Child “M” is an eight year old school child attending a primary school in Manchester . Child “M” was held in detention at Yarls Wood for 52 days this summer. There can be no justification for imprisoning an eight year old child. Child “M” cannot be named for legal reasons. Child “M” is here in the UK

I am very pleased that this country has decided to sign the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child in full: "The child, by reason of his physical and mental immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection, before as well as after birth." U.N. Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959) and Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990) Se also here.

It’s been said that Margaret Thatcher’s governments did two things for poverty. First they increased it. Then they pretended it did not exist. As Alan Milburn prepares to makes his first speech as the Independent Reviewer on Social Mobility and Child Poverty on Tuesday, his task will be to help the Coalition avoid a similar,

Along with "paedophilia", the term "child" has become so expanded as to risk losing coherent meaning. In terms of child protection legislation, a child is anyone below the age of 18 years. That you can drive, have sex, get married and go to war whilst still a "child" is just to highlight our decidedly convoluted views on these matters.

It is six years since the invasion of Iraq, which makes the Iraq war approximately the same age as the late Ivan Cameron. Gordon Brown responded to Ivan Cameron's death with a tribute to three servicemen killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, and went on to note that "every child is precious and irreplaceable, and the death of a child is an unbearable sorrow that no parent should ever have to endure".

A TOTAL of 7.8 million families in the UK receive child benefit, with £20.30 a week for the eldest child, and £13.40 for every other child.

Eric Pickles makes no bones that his bin policy is aimed at Middle Britain, and the Tories may soon announce more measures to butter up that vital electoral constituency. The Times reports (£) that Cameron and Osborne are seriously considering a u-turn on their controversial cut to child benefits over families in which parent earns more than £42,475, which is due to be introduced in Janu...

Stuart White makes some good points. If you are in the business of "capitalising the poor" there is a danger of focussing solely on those in work and there is the need to also think about child-rearer and carer needs. Age related needs is also another important area he identifies. Also raised as an issue is the source and the stability of the capital be it market, or stat...

In the last few weeks, there has been much speculation that child benefit would be stopped when a child reaches 16. Today’s announcement suggests that this is not going to happen, although the Tories are refusing to rule it out. If there are to be changes to child benefit — and given the financial situation there need to be — then removing it from households with a higher rate ta...

Child Benefit has been found dead after HM Customs and Revenue lost the personal information of nearly 25 million UK citizens in the post - fatally compromising the integrity of both the government and the Child Benefit system and leading to the impending bankruptcy of the nation's children in a financial disaster even more embarrassing than the Northern Rock cock-up. Child Benefit was the proud b...