News round up: UK spends least on poor in recession

By Mithran Samuel on March 18, 2009 in Child safeguarding, Children

UK spends least on poor in recession

Britain has spent less on helping the poorest members of society cope with the recession than almost all other leading nations, according to Save the Children.
Read more on this story in The Daily Telegraph

Probe into Baby P’s death rapped

A review into the death of Baby P was branded “inadequate” by inspectors, it is claimed.

The case is said to be part of a study by Ofsted that found 36 per cent of “serious case reviews” were not up to scratch.

The watchdog criticised 23 of 64 reviews it examined between December and February.

Read more on this story in The Sun

A portrait of 21st century poverty

Today marks the 10th anniversary of Tony Blair’s promise to eradicate child poverty by 2020, but about 30% of children remain beneath the breadline.

Protect the child – and the funding

Lord Laming’s report on the state of child protection was surprisingly compelling – and, beyond its surface sobriety, remarkably idealistic. As expected, it did not question the basic foundations of the Every Child Matters strategy: the integration of schools and children’s social care remains intact. But this was no whitewash. It would have made uncomfortable reading for ministers, whose stewardship of the safeguarding agenda, the report suggests, has been less than glorious.

Debt problems spreading to better off

Increasing numbers of affluent homeowners are seeking help with their debts as rising unemployment and falling property prices put pressure on household budgets, a leading debt charity said today.

Debt problems are becoming more complex, harder to resolve and are spreading to better-off sections of society, according to an analysis of clients helped by the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) during the past three years.