Today’s news review looks at coverage of yesterday’s school funding announcement and the mandatory reporting consultation launched yesterday.
School funding
Yesterday, 21 July, the Education Secretary Justine Greening made a statement to the House of Commons about the National Funding Formula. The formula will overhaul the way in which schools are funded, to put funding on a fairer footing.
She also confirmed that in 2017-18 no local authority will see a reduction from their 2016-17 funding.
The statement has been reported in a number of outlets, including the Guardian and BBC, which reflected that we do not want to rush into changes without being sure of the ramifications.
The new timescale will ensure we have enough time to get these vital changes right. The publication of the response to the first stage of consultation on the new formula, and the launch of the next stage, will happen in the autumn, and final decisions will be taken in the New Year.
You can read the Secretary of State’s full written statement here.
Mandatory reporting
The Government is consulting on a new legal duty on school staff to take action in cases of child abuse or neglect. The Home Office launched the consultation yesterday, 21 July.
The Guardian and Mirror both covered this, focusing on the proposal that a range of school staff, including caretakers, secretaries and caterers, could now join teachers in the statutory duty to report or act on child abuse or neglect.
We are committed to doing all we can to protect children from abuse and neglect; this includes examining all options for how we can further improve our child protection system. The issues involved with the introduction of mandatory reporting or a duty to act are complex. We want to be sure that we consider carefully all the available evidence and the views of a range of experts, children, families, survivors and staff before introducing such measures.
Minister of State for Children and Families, Edward Timpson said:
We must do all we can to protect children and young people from abuse and neglect. That's why we're making radical improvements to make sure services identify children at risk as early as possible and take swift action to give them the protection and care they need but events in Rotherham, Oxford and elsewhere show there is still more to be done.
It's right therefore that we look at whether it's necessary to strengthen the law to better protect the most vulnerable. I know that social workers, teachers and other professionals are as passionate about protecting the young people they care for as I am – I would encourage them to share their views with us over the next 12 weeks.
You can read the consultation document here.