"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest"
Welcome to Issue 90 of Quest News. We have 155 hours of off-the-job training for apprentices in care and education to read and learn.
Significant Events
June 17 - June 24 - Drowning Prevention Week 2023
June 17 - June 25 - National Picnic Week 2023
June 19 - June 24 - Cervical Screening Awareness Week 2023
June 19 - June 25 - Learning Disability Week 2023
Jun 21 - National Writing Day 2023
Legislation of the week
The Human Rights Act 1998
The Human Rights Act 1998 sets out the fundamental rights and freedoms that everyone in the UK is entitled to. It incorporates the rights set out in the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) into domestic British law. The Human Rights Act came into force in the UK in October 2000
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 60 mins and
Video of the week
Rolf Harris: Hiding in Plain Sight
Combining compelling archive with powerful first-person accounts, we follow the story of how Rolf Harris' assaults became more serious during his television career.
(Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 120 mins)
Event of the week
June 19 - June 25 National School Sport Week 2023
The Youth Sport Trust are excited to announce that their annual campaign, National School Sports Week, is back for 2023, running from Monday 19 to Sunday 25 June. This year, they’re aiming to ensure that all children in the UK are active for the Chief Medical Officer's recommended minimum of 60 minutes a day. And they need your help to achieve this goal.
(This can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Completing activities Approx. 60 mins)
Safeguarding & ED & I
Learning from case reviews: child mental health
Continuing with mental health, NSPCC Learning has created a briefing covering published case reviews which highlight the harmful impact bad experiences, such as abuse or neglect, can have on a child’s mental health. They also show how mental health problems can lead to safeguarding concerns such as self-harm, sexual exploitation, physical abuse and criminal exploitation.
The briefing covers examples of good practice, including continual efforts by professionals to engage with and support young people struggling with their mental health. The final section also covers areas for learning to improve practice.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Anxiety tool kit
The Anna Freud Centre has launched new resources for students aged 11-13 to normalise, understand and manage anxious feelings as part of improving child mental health.
As well as an animation, which was co-created with young people, the “Let’s Talk About Anxiety” resources include materials for delivering lessons, assemblies and guidance for teachers, PSHE co-ordinators and parents/carers.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Looked after children missing education.
As part of the Attendance Action Alliance, the Children’s Commissioner has released the first report in a series to understand why children miss school.
This report focuses on looked after children, and in March 2022, nearly 3% were missing from school. Unaccompanied asylum seekers, those with EHCPs and boys were some of the most likely groups of looked after children to be missing from education.
We know looked after children are some of the most vulnerable, making school attendance even more important to help ensure they are safe. The report’s recommendations for schools, local authorities and the government include:
• increased support for children in need to access education;
• updating and expanding Pupil Premium Plus;
• more support for vulnerable children to enable them to thrive in education.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Increase in online 'sextortion'
The Guardian has reported on the findings of the 2022 CyberTipline Report from the US-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The report reveals an increase in online grooming worldwide, with an 82% increase in reports of “online enticement” and an “alarming spike” in reports of financial “sextortion.”
Children are being enticed to share explicit images then blackmailed with the threat of sharing those images. 2022 also saw an increase in boys being targeted.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 40 mins)
Record-high calls to modern slavery helpline
Unseen’s Modern Slavery and Exploitation Helpline has published its annual assessment, and figures show 2022 was its busiest year ever.
Its assessment covers all victims of modern slavery and exploitation, but chapter 9 is dedicated to child victims. In 2022, the helpline raised 213 cases indicating 331 children were potentially exploited. The largest single group of these cases (33%) was related to labour exploitation.
The chapter also covers recruitment tactics used by exploiters and methods of control. You can read the full assessment here, and learn more from our resources on modern slavery, trafficking, and child exploitation
(Reading these can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 60 mins)
IWF Podcast Warns Introducing End-to-end Encryption to Messaging Apps Could Hinder Detection of Child Sexual Abuse Imagery
In a new podcast released today by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), the charity says introducing end-to-end encryption to messaging apps could hinder the detection and removal of child sexual abuse material from the internet.
Podcast - https://is.gd/YoElW0
(Reading and listening to this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 40 mins)
Child Exploitation: A Hidden Crisis
Children face a range of complex and interconnected threats both on- and offline, including sexual abuse and exploitation, criminal exploitation, and trafficking. Specialist services play a vital role in supporting and safeguarding children who are at risk of experiencing or have experienced criminal and/or sexual exploitation.
Read our recommendations on how children who have been, or are at risk of being, sexually abused and/or exploited, can be safeguarded and supported.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
(Podcast) Harmful Children or Social Harm?
For the first in the AYJ’s podcast series focused on our policy priority 'Reframing Violence', we speak with Luke Billingham and Adam Elliott to explore how society perceives children affected by serious violence, how and why this perception is shaped, and whether this perception is accurate.
(Listening to this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 60 mins)
(Video) Ireland's Mother and Baby Scandal
(Please note: only available if you have Amazon Prime Video)
Six years ago, a local historian in the Republic of Ireland, discovered that hundreds of babies and children had died in a home for unmarried pregnant women run by Catholic nuns. The children died of neglect and malnutrition, their deaths unrecorded, their bodies buried in unmarked graves. This documentary investigates the allegations levelled against both the Irish state and its religious order.
(Watching this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 60 mins)
Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB)
This toolkit explores Anti-Social Behaviour, providing resources specific to actions, impact and the law to help nurture the skills, empathy and resilience to help learners avoid becoming involved in ASB.
Although aimed at KS2 (primary age), all resources in this toolkit are designed to be adaptable to meet individual needs, age and ability, and be flexible to use in one or over multiple lessons.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Preventing Accidents with Children
Childhood deaths now and forever have been heavily associated with accidents. Children are exempted from many of society's expectations, precisely because they are not considered yet to have the sense to make good decisions. This is directly linked to the tragically high likelihood that deaths or serious injury among children, is always a leading cause of childhood mortality. Education is the best way to prevent these. It is in this vein that the National Fostering Group has published a page on their website, aimed at informing adults on the top causes of childhood accidents. The information there is an excellent start point, for educating your pupils on household dangers and how to avoid them. Please follow the link below to read more:
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
#WakeUpWednesday: What Parents and Carers Need to Know about Money Muling
“Easy cash, no strings attached” Young people are being recruited via social media to serve as money mules: ‘washing’ illegal funds through their bank accounts.
This week, our #WakeUpWednesday guide analyses the growing threat of online money muling, helping trusted adults to understand this hazard and support young people to avoid being drawn in.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Health & Safety
Infant mental health
This Infant Mental Health Awareness Week, NSPCC Learning has collated a range of services and resources to help professionals support parents and carers to create strong bonds with their babies. These include our Pregnancy in Mind support service and Look, Say, Sing, Play early years resources.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
The ‘Zoom’bie Effect
In this month’s legal column from Eversheds Sutherland, Catherine Henney, speaks to Mental Health Strategist and Consultant, Amy McKeown, about the impact of the pandemic on workers’ mental health and ISO45003, the first international standard on managing psychological health and safety at work.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Working in a heat wave: health and safety guidance
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has reminded employers to consider the safety of workers during periods of extreme hot weather this summer.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 20 mins)
Leaders Warn Of Wellbeing Scale-Backs During Cost Of Living Crisis
A group of more than 50 leaders representing some of the largest employers in the UK is urging companies to sustain investment in workplace health and wellbeing during the cost of living crisis.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Pride Month: 5 ways to create an LGBTQ+ inclusive workplace
As Pride festivities are underway for 2023, Health@Work highlights the ways in which a workplace can build an LGBTQ+ inclusive workplace that celebrates diversity, cultivates equality, and allows employees to work at their best…
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
Wider Curriculum
Taking Care – Immigration support pledge and learning package for local authorities
At least one in every 10 children in care and more than 10,000 young care leavers in England have unresolved immigration or citizenship issues. Without better immigration support from local authorities, these children face uncertain and unsafe futures.
Our report, ‘Taking Care: How local authorities can best address immigration issues of children in care’, finds that delaying providing help on immigration and nationality issues could be costing local authorities hundreds of thousands of pounds per year.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 40 mins)
Over three-quarters of social work roles not offered on part-time basis despite small rise in rate
Can social work be done effectively on a part-time basis? Over three-quarters of social work roles are not being advertised on a part-time or flexible-hours basis, despite a rise in their proportion since last year.
(Reading this can be counted towards your 20% off the Job learning – Approx. 30 mins)
