There has been a worrying increase in the number of councils in England failing to protect children from abuse, according to a government watchdog which also announced an overhaul of its heavily criticised tickbox inspection regime. The number of councils in England judged inadequate at keeping children safe has doubled in a year, said the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Service...

545% increase in costs for holiday play schemes as Westminster Council hits parents and children with the biggest ever increase in charges. Westminster City Council is planning a 545% increase in charges for holiday play schemes and a 360% increase in the cost of after school play provision, according to a consultation report sent to head teachers in Westminster. This is biggest ever increase in c...

The figure is a five-fold increase in just a decade, according to the children's charity Barnardo's. Barnardo's said the increase meant that many children were "being written off" by the age of 12. In 1997, the Government lowered the age of criminal responsibility for children from 14 to 10. Custodial sentences were handed down to 844 children in the age group in 2007, including 133...

The charity Barnardo's reports that Britain is putting more children in prison than any European country apart from those famous paragons, Russia and the Ukraine. Over the past decade of toughness on crime and fairness being the watchword, there has been a five-fold increase in custodial sentences for ten to fourteen-year-olds. There has been no corresponding increase in serious crime by children

Stories in the media about children in care are seldom talked about unless a tragedy has taken place, notable examples being the case of Baby Peter or the two boys in Darlington. But on Monday Martin Narey, chief executive of Barnardo’s, saying that he wants the number of UK children in care to increase somewhat from around the 62,000 mark where it is currently.

Figures released this week by the IFS show that the UK will witness a severe and sustained increase in child poverty over the coming decade, with almost a quarter of British children set to be living in relative poverty by 2020, compared to one fifth in 2009/10. This is despite a projected 7 per cent

Palliative care for children in England will get a £30m funding increase, the government announces.

A sharp increase in the number of children living in poverty who have at least one parent in work is revealed today, in a study which calls into question government efforts to lift living standards. When research was last conducted five years ago, the majority of children in poverty had parents who were unemployed. The new study shows the majority of children living in poverty now have at least on...

Massive increase in holiday play scheme charges sees attendance figures tumble. Conservative Government cuts in assistance to parents and children have resulted in Westminster losing £80 per child which mean that there are fewer places being provided for vulnerable children in council run nurseries, down over the last few years from 103 full-time equivalent places in 2006 to just 20 by later...

MPs say the Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission is suffering from serious IT problems, creating an increase in the number of cases that have to be handled manually