Parents who kill their partner to automatically lose rights over children under government proposals
- The Justice Secretary, Alex Chalk, is due to announce, that a parent who has been found guilty of murdering the other parent will now have their parental rights removed.
- This will be an introduction to “Jade’s Law”, named after Jade Ward, who was fatally wounded by her partner and will be brought before Parliament by the end of the year.
- Despite her partner being sentenced to life in prison for her murder, he still retains parental rights.
- It also means family members will not have to apply to the family court to request that parental responsibility is removed.
- The new rules are set to become a part of the Victims and Prisoners Bill.
- The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) says this will ensure that children are protected from their remaining parents having any say in their life.
- For more, please visit the MSN and the Sky News website.
The following stories may be regionalised:
Fears children are not being protected from harm
- The children’s commissioner has warned that young people in Scotland are “not being sufficiently protected from harm”.
- MSPs are to consider a petition calling for an inquiry into child safeguarding concerns.
- The Scottish children’s commissioner says there are still gaps in child protection guidance.
- The Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland pointed to the issue of physical restraint in schools and the handling of child assault allegations.
- It said: “We have met with the Scottish government to discuss ongoing concerns about children not being sufficiently protected from harm.” and “We identified a number of gaps in the national guidance and a need for stronger accountability mechanisms.”
- Campaigners want the remit of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry to be changed to cover state schools, but the Scottish government had said that such an extension would considerably delay its conclusion.
- For more, please visit the BBC News website.
Warning over unconscious bias against working-class pupils in English schools
- Lee Elliot Major, the UK’s first professor of social mobility, claims that a mindset in education treats working-class children as “inferior”.
- He further suggests that pupils from low-income families should be referred to as “under-resourced”, and not “disadvantaged”.
- He claims the use of these terms lead to unconscious bias and lower expectations of these children.
- In Lee Elliot Majors’ book, titled “Equality in Education: Levelling the playing field of learning”, it recommends ways for schools to amend this unconscious bias, including staff sessions to reflect on subconscious biases that may be creating barriers for children.
- Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Lee Elliot Major is a fantastic champion for social justice and his call that we must do more to confront social class biases in the classroom will be of great interest.”
- For more, please visit The Guardian website.
