Monday News Issue 174- 19th May 2025
- Matthew Paminter
- 3 hours ago
- 10 min read
"All dreams are within reach. All you have to do is keep moving towards them”
Events this week:
May 19th- May 25th- Dementia Action Week 2025
May 19th- May 26th- Epilepsy Awareness Week 2025
May 20th- May 26th- Action for Brain Injury Awareness Week 2025
May 21st- World Day for Cultural Diversity
Legislation/Regulation of the week
Living conditions and safeguarding - Awaab’s Law
The tragic death of two-year-old Awaab Ishak due to prolonged exposure to mould in his home has triggered a vital shift in how we view housing and safeguarding. Awaab’s Law, part of the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023, places new legal duties on social housing landlords to act swiftly on reports of damp, mould, and hazardous living conditions.
But this isn't just a housing issue – it's a safeguarding issue. Poor living conditions can have serious consequences for the health of all family members. As professionals working to safeguard individuals and families, we must recognise when housing is contributing to risk – and act accordingly.
Awaab’s Law is a legal step forward, but lasting change will come from us noticing, questioning, recording, and challenging unsafe housing wherever it puts an individual or family at risk.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 30 mins)
Please remember to review this in your policy/legislation review workbook)
Videos of the week
Inside our ADHD Minds
Chris helps a tour guide with ADHD reveal to his parents what’s really going on inside his head, and a project manager come to terms with the mixed emotions of a late diagnosis.
Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 60 mins)
Event of the week/month
Epilepsy Awareness Week 2025
National Epilepsy Week in 2025 will be held from May 19th to May 25th. It's a week dedicated to raising awareness about epilepsy and supporting people living with the condition. The week focuses on various aspects of epilepsy, including education, advocacy, and celebrating the achievements of individuals with epilepsy.
· Approximately 1 in 100 people live with epilepsy. Over 600,000 people in the UK and around 60 million people with epilepsy in the world.
· Around 87 people are diagnosed with epilepsy every day.
· Epilepsy is described as the tendency to have repeated seizures that start in the brain. Epilepsy is usually only diagnosed after the person has had more than one seizure.
· There are over 40 different types of seizure and they vary from person to person. For example someone may go ‘blank’ for a couple of seconds, they may wander around and be quite confused, or they may fall to the ground and shake. So not all seizures involve shaking.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 30 mins)
Safeguarding & ED & I
Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) 2024 Annual Data & Insights Report
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) has released its 2024 Annual Data & Insights Report, highlighting significant progress in the fight against online child sexual abuse material. This year, the IWF assessed a staggering 729,696 reports, confirming 291,273 instances of child sexual abuse content. Over the past five years, their efforts have led to the removal of more than 1.2 million webpages hosting such harmful material.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 50 mins)
LGfL’s Online Safety Audit for Early Years settings
With digital media use among young children on the rise, early years settings must adopt a proactive approach to online safety.
Ofcom reports that 25% of children aged 3-4 own smartphones, and 85% go online, highlighting the need for robust safety measures both in settings and at home.
To support this, LGfL has created a tailored online safety audit for early years providers. It is recommended that the Designated Safeguarding Lead reviews and updates this audit annually.
Download the audit to assess online safeguarding in your early years settings.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
Mental Capacity Act- Explainer on Executive Functioning
The Mental Capacity Act is a piece of legislation designed to support individuals who may lack the capacity around their decision making. It applies to big life-changing decisions, as well as day-to-day actions.
Considering a person’s ability around ‘executive functioning’ is key to understand how to support a person around their decision-making ability.
Executive functioning is often seen as “the ability to think, act, and solve problems, including the functions of the brain which help us learn new information, remember and retrieve the information we’ve learned in the past, and use this information to solve problems of everyday life”.
In effect, a person being able to put into action what they have communicated as their decision.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 60 mins)
Promoting mental health and wellbeing
Promoting children and young people’s wellbeing is a key part of keeping them safe, helping them develop and ensuring they have positive outcomes into adulthood (Public Health England, 2021).
Mental health plays a key role in a child’s overall wellbeing and can be affected by various factors, including:
· abuse and neglect
· family circumstances
· environment
· stress
· loneliness or social isolation.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 30 mins)
Child Safety Week Webinar Events
Medway Safeguarding Children Partnership are hosting four virtual events on Microsoft Teams during Child Safety Week to help improve the knowledge and build the confidence of professionals to manage risks to babies and children.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
Health & Safety
Debunking myths around self-harm and injury
Challenge harmful myths about self-harm. Understand the reality to assess risk and offer effective support to young people. There are lots of harmful myths about those who self-harm, particularly young people such as;
It’s just a phase, they will get over it
There is no standardised approach or regularity for those who may self-harm. Some people may self-injure or harm on a regular basis, while others may self-harm once or occasionally following a period of stress.
It’s all a form of attention seeking
Self-harm is often very personal and private to the individual, not something they may choose to be made public and can take great effort to conceal. As with any attention it may bring often comes along with it negativity from others.
If you self-harm, you are also suicidal
For some individuals, self-harm isn’t a precursor to suicide but actually a method of regulation to stay alive with the difficulties they are experiencing. It can be a method of coping with emotional pain as a result of trauma or adversity.
If somebody has the courage to tell you that they self-harm it is incredibly important to show them that you take them seriously, regardless of how severe, or not, the injury is. Your reaction may have a tremendous impact on them, so be very mindful.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 50 mins)
Instagram are using AI to find teens lying about their age and restricting their accounts
Meta is using AI technology to search for kids who are lying about their age on Instagram in order to bypass safeguards, the company have announced.
When Meta finds an account that it suspects belongs to a teen, the platform will enrol them into a restricted “Teen Account”, even if the account lists an adult birthday.
Meta says it has enrolled at least 54 million teens into Teen Accounts globally so far, and that 97% of teens ages 13-15 have remained in these protected accounts.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
Ever heard of the ‘bystander’ effect?
Ever heard of the ‘bystander’ effect? It’s a psychological phenomenon where the more people are around during an emergency, the less likely anyone is to help. Sounds strange, right? But it happens more often than you think. When everyone assumes someone else will step in, no one ends up doing anything.
It’s called bystander apathy, and it shows how group settings can numb our sense of personal responsibility. But here’s the truth - your action can break that cycle. Whether it's calling for help, helping, or simply checking in, your response could be the turning point. Your choice to act can cut through the silence that paralyses a crowd.
(Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
Could keeping a journal help your mental health?
There are a number of recommended ways to help you cope with stress. These include mindfulness, meditation and exercise - all of which are good options. However, many people are trying journaling as a self-support tool for their worries.
Put simply, journaling is a way of recording your thoughts and emotions in writing. It’s something I’ve often turned to when I’m feeling anxious, as a way of thinking through issues and understanding them better. It’s also really cathartic to write things down - it’s like offloading worries from your head on to the page in front of you. Writing down your worries can be a healthy way for anyone to help relieve stress, and all you need is a pen and paper.
(Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 10 mins)
Wider Curriculum
The Link Between Physical Activity and Attainment in Children and Young People
Young people are not taking part in enough physical activity and alongside this, schools in England have seen significant cuts to the amount of PE on the school timetable. Young people are also affected by the attainment gap , and the current slow progress in narrowing the gap means it will persist for decades.
We know that physical activity contributes to physical health, mental and social wellbeing, and life-skill development but it has wider benefits.
Our latest evidence paper details the positive association we see between physical activity, learning and attainment in children and young people, highlighting the importance of maintaining focus and investment in this area.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 30 mins)
Williams Syndrome: The people who are too friendly
People with Williams Syndrome treat strangers as their new best friends. Now the condition is giving clues to our evolutionary past – and what makes us human.
Imagine walking down the street and feeling an overwhelming love and warmth for every single person that you met. That is a familiar experience for people with Williams Syndrome (WS), a rare genetic condition that affects approximately 1 in 7,500 individuals.
People with WS, often dubbed the 'opposite of autism', have an innate desire to hug and befriend total strangers. They are extremely affectionate, empathetic, talkative and gregarious. They treat everyone they meet as their new best friend, yet there is a downside to being so friendly. Individuals often struggle to retain close friendships and are prone to isolation and loneliness.
(Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
What is special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)?
A child or young person has special educational needs and disabilities if they have a learning difficulty or a disability that means they need special health and education support. We shorten this to SEND.
Every child or young person may experience challenges with their learning at some point. For most, these difficulties are often overcome with support from teachers and home. However, they may need extra help or provision put in place to help them to have the same opportunities as others.
Some children may have SEND because of a medical condition or disability, other children may have SEND without a diagnosis or disability.
Children are not considered to have SEND just because their first language is not English, although some children where English is a second language may also have SEND.
(Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
Sustainability
Future-Proofing Cities with Nature-Based, People-Powered Technology
We are living in a planetary emergency – climate collapse, rising inequality, food insecurity, and a daily doom scroll of war, extraction, and ecological breakdown. But while the crises multiply, seeds of possibility are sprouting in cracks across our cities. The Right to Grow is a call to action rooted in a simple yet radical belief: everyone deserves access to land, plants, and the power to grow their city.
Urban gardens are more than just green spaces. They are frontline systems of care, resistance, and imagination. From filtering air pollution to reducing flooding, they help future-proof our cities while reconnecting us with life’s metabolic processes – soil, water, fungi, plants, and people. Yet, the politics of who gets to design, access, and benefit from green spaces remain tangled in histories of exclusion and control. Taking back the Right to Grow means shifting power into the hands of communities to decide what grows, where, and for whom.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 30 mins)
Fur is firmly back in fashion - and even more divisive than ever
It's having a moment with celebrities, fashionistas and Gen Z. But wearing any kind of fur, from vintage to synthetic, poses some difficult questions. Could a new plant-based faux fur be the way forward?
From Tory Burch in New York and Simone Rocha in London, to Fendi in Milan and Miu Miu in Paris, fur dominated the autumn/winter 2025-26 catwalks. And celebrities matched the runways, with Hailey Bieber, Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Taylor Swift and Rihanna all spending the start of the year wrapped up in faux and vintage fur coats.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning if it links to the knowledge, skills, and behaviours in your apprenticeship standard – Approx. 20 mins)
An Idiot’s guide to change the world- Oceans: Seaweed will save us
In ‘An Idiot’s Guide to Saving the World’, Gail Gallie and Loyiso Madinga will take you on a journey across the globe to meet the people on the frontline; those who are affected and those making a difference. They demystify the gloomy narrative and harness some optimism to leave you feeling empowered and armed with ideas. No finger-wagging, crusading or catastrophising, but a fun and fascinating dive into how we can play our own parts in saving the world.
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