says the presence of children in a relationship contributes strongly to people's perception of a family.
"Children define a family in Australia," she said.
Full Story

Fun is out among German youths
German adolescents are taking on a more serious tone. With youth unemployment high and the future uncertain, the "fun society" is out.
Unemployment is high among teens and young adults and almost 1.5 million children and adolescents are living off of welfare. The possibility of living prosperous lives like those of their parents and grandparents seems very distant for many young people.
Now, they are changing their expectations. "In today's society, you can't get along without money," said 15-year-old Monti from Cologne. "I don't want to live on the street someday, not here in Germany. Maybe somewhere else, on an island or somewhere, but then there will be no money."
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UNICEF Calls for Viable Plan, Increased Funding to Help Orphans in Africa
Viable national planning and increased funding is vital to support sub-Saharan Africa's 12 million orphans, the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said here Friday ahead of the forthcoming world leaders summit in New York.
In a statement issued in Nairobi, the UN agency said more support needs to be generated for the National Plans of Action prepared by more than 16 countries in Africa.
Ten or so other countries are in the preparation stage with their plans.
"As world leaders gather later this month in New York to review progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), protecting vulnerable children should take center stage," UNICEF said.
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UK: 'Happy slap' victim, 14, hanged in his wardrobe
A TEENAGER who was found hanged with his school tie had been the victim of a “happy slapping” attack during a campaign of bullying, an inquest was told yesterday.
Shaun Noonan, 14, was headbutted, thrown into a ditch, stamped on, chased and had an earring pulled out by fellow pupils at Sutton High School in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire.
After the inquest Shaun’s father, Gary, revealed that one bully had made a flying drop-kick into Shaun’s back while another used a mobile phone to film what was happening, in the “happy slapping” attack.
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Scotland: Drugs death ‘hovers over tens of thousands of young people’
Ministers will fail to meet their targets for cutting drug deaths if they continue to rely on "harm reduction" and methadone rather than abstinence, a leading expert on drug abuse warns today.
Writing for The Herald, Neil McKeganey, professor of drug misuse research at Glasgow University, said the breadth of the drugs problem meant death was now "hovering on the shoulder of tens of thousands of young people".
Based on current practice, which involves prescribing methadone to a third of addicts, Professor McKeganey says there is "simply no way" ministers will be able to cut deaths by a quarter. "In much of our thinking about the drug problem in Scotland, we have set the bar of aspiration too low."
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Northern Ireland: £16.8m Juvenile Justice Centre announced
Safe and secure modern accommodation in which to address offending behaviour is at the heart of the proposed new £16.8 million facility for juvenile offenders in Northern Ireland, Criminal Justice Minister David Hanson said today.
Announcing the awarding of the construction contract f to JH Turkington & Sons, Mr Hanson said the new purpose built Centre at Rathgael in Bangor would provide "safe, modern and secure accommodation" where offending behaviour could be addressed.
As the main juvenile custodial facility in Northern Ireland, the new Centre will provide places for up to 48 young people aged 10-17. It will replace the existing Juvenile Justice Centre at Rathgael and is expected to be in operational by January 2007.
“The building will be fit for purpose and will meet the needs of young people and staff. Its design ensures privacy for both young offenders and local residents," the Minister said.
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Scotland: Ten-year-olds 'getting hooked on petrol'
CHILDREN as young as ten are drinking and sniffing petrol, a growing and potentially lethal form of solvent abuse, experts warned yesterday.
More children have gained access to the fuel after being bought quad bikes or off-road motorbikes. But many have become addicted to the chemicals in petrol and their parents have phoned the solvent abuse charity LOST, begging for help.
John O'Brien, who set up LOST after his son Lee, 16, died in 2002 from inhaling lighter fuel, said children were playing "Russian roulette" and added: "Parents are asleep to this danger, which could kill their children the first time they try it."
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 5 SEPTEMBER

Ireland: Garda scheme bids to keep youngsters on straight and narrow
A garda scheme to stop young people engaging in criminal behaviour will today see 36 teenagers take part in an outdoor activities project in Co Roscommon.
Minister for Justice Michael McDowell will also visit the youths on the activities-led weekend project in Lough Keel in Boyle, which is designed to help young people stay on the right side of the law during their must vulnerable years.
Around 36 young people, aged from 12 to 16-years, have been selected from Garda Youth Diversion Projects in Dublin, Limerick, Waterford, Roscommon, Ballina and Sligo to take part in the weekend activities in the park.
There are 64 youth diversion projects operating across the country which are administered by local gardaí and backed by Department of Justice funds of almost €5.4m.
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UK: Blair: Put unruly children under curfew
UNRULY teenagers could be put under a court curfew before they have committed any crime, under a controversial new proposal announced by Tony Blair Friday.
The Prime Minister said he is stepping up his "respect agenda" and intends to "change the rules of the game" by ensuring the state is even more active in family life.
This opens the first real divide in the anti-social agenda in England and Scotland, where local authorities are refusing to use the new powers introduced by Jack McConnell, the First Minister, last year.
In the first speech since returning from holiday, the Prime Minister said that good behaviour and strong parenting are the foundation of civilised society. The root of anti-social behaviour, he said, is disrespect.
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UK: ID check failures are putting children in danger
Thousands of children and the elderly are being put at risk because of failings in identity checks on teachers, care workers and professionals working with vulnerable people.
The failure could allow known sex offenders to obtain jobs working with children by using an assumed identity.
A spot check by the Criminal Records Bureau on organisations processing applications has found that more than a third were failing accurately to confirm applicants’ identities.
The spot check on organisations classed as registered bodies with the bureau uncovered a fundamental flaw in the system for issuing criminal records checks. When the organisation was set up it was assumed that the bodies would carry out full and proper identity checks on applicants before sending on their application form to the bureau, but no mechanism was set up for ensuring that they do.
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Teacher sparks row on existence of dyslexia
A professor sparked a row on Friday by saying that dyslexia -- an illness which afflicts millions of people worldwide -- was overdiagnosed.
Julian Elliott, professor of education at Durham University in northern England, described dyslexia as a "construct" that had no scientific basis but had gained wide currency.
"It is hardly surprising that the widespread, yet wholly erroneous, belief that dyslexics are intellectually bright but poor readers would create an impassioned demand to be accorded a dyslexic label," he wrote in the Times Educational Supplement.
The article, to publicise a documentary on the emotive issue to be aired next week, said there was no proof there was any teaching method more appropriate to children diagnosed as dyslexic than those simply classified as slow readers.
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Ontario takes aim at rising dropout rate
Ontario will offer students more co-op, apprenticeship and on-the-job training programs in a bid to curb the high dropout rate and back legislation to keep kids learning to age 18, said Premier Dalton McGuinty.
Legislation will be introduced this fall to require students to "keep learning" to age 18, McGuinty said in an interview with The Canadian Press. Currently, students can't leave school before age 16.
But students won't be forced to sit in a classroom with their head buried in a textbook until their 18th birthday, McGuinty said.
Students who want to get out of school will instead be offered new "engaging" programs such as trade apprenticeships, co-op programs to test out careers and on-the-job training.
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 2 SEPTEMBER

Edmonton: Grant MacEwan certified to grant BAs
After years of waiting, Grant MacEwan College has become the first public college in Alberta to be given degree-granting status by the provincial government and will start implementing degree programs as early as next fall.
Last month’s decision by the Advanced Education ministry means students in a bachelor of arts program at Grant MacEwan will be able to major in anthropology, economics, English, history, philosophy, political science, psychology or sociology without having to transfer to the University of Alberta. A new four-year bachelor of child and youth care degree program is also being introduced to complement current diploma programs offered at the College.
“[The bachelor of child and youth care is] the first degree program of its kind in Alberta,” said David Beharry, the College’s interim director of communications and external relations. “I guess it’s the ongoing evolution of MacEwan.”
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Unicef Ambassador Moved By Aids Orphans
Liam Neeson, Irish actor and UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) ambassador, pledged this week to draw attention to children orphaned by HIV/AIDS in Mozambique.
Neeson recently returned from his first field visit as a UNICEF ambassador and said he was determined to do everything he could to help UNICEF ensure that the impact of the pandemic on children was minimised.
The Belfast Telegraph quoted Neeson as saying, "In many cases, there were three children and their mothers to a bed, some of the children crying in pain and hunger, others too sick to move. We have to do more ... I am determined, with UNICEF, to do this."


New Zealand: Fewer mental health beds
Mental health staff shortages have forced a cut in bed numbers for children and adults with acute illness in central Auckland.
The Child and Family Unit at Starship hospital has been cut to 15 in-patient beds, from its usual 20. The number of day-patient beds remains five.
"Workforce shortages are increasing, creating a serious impact on our capacity to deliver service in the child and youth and acute adult in-patient areas," says a paper for an Auckland District Health Board committee meeting yesterday.
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Scotland: Idle teens -- NEETs
Scotland has more idle teenagers per head of population than anywhere else in the developed world. An army of 35,000 kids aged 16 to 19 - one in seven - have left school but failed to get a job or college place.
They even have their own name, NEETs - or Not in Education, Employment or Training.
A report for the Executive said: "The NEET group has been identified as a particular issue for Scotland.
"Scotland has the highest proportion of 16 to 19-year-olds not in education, employment and training in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.' The OECD are a club comprising 30 of the world's richest countries.
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 1 SEPTEMBER

Papua New Guinea: Minister admits police brutality
PNG's police minister today admitted charges of police brutality against children, including the rape of girls in custody, made in a scathing report by Human Rights Watch.he report describes young girls being gang raped by policemen in jail cells and boys being shot, knifed or beaten with iron bars by policemen.
"It's something we're not proud of. It's something we need to eradicate within the PNG police force now," Police Minister Bire Kimisopa told Australian national radio in response to the report by the New York-based organisation.
The 124-page report, Making Their Own Rules: Police Beatings, Rape, and Torture of Children in Papua New Guinea, said "extreme physical violence" by police was routine.
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UK: Child mental disorders unlikely to fall
Substantial reductions in the number of children suffering from mental disorders will not be seen for around 10 years, a mental health charity said today.
The warning from the charity, Young Minds, came after government figures revealed that the prevalence of mental disorders among children and teenagers had not fallen between 1999 and 2004.
The survey by the national statistics office showed that one in 10 children aged five to 16 in England, Scotland and Wales had a mental disorder last year.
Dinah Morley, deputy director of Young Minds, said the level of mental disorders among children should start to fall in 10 years' time.
Ms Morley said that, while more funding in child and adolescent mental health services was still required, government investment in parenting support services such as Sure Start would pay dividends in terms of children's longer-term psychological wellbeing.
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Florida: DCF Outlines Plan To Keep Children Safe
The Florida Department of Children & Families released plans Tuesday to halve child abuse and neglect rates in Florida within five years.
DCF's plan is designed to reduce the number of children abused from 32.3 per 1,000 in the 2003-04 fiscal year to 15 per 1,000 children by June 30, 2010. The state agency also plans to reduce the rate of repeat abuse from 8.8 percent to 4 percent.
The prevention plan is part of a legislative mandate that required the department to assess statewide need.
The state also had to form a task force of state agencies, community alliances, community-based care groups, American Indian tribes, Prevent Child Abuse Florida and parents. DCF tried to work with groups not traditionally associated with child abuse and neglect, including housing authorities and Boys & Girls Clubs.
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Liberia: Unesco Launches "Education for Children in Need"
The United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has launched what is known as "Education for Children in Need in Liberia" aimed at helping parents meet the educational needs of "disadvantaged" children, war-affected youths as well as children associated with the fighting forces in the Liberian conflict.
Addressing a new conference yesterday at UNESCO office in Mamba Point, the head of a 3-man delegation from the UNESCO Paris Headquarters, Francoise Pinzon-Gil, said the program was being launched in Liberia to pave the way for the reintegration of the Liberian children, especially child soldiers getting back into useful life.
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