Children need to be in the right mental state to learn effectively | Tony Draper

There is a crisis in mental health for young people. Services are operating in silos and they are not working for over-tested, overstressed young people. Much emphasis has been placed on teenagers with low self-esteem, with behavioural and emotional issues and how we can support them.

At Water Hall primary school in Milton Keynes, we believe in the need to identify and address these issues early to be able to implement intervention strategies as soon as possible.

Taking action early enables vulnerable children to rebuild their self-esteem and take responsibility for their emotions, behaviour and learning. The outcome will be that they re-engage with education, perform well and are confident and happy young people.

Water Hall primary serves the Lakes Estate in Bletchley, a disadvantaged area where external issues regularly affect children’s mental and emotional wellbeing. The school has used the Kaleidoscope programme for eight years. The support system enables children to forget the things worrying them at home or elsewhere when they are in school.

Seven different stages make up a Kaleidoscope session: relax, visualise, express, move, build, explore and affirm. A designated room is used for sessions for either small groups or one-to-one sessions. Interventions last six to eight weeks.

The programme is used in all classes every day. Each morning starts with a session enabling children to be in the right frame of mind to learn. Lights are low, relaxing music is played and children are taught various calming techniques that they can use anywhere.

Kaleidoscope has had an amazing impact on the children’s emotional and mental wellbeing and their learning. Exclusions have fallen, attendance and behaviour has improved, children have taken responsibility for their learning and results have shot up. Kaleidoscope works, it gives children the tools to enable them to raise their self-esteem, with the accompanying improved outcomes for the school.

Our work proves that unless the child is in the right place emotionally and mentally, learning will not take place, however good the teaching and leadership in the school.

Tony Draper is headteacher of Water Hall primary, chief executive officer of Lakes Academies Trust, and the immediate past president of the school leaders’ union, the National Association of Head Teachers.

Children need to be in the right mental state to learn effectively | Tony Draper

We"re working with children in care to improve mental health | Tony Hunter

It’s good news that mental health in general, and children’s mental health in particular, is being given increasing attention by the media and greater consideration by policymakers. Yet the mental health and wellbeing of children in care is too often marginalised in these debates. More than 70% of children in care have been diagnosed with mental health problems. Perhaps you just assume that it goes with the territory and there’s not much that can be done about it. This is absolutely not the case.

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (Scie) has started a new project, commissioned by the departments of health and education, to ensure that children in care have access to high-quality services, based on a clear assessment of need, from a range of professionals working across different agencies. The project is likely to suggest significant changes to the way assessments are conducted for children in care, which could have a big impact on up to 70,000 care-experienced children and young people.

As part of the project, we have put together an expert group that combines knowledge of experienced professionals across the health, social care, academic and voluntary sectors. Crucially, young people who use these services are being given equal billing.

One of the most exciting things about our project is the involvement of children and young people in care, as well as those who have recently left care, in our consultation process. In total we will hear from more than 100 young people and 400 other service users to ensure the working group’s recommendations will be founded on the evidence of those with first-hand experience of the system.

This means we’re speaking to people like Matt Langsford, who was in care until recently and was as keen as healthcare professionals in the group to point out that attending to children’s mental health and wellbeing shouldn’t just mean dealing with crisis situations. “If you get a slapdash service at an early stage,” he says, “it won’t be more than a few months before you’re back in a crisis situation.”

The causes of mental ill health for children in care are complex. These young people have often experienced trauma, maltreatment and perhaps exposure to drugs and alcohol. This is rarely a one-off occurrence. It is a daily reality for these children and at Scie we believe that no one is better placed than the children themselves to highlight where mental health services are working to help with this and identify where they need improving.

The expert group’s professionals are learning much from our experts-by-experience and vice versa. One foster carer reports that every young person who has come to him has had a tough experience and believes that support services are not doing enough to help them. A clinical psychologist has talked about too many “messy systems” that don’t communicate with each other, leaving the child in care confused and feeling that their voice isn’t being heard.

The experts-by-experience, meanwhile, are helping the group to establish practical outcomes and identify concrete milestones. We don’t want our project to produce just another dust-gathering policy document. We want to reach commissioners, professionals, providers and advocates, as well as policymakers.

By October 2017, the group will report its final recommendations, which will include clearer guidance for professionals working with children in care and better information for children and young people themselves. What makes this project unique is the pooling of expertise that will enable real insight and transformation in the way we approach mental health services for children in care.

Tony Hunter is chief executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence

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We"re working with children in care to improve mental health | Tony Hunter

Tony Blair"s Brexit speech "not helpful", says Jeremy Corbyn

Jeremy Corbyn has criticised Tony Blair’s call for pro-Europeans to form a new cross-party movement to oppose Brexit, urging the former prime minister to “respect the result” of the referendum and to put his energy towards building relations in Europe.

Corbyn, who was questioned on the comments after addressing Labour’s local government conference at Warwick University, said: “Well, it’s not helpful. I would ask those to think about this – the referendum gave a result, gave a very clear decision on this, and we have to respect that decision, that’s why we didn’t block article 50.

“But we are going to be part of all this campaigning, all these negotiations about the kind of relationship we have in Europe in the future.. The referendum happened, let’s respect the result. Democracy happened, respect the result.”

Earlier Corbyn said people were dying at the hands of the government’s austerity policies in a scathing attack on the prime minister days before two crucial byelections.

The Labour leader blamed ministers for an “emergency” in local services and a social care crisis caused by “disgraceful neglect” as he urged voters in Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent to “send a message” to Theresa May on 23 February that they had had enough of cuts.

In a speech to Labour councillors at Warwick University, Corbyn said: “We have a state of emergency in our social care system and the worst crisis in the history of our NHS.”

He added that the situation in social care was an “absolute scandal that leaves 1.2 million elderly people without the care they need”.

Corbyn cited a report in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine that said the crisis was linked to 30,000 excess deaths in 2015. “People are dying because of the choices made by this government,” he said. “Councils are at breaking point on social care. Our social care system has been privatised, outsourced and cut. It has dehumanised our parents, grandparents and neighbours.”

Corbyn vowed a Labour government would provide the NHS and social care with adequate funds while accusing May of leading a government that gives billions away in tax breaks to big business and the richest in society while cutting services for the most vulnerable.

He said: “It is this callousness, even brutality, that has put local services in a state of emergency.”

The twin byelections, caused by the resignation of Labour MPs Jamie Reed and Tristram Hunt, represent Corbyn’s toughest electoral challenge yet. The Conservatives are hoping to win Copeland from Labour, who are trailing in the polls. Corbyn’s past opposition to nuclear power is viewed with suspicion among many voters in the Cumbrian constituency, which is economically reliant on the Sellafield nuclear processing facility.

The party’s battle to retain the two seats suffered a further blow after Corbyn’s campaigns chief, Simon Fletcher, quit on Friday over an apparent clash with Labour’s inner team over the direction of the party.

The sudden resignation of one of his closest aides follows the resignations of four shadow cabinet members over Corbyn’s support for the article 50 bill.

Corbyn said on Saturday that Fletcher would continue working with Labour. “Simon and I are great friends and will remain great friends. We had a good chat last night. I’ve known Simon for 25 years, he’s a great friend of mind and he is going to do other things, but will continue working with us.”

In Stoke, which voted strongly in favour of Brexit in last year’s referendum, the main challenge is expected to come from Ukip, where party leader Paul Nuttall is standing.

Corbyn, who is expected to campaign in the constituency on Saturday, claimed Labour would “defeat Ukip’s politics of hate”.

Tony Blair"s Brexit speech "not helpful", says Jeremy Corbyn

Tony Nicklinson: A father"s battle for proper to die is carried on soon after his death

“I can not begin to put into phrases what it would suggest if they determined in our favour,” Jane says. “All Tony’s difficult work would have been for something, not nothing at all. The program as it stands is cruel, that’s the only way of placing it. To have an individual like Tony, whose thoughts was as sharp as anything at all, nevertheless they can’t choose what they can do with their lives – it’s just incorrect. If an individual is of sound mind, and they know exactly what they want, they need to be able to do what they wish. What right does any person have to inform them that they do not?”

She and Tony had been collectively for 27 many years. They travelled the globe with Tony’s work, living in Malaysia, Hong Kong and Dubai, before his stroke forced them to move back to the Uk. “One minute we had a great life, undertaking what we needed, the place we wanted, and abruptly every little thing changed overnight,” remembers Jane. “It was extremely hard on our daughters, also. Beth and Lauren have been youngsters, so luckily they were old enough to understand what had happened, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t incredibly tough.”

Tony’s stroke occurred six weeks prior to Lauren’s 18th birthday. Now 26, functioning in a PR company in Bristol, she says she understands her father would be proud that they have continued his legal campaign. “When Dad was right here, it was all about him – but it’s grow to be considerably larger than that. We’re carrying out this for everyone else. Not just for folks who are in the exact same place as him, but for individuals who may grow to be like that in the long term – that could be me in 20 years’ time. For me, personally, it is a way of feeling close to him. Naturally I will constantly be connected to Dad, but this just keeps him that small bit closer for a minor bit longer.”

She will never ever overlook the day she realised that her father didn’t want to reside any much more. “It was a conversation with Mum,” she says. “I was in Preston in my 1st yr of university and she phoned one particular evening to say Dad was asking her to help finish his existence. I don’t think he ever formally advised me it was just mentioned a lot more and far more, and it grew to become part of our lives. I will by no means know except if I’m in the identical scenario Dad was in, but it was truly quite effortless to accept simply because I would almost certainly want the same factor. I respected my dad. If this was what he wanted, he was a massive man he could make his personal selections. There are a whole lot of people who would disagree but respect that it was his choice, and that is all we ever asked for.”

Tony’s relationships with his loved ones had been fractured by his disability. “It took us a whilst to learn how to communicate with him,” remembers Jane. For Lauren, the hardest thing was accepting that her fit, rugby-mad father was so markedly diverse. “The severity of his disability put up a barrier and made him more difficult to get to,” she says. “We have been constantly close, so it was really challenging when he shut down. I’d walk into his area to say hello when I came house in the evening, and he wouldn’t acknowledge me. I consider he identified it too hard to interact with me and Beth, and Mum to an extent. It hurt to know what he couldn’t do.”

Fighting his legal situation was, says Jane, a “lifeline” for Tony, especially in the direction of the end. “It gave him something to perform in direction of something to do. When he got his eye blink laptop, he wrote plenty of posts and had conversations with men and women on-line. It gave him hope.”

Together, they worked out a cautious legal framework for others in Tony’s position. “We are not asking for a blanket choice on right-to-die,” insists Jane. “It’s about individual selection every single case would be taken on its personal merits. You would have to show that you had been also disabled to take your own life, and that you weren’t getting coerced – there would be a large framework to defend the vulnerable, so as to steer clear of opening the floodgates.”

Since Tony’s death, his cause has been taken on by Paul Lamb, 58, from Leeds, who was paralysed in a vehicle accident in 1990. He has accompanied the Nicklinson family members by way of the court process, on his very own behalf and as a living embodiment of Tony’s lead to, looking for a court declaration that any medical doctor who killed him would have a defence against criminal fees.

“I describe it as peace of thoughts,” says Paul, who has no limb perform except in his right hand. “You’ve received a safeguard if you ever require to get in touch with on it. If I get to the point exactly where I’m most likely to be in bed forever and I just can not stand it, I want to know that I can end factors. Really do not get me wrong I do enjoy lifestyle. This is not some thing I’m performing because I’m suffering from depression – it is just the truth of being refused my appropriate. If they are going to get disabled rights critically in this country, they have to grant us this next week.”

The Nicklinson household haven’t discussed what will take place if the judges rule otherwise. “This is also important to allow go,” says Lauren. “Whatever the end result, Wednesday will be a very anxious and emotional day – but I come to feel confident that they’ve spent time offering Dad’s case the consideration it deserves.”

Jane, who devoted each day to caring for Tony following his stroke, has been slowly rebuilding her life given that his death. She understands that next week will mark the finish of their nine-year legal battle, and either triumph for Tony’s cause – or perhaps a time to move on. “I will never ever neglect when the medical doctor stated to him, ‘If you really do not consider your antibiotics, you’ll possibly die.’” Her voice, so calm right up until now, out of the blue falters. “He was so relieved. You could see the appear in his eyes. It was, at lengthy last, his opportunity to go.”

Tony Nicklinson: A father"s battle for proper to die is carried on soon after his death

Tony Abbott now admits $one.8bn in hospital cuts will start from July

Tony Abbott has conceded the government is cutting a hospitals funding agreement with quick impact, contrary to his weekend declare that the cuts did not get result for many years.

On Sunday Abbott stated: “We’re not talking about following week or subsequent month or even subsequent yr we are talking about adjustments in three years’ time”.

But Abbott now agrees the nationwide partnership agreement on public hospitals, which begins on 1 July, has been lower. Spending budget paperwork say it has been cut by $ 1.8bn in excess of the up coming four years.

The prime minister says the reductions should be blamed on Labor simply because the former government had previously revised the agreement.

“There was a nationwide partnerships agreement which the Labor get together hadn’t funded on [hospital] beds and we have decided not to renew it, but this is a Labor minimize, it is not a Coalition lower,” Abbott advised the ABC.

But the price range document is clear that cash has been cut by this government, stating: “The government will conserve $ 1.8bn over 4 many years from 2014-15 by ceasing the funding ensures underneath the nationwide health reform agreement 2011 and revising commonwealth hospital funding arrangements from July 2017.”

The determination cuts $ 217m from hospitals in 2014-15, $ 260m in 2015-16 and $ 133m in 2016-17 just before the big cuts get started in 2017-18, when the commonwealth ceases its contribution to the growth in hospital expenses due to the ageing population and greater therapy costs. From that time commonwealth investing increases only in line with inflation and population growth.

State premiers say the cuts eliminate funding necessary for 1,200 hospital beds and they have no capability to fill the gap.

Abbott was flying to Rockhampton on Monday morning with the Queensland premier, Campbell Newman – 1 of the most outspoken critics of the cuts – to attend the funeral of Graeme Acton, a prominent Queensland grazier.

Later on in the day Abbott returned to his earlier argument – that hospital funding is still increasing 12 months on yr.

“For the following three many years hospital funding increases … and then in the fourth yr commonwealth funding will boost by 6%, so we are not cutting funding, we are growing funding … all we are not undertaking is not agreeing to the pie-in-the-sky funding promised by Labor,” Abbott said.

The budget paperwork reveal virtually $ 3bn worth of funding agreements with state governments in the well being portfolio alone that have been lower, deferred or abandoned – with the cuts starting up this 12 months or up coming year.

These cuts are on leading of the $ 80bn in lengthy-term funding reduce out of wellness and education, and on top of savings from the new $ 7 Medicare co-payment (which could force folks to look for help in state-run emergency departments instead of seeing a basic practitioner) the extra $ 5 co-payment for medicines the pausing of indexation for medical advantage routine charges and other price range savings. As well, numerous partnership agreements have been axed in other portfolios.

• The national overall health reform agreement, signed by all states and the commonwealth in 2011. (This cuts $ one.8bn from public hospital funding, beginning this 12 months. Income to be put into the health care study future fund.)

• The dental flexible grants program. (Cuts quantity to $ 229m, starting this year. This program was to aid dentists set up in outer metropolitan and rural locations. Money goes to the Health care Study Long term Fund.)

• Grownup public dental services. (Cuts equal $ 390m, commencing this year, by deferring a nationwide partnership agreement signed with the states, which was supposed to help clear the 400,000-robust waiting lists for public dental care. Income goes to the Health-related Analysis Future Fund.)

• Strengthening public hospital companies. (Cuts of $ 201m, starting up next yr, from cash that was supposed to aid the states reduce waiting instances at public hospitals. Funds goes to the Healthcare Study Long term Fund.)

• National partnership on preventive well being. (Cuts of $ 367m, starting up this year, from agreement that was supposed to fund preventive overall health schooling applications, this kind of as anti-smoking campaigns. The government is also conserving $ 6m by abolishing the nationwide preventive well being company. Money from each goes to the Health-related Analysis Long term Fund.)

The spending budget also ends federal contributions to a range of pensioner concession schemes. Abbott mentioned: “We made the choice in a very challenging budget that if the states needed to continue those concessions they could do it themselves.”

As two polls showed a dramatic slump in his very own and his government’s standing right after the budget, Abbott repeated that, despite his pre-election pledges not to lower education and overall health and not to modify pensions, voters had been “on notice” about the cuts unveiled in final Tuesday.

South Australian premier Jay Weatherill stated the price range eliminated funding for 150 hospital beds in his state from July.

The premiers have demanded an emergency Coag meeting. The prime minister’s spokeswoman says there is unlikely to be a meeting before the up coming scheduled gathering in September. She says the prime minister has spoken to most of the premiers by telephone. Weatherill mentioned the prime minister had not spoken to him.

Tony Abbott now admits $one.8bn in hospital cuts will start from July

Tony Abbott now admits $1.8bn in hospital cuts will begin from July

Tony Abbott has conceded the government is cutting a hospitals funding agreement with fast effect, contrary to his weekend declare that the cuts did not take effect for many years.

On Sunday Abbott stated: “We’re not talking about subsequent week or subsequent month or even subsequent year we are talking about adjustments in three years’ time”.

But Abbott now agrees the nationwide partnership agreement on public hospitals, which begins on one July, has been minimize. Price range paperwork say it has been minimize by $ 1.8bn above the up coming four many years.

The prime minister says the reductions must be blamed on Labor simply because the former government had previously revised the agreement.

“There was a nationwide partnerships agreement which the Labor party hadn’t funded on [hospital] beds and we have determined not to renew it, but this is a Labor reduce, it is not a Coalition lower,” Abbott advised the ABC.

But the price range document is clear that income has been reduce by this government, stating: “The government will conserve $ one.8bn more than 4 years from 2014-15 by ceasing the funding guarantees beneath the nationwide health reform agreement 2011 and revising commonwealth hospital funding arrangements from July 2017.”

The choice cuts $ 217m from hospitals in 2014-15, $ 260m in 2015-sixteen and $ 133m in 2016-17 just before the huge cuts begin in 2017-18, when the commonwealth ceases its contribution to the growth in hospital costs due to the ageing population and higher treatment expenses. From that time commonwealth paying increases only in line with inflation and population development.

State premiers say the cuts eliminate funding necessary for one,200 hospital beds and they have no capability to fill the gap.

Abbott was flying to Rockhampton on Monday morning with the Queensland premier, Campbell Newman – one of the most outspoken critics of the cuts – to attend the funeral of Graeme Acton, a prominent Queensland grazier.

Later in the day Abbott returned to his earlier argument – that hospital funding is nevertheless increasing yr on 12 months.

“For the subsequent three many years hospital funding increases … and then in the fourth 12 months commonwealth funding will enhance by six%, so we aren’t cutting funding, we are rising funding … all we are not undertaking is not agreeing to the pie-in-the-sky funding promised by Labor,” Abbott said.

The spending budget documents reveal almost $ 3bn well worth of funding agreements with state governments in the overall health portfolio alone that have been cut, deferred or abandoned – with the cuts starting this 12 months or up coming year.

These cuts are on prime of the $ 80bn in long-term funding reduce out of health and schooling, and on best of cost savings from the new $ seven Medicare co-payment (which could force folks to look for support in state-run emergency departments instead of seeing a common practitioner) the additional $ 5 co-payment for medicines the pausing of indexation for medical benefit schedule fees and other budget financial savings. As properly, numerous partnership agreements have been axed in other portfolios.

• The national overall health reform agreement, signed by all states and the commonwealth in 2011. (This cuts $ one.8bn from public hospital funding, beginning this yr. Income to be put into the health-related study future fund.)

• The dental flexible grants program. (Cuts quantity to $ 229m, beginning this year. This system was to help dentists set up in outer metropolitan and rural regions. Funds goes to the Healthcare Study Long term Fund.)

• Adult public dental solutions. (Cuts equal $ 390m, starting this year, by deferring a nationwide partnership agreement signed with the states, which was supposed to support clear the 400,000-strong waiting lists for public dental care. Funds goes to the Medical Study Future Fund.)

• Bettering public hospital providers. (Cuts of $ 201m, starting up up coming 12 months, from cash that was supposed to help the states minimize waiting occasions at public hospitals. Funds goes to the Health care Study Long term Fund.)

• National partnership on preventive health. (Cuts of $ 367m, starting up this yr, from agreement that was supposed to fund preventive well being schooling programs, such as anti-smoking campaigns. The government is also saving $ 6m by abolishing the national preventive overall health agency. Funds from both goes to the Medical Study Potential Fund.)

The spending budget also ends federal contributions to a range of pensioner concession schemes. Abbott stated: “We produced the choice in a really tough budget that if the states wished to proceed those concessions they could do it themselves.”

As two polls showed a dramatic slump in his very own and his government’s standing right after the budget, Abbott repeated that, regardless of his pre-election pledges not to lower schooling and overall health and not to alter pensions, voters had been “on notice” about the cuts unveiled in final Tuesday.

South Australian premier Jay Weatherill stated the price range eliminated funding for 150 hospital beds in his state from July.

The premiers have demanded an emergency Coag meeting. The prime minister’s spokeswoman says there is unlikely to be a meeting before the subsequent scheduled gathering in September. She says the prime minister has spoken to most of the premiers by telephone. Weatherill explained the prime minister had not spoken to him.

Tony Abbott now admits $1.8bn in hospital cuts will begin from July