Adela Kay, Assistant Headteacher at Aspire Virtual School, has conducted in-depth research on a variety of pressing issues affecting children and young people within our community.
For February’s research, Adela explores key topics from attendance to youth homelessness, covering themes such as children in children with social workers, supporting parents and families, youth justice, and care proceedings and youth justice. Below, you’ll find summaries and links to valuable resources aimed at supporting schools in these areas.
Attendance
The BBC has created a useful section within BBC Bitesize to support parents whose children experience school-based anxiety. The resource highlights how this anxiety can be challenged and overcome.
📌 Read here: School Anxiety and Refusal: How Parents Can Help Their Child Get Through Tough Times – BBC Parents’ Toolkit
Children with a Social Worker
A data analysis from the FFT Datalab provides insights into cumulative figures for children with a social worker. Tracking this cohort across data systems is complex, but this article estimates that up to 25% of children will be recognised as a child in need before they turn 18, with almost a third being referred before their 18th birthday. At present, our figures for children with a social worker (CWSW) within the last six years are edging towards 13%.
📌 Read here: How Many Children Are Ever in Need Up to Age 18? – FFT Education Datalab
Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children
Dars, a BBC World Service educational programme for children and young people, has produced a video to help children deal with stress. It is particularly aimed at those growing up in conflict zones. The video introduces what stress can feel like and provides simple tools for relaxation and stress reduction.
📌 Read here: How to Deal with Stress – Dars
Supporting Parents and Families
The NSPCC has published a report on contacts to its helplines concerning parental substance misuse. Findings show that in 2023/24:
- An average of 31 contacts per day were made by UK adults worried about the impact of parental substance misuse on children.
- Childline delivered 440 counselling sessions for children and young people concerned about their parent’s substance misuse.
The report also provides advice for children living in such environments.
📌 Read here:
- NSPCC Report on Parental Substance Misuse
- Local Authority Support – Drugs and Alcohol Help (London Borough of Barking & Dagenham)
Youth Homelessness
Centrepoint has published a report on youth homelessness across the UK, based on data from local authorities in 2023-2024. Key findings include:
- 1 in 62 young people in the UK faced homelessness in 2023-2024, an increase from the previous year.
- The primary causes of youth homelessness included family or friends no longer being willing or able to accommodate them and domestic abuse.
Centrepoint is calling on the UK Government to provide ring-fenced funding for local authorities to tackle this issue.
📌 Read here: Hidden in Plain Sight: Understanding Youth Homelessness in the UK
Youth Justice: Knife Crime and Racial disproportionality in violence affecting children and young people.
The Youth Endowment Fund has published a blog post examining knife crime in England and Wales. The report looks at:
- Young people’s concerns about knife crime
- Trends in knife-enabled crimes over the past decade
- The impact on children and young people
The report highlights the need to focus on why children carry knives and the effectiveness of interventions such as psychological therapies and focused deterrence strategies.
Additionally, the Youth Endowment Fund has published a report on racial disproportionality within the youth justice system. While most children involved in the system are white, certain minority ethnic groups are over- or underrepresented relative to their share of the population.
Five main recommendations from the report:
- Ensure stop and search is fair and intelligence-led.
- Make Outcome 22 a positive outcome in the police outcomes framework.
- Monitor and improve access to psychological therapy.
- Deliver evidence-based support to children absent or excluded from school.
- Urgently reduce disproportionality and improve conditions in youth custody.
📌 Read here:
- Beyond the Headlines: A Data-Driven Look at the Rise in Fatal Stabbings
- Youth Endowment Fund Report on Racial Disproportionality
Care Proceedings
The Guardian has published an article highlighting the rise in newborns subject to care proceedings in England. Findings from the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory show that in 2022-23, nearly 3,000 newborns were subject to care proceedings—an increase of nearly 20% since 2012-13.
The Nuffield Family Justice Observatory has also published research on parents with learning disabilities or difficulties involved in care proceedings. This raises important questions about the support available for families both pre-birth and in the first 1,001 days of a child’s life.
Key considerations:
- What support is in place for parents with additional needs when they start a family?
- Do we have SEND-friendly playgroups for both parents with additional needs and children with additional needs?
📌 Read here:
- The Guardian: Increase in Newborns Subject to Care Proceedings
- Nuffield Family Justice Observatory: Babies in Care Proceedings & Parents with Learning Disabilities
Best wishes,
Adela
