Children with disabilities

CASPAR Monday 26 July 2021

Source: Cereba

Date: 21 July 2021

"Cerebra, a charity helping children with brain conditions, has published a report looking at the experiences of families with disabled children in their interactions with local authority children’s services departments in England. Findings from analysis of the assessment protocols of 143 children’s services authorities and a survey of 92 parent carer led support organisations include: national and local social care policies create a default position for those assessing disabled children that assumes parental failings; and the national guidance that directs the process by which disabled children are assessed is not fit for purpose, as it fails to address the assessment and support needs of disabled children for whom there is no evidence of neglect or abuse."

Link to news report

"You are enough"

"We spend so much of our time telling young people how they could do this differently, exploring why doing that isn’t such a good idea and looking at the practical steps of how positive change can be achieved.

The problem is that our words, however well-meaning will just go in one ear and out the other if they don’t believe that they can change. If they believe they are deficient in some way- lacking the character, the support, the willpower or the ability to stick with a change- then change becomes impossible in their minds. No matter how much desire they might have to make a change, with this sense of lack, they will be unlikely to get started and even less likely to meet their goal.

Those kids who have never believed in themselves, who may never have had someone cheering them on from the sidelines, bolstering their self-belief, have often been mentally over-run by a sense of their own deficiencies, where the negative voice inside their heads hasn’t been reduced to size by the positive encouraging voices of others.

Some kids have had someone cheering them on, but just because of their brains going through a chemical storm thanks to teenage hormones or because they are going through a difficult time in their lives, they stop believing any positive messages they hear from you or from significant others in their lives. The negative voice in their heads is front and centre of their thoughts. A sense of lack dominates.

When a mantra of lack dominates, young people (and the rest of us too), become like rabbits caught in headlights- they freeze. They want to get out of the way of the car, but they suddenly forget how their legs work, how to move forwards and their eyes become wide with fear. “I can’t do this”, they say.

So no matter how large the sense of desire is to change a situation, they feel that they just can’t because they don’t have the ability to. They are not enough to fix this. They are stuck.

But they are enough. And if we are to really help them, then they need to know that they are enough. This needs to be front and centre of everything we say and do. Every word we say, every piece of advice or guidance we give needs to be infused with the message “You are enough”. It can take many forms, it can be “You can do this”, “You’ve got this”, “You have more ability than you can possibly realise right now”, or “You have so much unrealised potential”."

Read full article here ...

"New class resources will help empower young people to take control of their online privacy"

"The UK’s data protection regulator is helping children and young people understand the power of their personal data as they learn, play and socialise online.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has launched a suite of lesson plans and worksheets aimed at teaching primary and secondary school pupils how to protect their privacy online and how they can control what online companies and platforms know about them.#
The resources explain what counts as personal data, how to protect it and how to keep it private on social media. They cover the curriculum in all parts of the UK and can be downloaded for free from the ICO website.
The resources form part of the ICO’s work on building awareness of the Children’s Code, a set of standards that online services must follow if they are likely to be accessed by children. That includes putting in place extra layers of protection for children’s data.
The ICO will be producing more resources around the principles of the Children’s Code to ensure that young people know what to expect when they open an app, visit a website or play an online game.
For more information on the Children’s Code, please visit our dedicated website hub or email our Children’s Code team on childrenscode@ico.org.uk."

Link to resources

BBC Bitesize - "Children and young people’s mental health"

Source: BBC Bitesize

Date: 28 May 2021

"BBC bitesize has published an article and short film outlining top tips to support young people aged 11 – 16 years who are dealing with boredom and low motivation. The article and film are based on evidence-based guidance from researchers and clinicians reported in a research briefing published by the Co-RAY project, part of the Emerging Minds Network."

 Link to BBC bitesize

Children’s helplines

Source: Child Helpline International

Date: 17 May 2021

"Child Helpline International has published a report looking at the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on the children and young people who contact child helplines around the world. Findings from quarterly surveys covering January to December 2020 include: globally, child helpline members received 25% more contacts in 2020 compared to 2019; violence and mental health were important reasons for contact globally; and requests for information about Covid-19, contacts relating to family relationships, access to essential services and the caller’s own physical health were other main reasons for making contact."

Link to full report

"LGBT+ pupils twice as likely to contemplate suicide"

Just Like Us - May 17th 2021

"LGBT+ young people are three times more likely to self-harm and twice as likely to contemplate suicide than their non-LGBT+ peers, new independent research by Just Like Us has found.

Seven in 10 (68%) LGBT+ young people have experienced suicidal thoughts and feelings, compared to 29% of young people who are not LGBT+. Lesbian (74%) and transgender (77%) young people are the most likely to have experienced suicidal thoughts and feelings, followed by bisexual young people (73%) and gay boys (66%). 

Black LGBT+ young people are three times more likely than non-LGBT+ young people to contemplate suicide – 89% of Black LGBT+ young people have experienced suicidal thoughts and feelings, compared to 67% of white LGBT+ young people.

A third (31%) of LGBT+ young people have self-harmed, compared to just 9% of non-LGBT+ young people.

LGBT+ young people are also three times less likely to report feeling good about themselves – just 13% of LGBT+ young people say they’ve felt good about themselves on a daily basis, compared to 30% of non-LGBT+ peers.

One in 10 (9%) of LGBT+ young people say they have ‘never’ felt good about themselves in the past 12 months, compared to just 5% of non-LGBT+ peers.

LGBT+ young people are twice as likely to say they ‘never’ feel useful – one in 10 (10%) say they’ve ‘never’ felt useful in the past 12 months, compared to just 5% of non-LGBT+ young people. 

LGBT+ young people are also three times less likely to feel useful – only 12% of LGBT+ young people have felt useful on a daily basis in the past 12 months, compared to 30% of non-LGBT+ peers.

The independent study of 2,934 pupils aged 11-18 (1,140 of whom were LGBT+) across the UK by Just Like Us, the LGBT+ young people’s charity, has found that LGBT+ young people are significantly more likely to struggle with mental health and are not getting enough positive messaging from school.

Only 58% of LGBT+ young people have felt safe at school on a daily basis in the past 12 months, compared to 73% of non-LGBT+ pupils.

Half (48%) of all secondary school pupils say they have received little to no positive messaging at school about being LGBT+. According to Just Like Us’ research, 18% say they have had zero positive messaging and 30% say they have only had positive messaging one or twice in the last 12 months."

Link to further information

"Families, technology use, and daily life: parents’ role in building resilience and mitigating harm"

Olaf Kapella - May 19th 2021

Excerpt -

"Parents can become overwhelmed by the rapid changes in information and communication technologies (ICT) and contradictory advice on how best to support their children’s safe and beneficial internet use. Why is that? When many of today’s parents were children themselves, most of today’s technologies did not even exist. So, parents may lack key references and best-practice examples from their own childhood that show what good digital mediation, guidance and support for children could look like. 

For www.parenting.digital, Olaf Kapella discusses how research evidence can close this information gap and support parents and carers in their decisions. Drawing on two recent reviews conducted as part of the EU Project DigiGen, he offers insights for parents on how to maximise the positive aspects of internet use by focusing on online activities (rather than screen time), co-using technologies with their children, respecting children’s privacy, promoting resilience and acting as role models."

Link to full article