News round up: neglect; secret child punishment manual; forced marriage

More children at risk as cases of neglect soar, charity warns

One of the UK’s leading children’s charities has issued a stark warning that the child protection system is failing neglected infants, sometimes with fatal consequences, despite the number of children being placed on protection plans for neglect rising by almost 30% in five years.

The NSPCC is calling for an urgent overhaul of guidelines issued to social workers which it says encourage them to adopt an approach “of waiting for neglect to persist” before intervening.

Read more on this story in The Observer

Release of secret child punishment manual ordered

The information commissioner has said that a secret prison service punishment manual used in ­privately run child jails should be made public after a three-year freedom of information battle. The 114-page Physical Control in Care training manual details restraint ­techniques authorised for use on children in secure training centres.

They include detailed descriptions of “distraction” techniques, which deliberately inflict pain and were found by the court of appeal to have been routinely unlawfully used in secure training centres.

Read more on this story in the Guardian

Social workers failing women facing forced marriage, says report

Vulnerable women and girls at risk of being forced into marriage are being failed by social services who are not using powers to protect them, according to a government review seen by the Guardian.

Social services have been singled out for criticism in a government review for failing to use powers introduced to protect vulnerable young women from forced marriage. The forced marriage protection orders have been used across the country, primarily for girls and young women, whose relatives have threatened to take them abroad to be married against their will or force them to marry in the UK.

Read more on this story in the Guardian

Anti-McCann summit insult

A GROUP who accuse Kate and Gerry McCann of child neglect are giving them more grief – with a summit near their home.

They have invited the bungling Portuguese cop who claimed the couple were involved in daughter Madeleine’s disappearance to be a VIP guest.

Read more on this story in The Sun