The vicar’s reaction to people only appearing in church at Christmas

Posted on December 16, 2018December 9, 2018 By Chris

Jody Stowell wrote a great article in The Independent, a few years ago, on the vicar’s reaction to people only appearing in church at Christmas:

Do I mind that people come to church at Christmas and occasionally at Easter, and remain absent the rest of the year? The honest answer is yes and no. Of course I want people to come to church each Sunday, but do not think for one moment that I care one tiny jot about bums on seats. When people come to church at Christmas, I would like to see them again, simply because they have made the connection between the twinkly lights in the darkness and the Light that Shines in the Darkness.

You may only come to church at Christmas, but it really is Christmas every day.

Christmas feel good story

Posted on December 14, 2018December 9, 2018 By Chris

In 2013 a teenager collected hundreds of supermarket vouchers to buy £600 worth of shopping for 4p so he could give the food to families:

Jordon Cox, 16, scoured endless websites and magazines and gathered hundreds of coupons for dozens of products. After spending hours each day searching the internet for coupons, he managed to collect 470, which he took to his local supermarket, and filled three trolleys with food and household items. The bill came to £572.16, but once the coupons were factored in the bill was reduced to just 4p – a saving of 99.81 per cent. The teenager, of Brentwood in Essex, donated all his food to the charity Doorstep which gives food to disadvantaged families.

He said:

“I read an article that said a thousandth of the UK population are unable to eat this Christmas because they don’t have any money. I decided wanted to help as many people as I can, and to also show that it’s possible to shop very cheaply, if you know how. It’s not an exact science, so you can never really work out ahead of time how much the total is going to be. I was stunned when it came up as just 4p.”

He started his Christmas shopping project on December 1 and scoured hundreds of in-store magazines and websites for money off and cash back coupons. His shop, at Tesco Brent Cross, ended with an hour stop at the checkout to unload his items which included 200 packets of biscuits and 60 packs of butter.

He said:

“The lady at the checkout had worked at Tesco for 19 years, and she said she’d never seen anything like it before. I had a big crowd. I felt like a celebrity. My heart was pounding and the adrenaline was pumping when we got to the till. So much could have gone wrong. I could have left some coupons at home, or not read the terms and conditions properly. Some of them might have expired too.”

Vicky Fox, who works at Doorstep, said families who he had helped out were overwhelmed by the donation. She said:

“I’d call his gift a great and generous act of a young man and what he did made a real difference. He’s made a really difference to families who work with us to survive on extremely low incomes and do need the help. He made such a different to people living on the breadline.”

He bought:

20 packs of frozen Yorkshire puddings
20 jam roly polys
80 packs of butter
23 packs of Quorn mince
Four Gressingham poussin.
40 black puddings
200 packets of biscuits
23 blocks of hard cheese
20 pots of Yeo Valley organic yoghurt
19 bottles of fruit juice.
10 boxes of Paxo stuffing
40 bottles of Anchor whipped cream
15 bags of frozen Brussels sprouts
4 packs of After Eight mints
15 Covent Garden Soups.
10 bags of Florette Salad
36 packs of Cauldron tofu, vegetarian sausages and falafel
Crumble mix
Haribo sweets

Youth Ministry and Church News from around the world

Posted on December 9, 2018December 9, 2018 By Chris

News from around the world of youth ministry and the Church:

Young, gay and Christian: If you are a young Christian in the UK, coming out can pose extra challenges. While some churches offer acceptance, others show hostility. It’s down to different interpretations of the Bible. Meet Aiko and David who both identify as Bible-believing, gay Christians, but who are walking very different paths.
Justin Welby shares his life lesson for 2019: we must learn how to forgive – and disagree. He writes this in the context of the imminent Brexit vote.
Archbishop calls for Vigil of Prayer ahead of Brexit vote: The Archbishop of York is inviting all to join him in a vigil of prayer ahead of the Commons vote on the Brexit deal. The vigil will start on Sunday 9 December at 6am until Tuesday 11 December at midnight.
Bishop of Durham urges politicians to give working families more support: Further coverage of Joseph Rowntree Foundation state of the nation report on poverty. Includes comment from the Bishop of Durham, Paul Butler.
Christians are being invited to share their experience of living out their faith in the UK: in a consultation led by the Christians in Parliament All Party Parliamentary Group.
Volunteer questioned over body parts that turned out to be for nativity play: Interview with a church volunteer who created a nativity scene made with life-sized mannequins at the church of St John the Divine in Nottingham.
Statement on structural changes to Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team: including the appointment of Sir Roger Singleton as interim director of the Church of England’s National Safeguarding Team. Sir Roger was previously chief executive of Barnardo’s. He has been the Government’s Chief Adviser on the Safety of Children and chaired the Independent Safeguarding Authority from 2007- 2012.

Youth work and social care news from around the world

Posted on December 6, 2018December 9, 2018 By Chris

Links from around the world of youth work and social care:

Online abuse: Facebook has announced that it has removed 8.7 million pieces of content that violated their child nudity or sexual exploitation of children policies in the past quarter.
Young people’s mental health: statistics provided by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, in response to a written parliamentary question from Bambos Charalambous, show that in 2017/18 there were 27,487 attendances at accident and emergency departments in England by young people aged 18 or under with a recorded first diagnosis of psychiatric conditions. This was almost double the figure for 2012/13, when there were 13,800 attendances.
Characteristics of children in need: The Department for Education (DfE) has published statistics for children referred to and assessed by children’s social services in England for the year ending 31 March 2018. Figures show there were 404,710 children in need at 31 March 2018, an increase of 4% on the previous year; the number of child protection plans at 31st March 2018 has increased to 53,790, an increase of 5.3% on the figure for 2017.
UK Youth Parliament: UK Youth Parliament has published the results of the Make your Mark consultation, run by the British Youth Council, which asked young people in the UK to choose issues they felt were a priority for discussion. Responses from 1,106,788 young people aged 11-18 show that putting an end to knife crime and improving mental health services for young people were among the top priorities identified.
Domestic abuse: The House of Commons Home Affairs Committee has published a report following an inquiry into the government’s proposed domestic abuse strategy and draft bill on domestic abuse. The report looks at the impact of domestic abuse on children and makes recommendations including: the impact of domestic abuse on children should be explicitly recognised in the legislation; the government should develop a clear strategy to ensure that children experiencing domestic abuse are protected and given the support necessary to help them recover; children affected by domestic abuse should be given special waiting list status for all NHS services, including child and adolescent mental health services.
Digital Media Is ‘Like Cocaine’ for Babies’ Developing Brains: Some doctors refer to behaviors resulting from overexposure to digital devices as “virtual autism.”

Youth work and social care news from around the world

Posted on December 1, 2018 By Chris

Links from around the world of youth work and social care:

Care Leaver Covenant: Children’s and Families Minister Nadhim Zahawi has announced a scheme to raise the career aspirations and improve the life skills of care leavers. The Care Leaver Covenant has been signed by more than 50 businesses, charities and government departments in England who have committed to provide work based opportunities to young people leaving the care system. The scheme aims to create 10,000 work opportunities for care leavers over the next 10 years. For further information check out the Care Leaver Covenant website and see the pledges from government departments.
Online Safety: Childnet International has produced guidance for parents and carers on looking after the digital wellbeing of children and young people. This includes having an awareness of how being online can make children and young people feel, and how they can look after themselves and others when online. The guidance includes: age specific information about how children and young people are interacting with the internet; top tips to support young people at this age; and ideas to help start a conversation about digital wellbeing.
Loneliness Strategy: The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has published a strategy setting out the government’s approach to tackling loneliness in England – A connected society: a strategy for tackling loneliness – laying the foundations for change. The strategy refers to loneliness experienced by children and young people and states that the new subjects of relationships education for primary schools and relationships and sex education (RSE) for secondary schools, due to become compulsory in all schools in England in September 2020, will emphasise the value of social relationships. The guidance content for teachers will highlight the impact of loneliness, particularly on mental health.
Child trafficking: Europol has published a report on child trafficking in the European Union. Findings from a study of almost 600 intelligence contributions reported to Europol by member states between 2015 and 2017 include: traffickers active in the EU target underage victims mainly for sexual exploitation; the majority of non- EU networks reported to Europol involved Nigerian organised crime groups which traffic female children and women to be sexually exploited; trafficking and exploitation of male children, especially for sexual exploitation, remains an under-reported phenomenon at EU level.
Modern slavery: The Home Office has published an annual report on modern slavery in the UK giving an overview of modern slavery and how the UK has responded to it over the last 12 months. The report finds that 2,121 potential child victims of modern slavery were referred to the national referral mechanism (NRM) in 2017. The NRM is a victim identification and support process that is designed to make it easier for agencies involved in a trafficking case to cooperate, share information about potential victims and facilitate their access to advice, accommodation and support.
Knife Crime: The Guardian reports that figures obtained from nine of the NHS’s 11 regional major trauma centres in England that treat adults and children show that they dealt with 2,278 victims of serious knife crime in 2017-18, with cases involving under-18s increasing by 24.4% since 2015-16.
Kinship Care: Grandparents Plus has published a report looking at the challenges faced by kinship carers – grandparents and other family members – who have taken on the care of children who aren’t able to live with their parents. Findings from responses to a survey from 1,139 kinship carers across the UK show that the most common reasons for children living with respondents include: parental drug or alcohol misuse (51%), abuse and/or neglect (54%), a parent being unable to cope (39%), and domestic violence (31%). Carers also report that 54% of the children in their care have special needs, of which 85% have emotional or behavioural problems.

Youth work and social care news from around the world

Posted on September 29, 2018October 1, 2018 By Chris

Links from around the world of youth work and social care:

Strengths-based social care: The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) has published a report, written jointly with Leeds City Council and Shared Lives Plus, describing how strength-based approaches (SBAs) work in children and family settings and how effective they are. SBAs focus on the strengths as well as the needs of children, young people and their families. The report looks at: the key features of SBAs; embedding SBAs in practice; and avoiding pitfalls. SCIE has also published a series of blogs and a video in conjunction with the report, highlighting good examples of strengths-based social care for children, young people and their families.
Public health approach to tackle serious violence: The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has announced that a public health approach will be used to tackle serious violence in London. The approach, based on a similar initiative in Glasgow, will expand the work of the Mayor’s Knife Crime Strategy to include wider types of violence and look to address the links between violence in the home and on the street. It will aim to deliver early interventions to help prevent the spread of violence and improve coordination between the Metropolitan Police, local authorities, youth services, health services, criminal justice agencies and the Greater London Authority.
Girlguiding attitudes survey 2018: Girlguiding UK has published its annual report on the attitudes of girls for 2018 entitled ‘We see the big picture: girls’ attitudes survey’. 1,903 girls and young women aged 7-21-years-old took part in the survey from across the UK. The survey included questions about girls’ attitudes on a range of subjects, including: mental health; wellbeing and happiness; periods; education; relationships and socialising and safety. Findings include: 71% of girls knew another girl that had experienced mental health problems; 52% of girls have experienced harassment on the street, or know someone that has.
UK poverty metric: The Social Metrics Commission (SMC) has proposed a new metric for measuring poverty across the UK, outlined in their report on data for 2016/17. Findings include: 4.5 million children are living in poverty in the UK; overall child poverty has fallen by around 2% since 2001; the child poverty rate (32.6%) is higher than the poverty rate for the whole population (22%).
UK child welfare inequalities: The University of Huddersfield has published research, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, into child welfare intervention rates in each UK nation. Based on a mixed sampling of 12,412 children on protection plans or registers and 24,477 looked after children across the UK, research found that Northern Ireland has the lowest intervention rates, despite having the highest levels of deprivation.
Child criminal exploitation: The Home Office has published a new version of the county lines guidance relating to the criminal exploitation of children and vulnerable adults, for professionals across the UK who work with children. The new version includes a definition of child criminal exploitation, which is common in county lines, noting: it occurs where an individual or group takes advantage of an imbalance of power to coerce, control, manipulate or deceive a child or young person under the age of 18; it does not always involve physical contact and can also occur through the use of technology; and it is broader than just county lines, including children forced to work on cannabis farms or to commit theft.
Predicting child abuse: A series of articles in the Guardian report that local authorities in England are developing and using “predictive analytics” systems, where algorithms are used to identify families who may need attention from children’s services. The articles report that at least five local authorities have developed or implemented a predictive analytics system for child safeguarding (Thurrock; Brent and Essex; Bristol and Hackney.)
Update to Ofsted inspection framework for children’s services: Ofsted has updated guidance for inspections of local authority children’s services. Updates include: Ofsted will no longer use the single inspection framework to carry out re-inspections of local authorities rated inadequate, but will re-inspect using a standard inspection framework; and new guidance on producing an action plan for priority action areas after a focused visit. See the full ‘Framework, evaluation criteria and inspector guidance for the inspections of local authority children’s services‘ for more information.

Youth work and social care news from around the world

Posted on September 14, 2018September 23, 2018 By Chris

Links from around the world of youth work and social care:

Children’s access to healthy food: The Food Foundation has released a report analysing Public Health England’s (PHE) Eatwell guide, finding that 3.7 million children in the UK live in households for whom a healthy diet is increasingly unaffordable. Families earning less than £15,860 would need to spend 42% of after-housing income on food to meet the costs of the Government’s nutrition guidelines. The report calls for a national measurement of food insecurity in the UK.

Parental responsibility: guidance: The Department for Education has published guidance to help schools and local authorities in England understand and deal with issues relating to parental responsibility as recognised by education law, in particular in situations where parental responsibility can be confusing or unclear.

Young carers: Coram has published an evaluation of the Young carers in schools Programme, a free England-wide initiative delivered by Carers Trust and The Children’s Society aimed at improving the identification and support of young carers in schools. The published report, A better relationship with learning: an evaluation of the young carers in schools programme, involved an online survey of 103 schools involved in the programme, 14 interviews with schools and other stakeholders, and two focus groups with young carers. Findings include: the introduction of the programme resulted in the identification of an increased number of young carers; 85% of schools reported that young carers were demonstrating increased wellbeing; 83% reported increased happiness and 83% reported increased confidence.

Mental health policy in England: The House of Commons Library has published a briefing on mental health policy in England. The briefing includes reference to services for children and young people.

Children and young people’s mental health networks: UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has announced the creation of eight mental health networks to bring researchers, charities and other organisations together to address mental health research questions including: health inequalities for people with severe mental ill health; social isolation; youth and student mental health; and domestic and sexual violence.

In the service of youth – making waves in youth work: This year’s Institute for Youth Work conference is taking place in Brighton on the 10th November, it will be an opportunity to both celebrate Youth Work Week and the conference theme: coastal youth work. The conference is being co-hosted by the University of Brighton, and consequently one of the aims of the conference is to create a short paper on the unique nature of coastal youth work.

Suicide data from the UK and what does this mean for suicide prevention? The latest data shows that there were 5,821 suicides registered in 2017 in the UK, and the number and rate has decreased for the third year in the row. The decrease has mainly occurred in men, and the picture is different for women with the number of suicides remaining stable. However, men still account for three quarters of all suicides. Also, rates are not uniformly decreasing for all groups of men; rates in some age groups are increasing, for example men aged 45-49.

Do distressed or troubled children need therapy?

Posted on June 30, 2018 By Chris

Earlier this week I read a fascinating article, We Need to Talk About Children’s Mental Health – and the Elephants in the Room, by Elizabeth Gregory who is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist working with children and families.

In the article she argues that:

the dominant narrative in today’s society is that ‘distressed’ or ‘troubled’ children need ‘therapy’ to fix their problems. This article examines what this belief may be rooted in; and how potentially damaging it is for children; and for society as a whole. It will refer to a number of ‘elephants in the room’, by way of drawing attention to issues we really need to start talking about if we are to stem the tide and begin to address the mental health of future generations.

Gregory goes on to explain a number of ‘elephants in the room’ and in conclusion argues that instead of therapy, professionals who work with children and families need to return to some of the basics:

Helping parents to talk to their children, read to their children, play with their children, show warmth to their children, listen to their children, believe in their children, give hope to their children – all in a context of doing the same for the parents themselves who didn’t receive it in their own childhoods, is far more powerful than any therapy. This doesn’t happen quickly – again it is about being alongside families in their communities and facilitating them to do things differently by providing the most basic of resources, support, consistency and encouragement.

Go check out the full article.

Thousands of older teenagers facing serious risks because of a “cliff edge” in support

Posted on March 26, 2018March 26, 2018 By Chris

Tens of thousands of older teenagers facing serious risks including child sexual exploitation and mental health issues are missing out on vital support because of a “cliff edge” in support, The Children’s Society has warned. They said that because there is no statutory requirement for councils to support children in need when they turn 18 they are often left without any help even though they remain vulnerable.

It said that there are currently around 58,000 children and young people aged 16 to 17 designated as children in need, who are in need of support but fall below the threshold for care proceedings.

However, the charity’s report Crumbling Futures found that just three per cent of closed cases involving 16- and 17-year-old children in need are transferred to adult services for support. Key areas of support, that drop off when they reach 18, cover issues such as child sexual exploitation (CSE), mental health problems, drug and alcohol abuse and domestic violence.

The report states:

“Issues that young people referred to children’s services as 16- and 17-year-olds experience include domestic violence, mental ill health, drug or alcohol abuse and a risk of CSE, and often a combination of these issues”.

“In just over 50 per cent of cases of 16- and 17-year-olds referred to children’s services for support, these issues are deemed serious enough by local authorities and young people are assessed as ‘children in need’, recognising that without support from services the child’s health and development may be compromised.”

“Unfortunately, for many of these children the issues they struggle with are not going to improve or get resolved once they reach adulthood.”

The Children’s Society has called on government to broaden its review of children in need, which launched earlier this month, to include a focus on improving support into adulthood:

“While the review is focusing on improving how well children in need do in education, the charity wants it to look at all aspects of their lives where help is falling short”.

Other recommendations include ensuring that children in need and child protection plans for 16- and 17-year-olds last until the age of 18. The charity’s report found that four in 10 child in need plans for the age group last for less than three months.

Councils should also be required to plan for young people’s transition from children’s services to adult services and take into account the possibility that support may be needed up to the age of 25.

Children’s Society chief executive Matthew Reed said:

“Approaching adulthood can be a difficult, awkward, time for many teenagers, but it can be even tougher if young people don’t get the help they need to deal with serious issues in their lives”

“Help for vulnerable 16- and 17-year-olds who are not in care too often falls short then disappears from the age of 18 as they continue to struggle with issues including mental health, sexual exploitation, poverty and homelessness.

“The Children’s Society wants to see better support for children in need as they prepare for adulthood and a comprehensive package of help after they turn 18 – with councils given the additional money they need to deliver this.

“Only then will more young people get the vital support they need to ensure problems arising from their childhood are addressed and do not blight their chances of thriving in the future.”

State of the Voluntary Sector in Hampshire

Posted on March 19, 2018 By Chris

Action Hampshire, with the support of the district CVSs, recently carried out some research into the state of the voluntary sector in Hampshire.

An on-line survey was circulated around Hampshire’s voluntary and community sector organisations in November/December 2017. A range of questions were posed, most of which were asked in relation to the organisation’s position 3 years ago.

478 responses were received commenting on areas including capacity to deliver services, financial security, volunteering and planning for the future. Some of the key findings highlighted issues on the increase in demand for services and areas that organisations are struggling with.

Demand
Over 60% of respondents reported that demand for their services has increased over the past 3 years, but many also report that the type of demand has changed. As other services close, there is nowhere to refer clients on to:

“Clients are more likely to have multiple issues, and as other support services have decreased we often cannot refer them for other support and therefore work holistically.”

What are organisations struggling with?
Organisations continue to struggle with a range of subjects and issues: volunteers (recruiting, retaining and managing), marketing, and gaining funds (specifically earning fees, bid writing, and tendering & procurement).

“It has become much harder to generate revenue. Even our fund raising events are getting fewer people.”

Very few respondents said that they were likely to be helping their beneficiaries less in a year’s time. A worrying 22% of respondents felt that they either had ‘no idea’ where they would be in a year’s time, or were unsure if they would still exist in a year’s time.

What does this mean for the future of Hampshire’s voluntary sector organisations?

You can download the summary and full report here:

National Cyber Security Centre produces guide for small charities

Posted on March 5, 2018March 13, 2018 By Chris

The NCSC has published advice to help charities to protect themselves from the most common cyber attacks.

The guide covers 5 topics:

backing up your data
protecting your charity from malware
keeping your smartphones and tablets safe
using passwords to protect your data
avoiding phishing attacks

The guide is easy to understand and its recommendations cost little (or nothing) to implement.

Click here to visit the NCSC website to download the guide.