MORE than four in five professionals who deal with children experiencing neglect say there are not enough services to support them in England, according to new research.
The NSPCC said its poll of 700 workers from across police, healthcare, social care and education found they believe child neglect — defined as a persistent failure to meet a child’s basic physical and psychological needs — has become normalised.
More than half of those surveyed said they had seen an increase in neglect cases during their professional life, with nine in 10 saying the rising cost of living and poverty rates were driving factors.
Rock band, Hard-Fi, perform at the Love Music Hate Racism festival 2008 in Victoria Park, London, April 2008
LOVE Music Hate Racism is relaunching in London next month to stand against the recent surge of far-right riots across Britain.
The campaign, which takes inspiration from Rock Against Racism which helped push back the National Front in the 1970s, will make a comeback with a gig on September 6 at Koko in Camden.
Paloma Faith is set to perform, alongside reggae and soul-influenced singer-songwriter Liam Bailey, reggae and dub DJ Rebel Clash and Southport-born singer-songwriter Lapsley.
Home Office continues appeal against Liberty’s successful legal challenge to anti-protest rules, which the High Court had previously found unlawful
Legislation gave police ‘almost-unlimited’ powers to impose conditions on protests that caused ‘more than minor’ disruption.
Liberty said “We will ensure a government is not allowed to wilfully ignore the rules at the expense of our fundamental human rights”
The human rights organisation Liberty has questioned the new Government’s “concerning disregard for the rule of law” as the Home Office has instructed lawyers to proceed with an appeal against a recent High Court ruling that anti-protest legislation had been created unlawfully.
The legislation, which significantly reduced the threshold at which the police could impose almost-unlimited conditions on protests to anything that they deemed caused ‘more than minor disruption’, had been brought in by then Home Secretary Suella Braverman in June 2023. Previously the threshold had been set at anything that caused ‘serious disruption’.
Liberty challenged the legislation in court, arguing that it was unlawful since it had already been democratically rejected by Parliament just a few months earlier, and was subsequently brought in “via the back door” through ‘secondary legislation’, which required less Parliamentary scrutiny and debate.
In May 2024, the High Court agreed with Liberty’s arguments, ruling that “more than minor cannot mean serious”. The Court also found that the Government had failed to undertake a fair consultation period, instead only inviting thoughts from those it knew would be supportive of its proposals, such as the police but not protest groups.
The previous Government had lodged an appeal against the ruling, and despite requesting an adjournment and meeting to discuss the regulations, the new Government has now decided to continue the appeal. The appeal hearing is expected to take place later in the year.
The UK government has today (Thursday) confirmed it will not challenge the judicial review brought against the Rosebank oil and gas development.
Campaign groups Uplift and Greenpeace launched legal action against the approval of the West of Shetland development late last year.
They claimed the decision made by the former UK government was “unlawful” as it failed to consider the impact of burning the fossil fuels extracted from the development during its lifetime.
Although the new Labour administration said it would not be contesting the legal case, it does not mean the licenses have been withdrawn.
However, it leaves questions for the future of the controversial development.
dizzy: The oil companies involved in the Rosebank (and Jackdaw) fields can contest the judicial review. However, this is still a huge step in defeating Rosebank. Well done, all those involved in stopping Rosebank.
Campaigners take part in a Stop Rosebank emergency protest outside the U.K. Government building in Edinburgh, after the controversial Equinor Rosebank North Sea oil field was given the go-ahead Wednesday, September 27, 2023. (Photo: Jane Barlow/PA Images via Getty Images)
Exclusive: Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack told The Independent that it was ‘a miracle’ nobody was killed in the blaze in Dagenham over the bank holiday weekend
Mr Wrack spoke to The Independent after touring the site of the disaster in Freshwater Road, Dagenham, with deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, who is also in charge of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
The veteran union boss and former firefighter said he has been at the site of many fires before but described the burnt-out block of flats as one of the worst he had seen.
He said his warning to Ms Rayner was that the blaze was the consequence of years of deregulation on building regulations under the Tories and massive cuts to the council departments responsible for checking building standards.
Mr Wrack spoke to The Independent after touring the site of the disaster in Freshwater Road, Dagenham, with deputy prime minister Angela Rayner, who is also in charge of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
The veteran union boss and former firefighter said he has been at the site of many fires before but described the burnt-out block of flats as one of the worst he had seen.
He said his warning to Ms Rayner was that the blaze was the consequence of years of deregulation on building regulations under the Tories and massive cuts to the council departments responsible for checking building standards.
