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The following are summaries of recent news items culled from the media

Consultations about Standards for Early Years Day Provision The DfEE has been holding preliminary discussions, with a view to the circulation of documents for consultation about national standards for the inspection of day services for young children. Up to now, it has been for each local authority to determine its own standards, but the DfEE has decided that OFSTED will run the whole system throughout England. The Department's intention is to establish core standards which apply to all areas of service, and then to draw up detailed specification based on the core standards but adapted to each type of provision. It is anticipated that the consultation documents will be made available in a couple of months time.

Residential Child Care Training in Scotland After many months of waiting - presumably delayed by the establishment of the Scottish Parliament - it has been decided that of the two competing consortia, the one including the University of Strathclyde and the Residential Child Care Centre should run the training system for residential childcare workers in Scotland. This is good news, as the Centre has done much to put Scottish residential child care on a sound footing. In particular, Meg Lindsay has given the type of enthusiastic lead which the service needs to maintain its sense of momentum and morale. Appointments are now being made so that the consortium can get off the ground in two months' time.

Paedophile Jailed : A New Act Used for the First Time (CRY News - click here)

FICE Congress at Maastricht FICE has now announced the keynote speakers for its Congress. There will be a mixture of plenary speakers, debates, workshops and symposia. A number of the speakers are from the Netherlands, but other keynote contributors include Dr Craig Shealy of the USA. Dr Steen Lasson of Denmark, and our own Meg Lindsay. The Congress organisers have also made arrangements for a variety of cheap accommodation.

The NSPCC reported that in 1999 its eleven investigation units undertook more than 80 inquiries into allegations of child abuse involving 200 children in local authority care. Allegations were made against 138 care workers, of whom 50 have been charged with cruelty and sex offences. Neil Hunt of the NSPCC said, "Child abuse in the care system is not a thing of the past". Times 10 January 2000

A half-page news report gave details on a poll of parents which showed that two-thirds think that discipline has deteriorated in the last ten years, and that 51% want corporal punishment re-introduced. The article gave extensive quotations of teachers, views and offered two web-sites for further information : www.corpun.com - the World Corporal Punishment Research Website, and http://nospank.org/toc.htm, the site of Parent and Teachers Against Violence in Education. Is there anyone in childcare or social education who admits to being part of the 51%? If so, please write and justify the case. Guardian 8 January 2000

Homophobia among Boys A full-page article in the Guardian supplement by Dave Hill described the complex findings of research undertaken by the Department of Psychology at Birkbeck College, University of London, into the way 11 - 14 year old boys construct their masculine identities. This entails the rejection of sensitive feminine attributes and the adoption of a macho stance, with any boy deviating from this image being labelled as a queer. As girls become more academically successful and self-confident, boys are being pushed into more extreme stances. In a brief summary it is impossible to give a sufficient outline of the subtlety of the observations, and the article is worth reading. The research is now being written up and will be published next year. Guardian 2nd February 2000

"A Sexual Fagin" Martin Malone was sent to prison for four years for recruiting under age girls from children's homes and forcing them into prostitution. He also kept all their earnings, which could amount to £6,000 per month, threatening them and bringing them back if they tried to escape his control. He was aided by Pauline Young, a careworker. Guardian 5th February 2000

If you see an interesting item of news, e-mail it to us: newseditor@children.uk.co

Rise in Number of Disabled Children of Asian Origin Bary Malik, an expert in Asian disability issues, has said that inter-cousin marriages, poor diet, lack of exercise, bad housing and poverty have all combined to increase the likelihood of disability among children of families of Asian origin. There is a lack of understanding about genetic testing, and services for ethnic minorities are said to be inadequate. It is predicted that in large cities, such as Bradford, half the disabled children will be of Asian origin by 2011. Yorkshire Post 16th February 2000