‘Sobering’ study reveals extent of bullying and mental health problems for children in Wales

Most older primary school pupils have problems sleeping while a third suffer emotional difficulties, a major study has revealed.Half of the children aged seven to 11 who took part in the research said they had been bullied at school and fewer than half ate fruit or vegetables every day.The study on more than 50,000 children in Wales found mental health symptoms tended to be more common among those from less affluent families.Researchers behind the School Health Research Network (SHRN) project said it was the most comprehensive look into the health and wellbeing of primary-age children in Wales – and one of the most detailed carried out in the UK.Lynne Neagle, the Welsh cabinet secretary for education, said some of the findings were sobering

Reeves rejects plea for £1bn of extra cash to cover NHS redundancy payouts

Rachel Reeves has rebuffed a plea from Wes Streeting for an emergency injection of £1bn into the NHS’s budget to cover the cost of mass redundancies.The chancellor’s decision is a setback for the health secretary, who had been lobbying behind the scenes in Whitehall for extra money to pay off 18,000 personnel who are losing their jobs.The Treasury has instead allowed the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) to overspend its allotted budget by about £1bn this financial year. But this is on the understanding that it will have less money in 2026-27 – and no new cash overall.Streeting had spent months trying to persuade the Treasury to grant additional funding to enable the NHS’s 42 integrated care boards to start slimming down their role

Domestic violence victims at risk under bill aimed at easing prison overcrowding, watchdog warns

Violent partners will be allowed to “return to harassing, stalking and abusing” with impunity under a bill before parliament that is supposed to ease prison overcrowding, a watchdog has warned the lord chancellor.In a letter to David Lammy, the domestic abuse commissioner, Dame Nicole Jacobs, said the sentencing bill’s aim to re-release the vast majority of offenders recalled to prison after 56 days would mean that victims and survivors “will be put in harm’s way” and lead to “devastating consequences”.The letter, which has been shared with the Guardian, comes as ministers face unprecedented pressure to use the bill, which is at its second reading in the House of Lords, to free space in England and Wales’ jails and ease pressure on a creaking criminal justice system.The letter was disclosed after Lammy on Tuesday told MPs that 91 inmates had been wrongly set free since April this year, and claimed that “prisons throughout the country are underfunded, they’re understaffed, and they’re operating under relentless strain”.Jacobs called on Lammy to amend the bill so that domestic abuse perpetrators who contact their victims go through new risk assessment checks instead of being automatically released after seven weeks

Children being ‘sedated’ by algorithmic YouTube content, MPs hear

Lots of children’s programming made for YouTube is “not entertainment, it’s sedation”, the UK children’s laureate has warned.Frank Cottrell-Boyce said “frictionless” programming in which children are “bombarded with information”, such as CoCoMelon, a YouTube Kids channel with 180 million subscribers, failed to offer the “stimulation and nourishment” that previous generations had enjoyed.Speaking to MPs in the opening evidence session of the culture, media and sport committee’s inquiry into children’s TV and video content, Cottrell-Boyce said research showed that for young children, “repetition is good because you’re building familiarity, and slowness is good because you’re making life navigable”.“I feel very privileged to have grown up in an era when lots of children’s television had those qualities,” he said.The fragmented media landscape meant that children today missed out on the sense of “national unity and national identity” that came with watching the same shows, he said

NHS trust fined £565,000 after woman killed herself on ‘death trap’ ward

A woman whose daughter killed herself on a “death trap” mental health ward in London has called for urgent change after an NHS trust was fined more than half a million pounds.Alice Figueiredo, 22, took her own life at Goodmayes hospital, Redbridge, after 18 similar attempts.Her death on 7 July 2015 followed a failure to remove plastic items from the communal toilets on Hepworth ward that had been used by her to self-harm, a court was told.On Tuesday, North East London NHS foundation trust (NELFT) was fined £565,000 plus £200,000 in costs after being found guilty of breaching health and safety.In setting the amount, Judge Richard Marks KC noted its finances were in an “absolutely parlous state” and a large fine could affect its services

UK 18- to 24-year-olds: we would like to hear your experiences of trying to find a job

Almost a million young people in the UK are not in education, employment or training (Neet).This week, the government announced the launch of an independent investigation into the issue, which Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Pat McFadden has called a “crisis of opportunity”.He added: “We cannot afford to lose a generation of young people to a life on benefits, with no work prospects and not enough hope.”We would like to hear from 18- to 24-year-olds in the UK about their experiences of trying to find a job. How have you found it? Did you get a job? Or are you still looking for one? What would you like to see changed to help with finding employment? Tell us