News
The ADHD dilemma for parents
Nurseries 'pose risk to children'
UN study reveals global child abuse
Tories seek to focus on families
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008
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The ADHD dilemma for parents
With a recent survey suggesting almost 50% of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder have been excluded from school at some point, parents face difficult choices. Up to one in 20 children have ADHD, which affects concentration and can cause adults to consider them to be disruptive.
Many are being put on medication but unions warn that some schools cannot meet their medical needs. And American scientists have raised concerns about the widespread use of ADHD medications.
A recent survey by the National Attention Deficit Disorder information and support service found the exclusion rate for children with ADHD was 10 times higher than that of those without. Some parents have told the BBC they were told to give their children medication or keep them at home, and that they often felt they were being denied a proper education.
The National Association of Head Teachers spokesperson, Jan Myles, said: "It's the system that fails the child but all too often the blame is laid at the door of the school.
"A lot of heads I'm talking to on a daily basis are exhausted with trying to implement different strategies that are not working."
One mother, Linda Sheppard, is taking her local authority to the European Court of Human Rights to gain her son the educational support she claims he needs.
Ms Sheppard removed her son from his school because she says they were unable to offer him adequate support in the classroom. Continual exclusions from school trips and other activities caused his well-being to plummet and by the time he was seven he threatened suicide, she says. For 18 months Ms Sheppard struggled to find a school she felt could cope with her son's education needs.
"It's ridiculous - the only way parents can get their children an education is through the courtroom," says Ms Sheppard, who claims that many exclusions are not recorded in official statistics and are classified as authorised absences by schools.
Other parents say they are coming under pressure to have their children on prescription drugs. The BBC's Five Live Report spoke to one parent who said they were asked by their school to either put their child on medication or they would be excluded. In the past 10 years the prescription rates for ADHD medications, which are based on the chemical methylphenidate, have risen sharply.
In 1994 there were just 4,000 prescriptions for methylphenidate, 10 years later that figure had gone up to 359,000 - a 90-fold increase. However, the news comes at a time when leading American doctors have called for greater warnings on the labels of the ADHD medications. The risks outlined by Dr Steven Nissen include tics, strokes, and in severe cases, sudden death.
"These drugs are not candy," says Dr Nissen, President of the American College of Cardiologists who was one of the key experts that moved to increase the warnings. "These are powerful medications that have serious risks."
In Britain though the drug advisory board, the MRHA, is not yet planning to release any new guidelines.
Manufacturers said the risks identified were small and only applied to people with pre-existing heart conditions.
One drugs company, Novartis, said it had "conducted a review of our global safety database in early 2005 which did not show any increased events of sudden deaths or strokes among methylphenidate users compared to the general population".
Reference: www.bbc.co.uk/news
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Nurseries 'pose risk to children'
Sending very young children to inadequate day nurseries could lead them to develop behavioural problems, a group of childcare experts has warned.
In a letter to the Daily Telegraph they call for an "urgent national debate" to ensure children with working mothers receive the most appropriate care.
They accept many nurseries strive to provide "continuity in personalised care-giving" but say many fall short. The government said early years provision could benefit children. An education department spokesman said parents "should have a choice about how they balance work and family life".
"If they choose childcare, they should be able to do so with confidence."
Signatories to the letter included academics, authors and former teachers. It stated: "Consistent, continuous care by a trusted figure is the key to providing a secure and nurturing environment for very young children. The government should make it easier for parents to use their child-care allowances to pay a grandmother or other relative to look after their children.
Author Sue Palmer, who signed the letter, told the BBC that during the first six to nine months of their lives children needed to develop a "secure attachment". This attachment should be to "one person in their life who they know they can trust, who will be there for them all the time and isn't going to go away".
"If the child is securely attached then quite often they make lots of other attachments to other people and can be quite happy going off to nursery," she said.
Research carried out by Sir Richard Bowlby - another of the letter's signatories - suggested about 40% of toddlers in the UK and US did not develop this secure attachment.
Ms Palmer added: "One of the problems with institutionalised care is very often there's a lot of different people, so the child doesn't know that there's one there that's especially for it."
Sir Richard told the Telegraph the government should not encourage mothers back to work by funding day-care schemes until a proper discussion has been held.
"The government should make it easier for parents to use their child-care allowances to pay a grandmother or other relative to look after their children," he said.
A spokesman for the education department said care provided by family members was valuable but it would be "inappropriate for government to interfere in these private arrangements".
"To fund this sort of care would mean assessing its quality and nobody would want to see grandparents being inspected by Ofsted."
Other signatories to the letter included actor Tom Conti, Professor Allan Schore from the University of California and Steve Biddulph, author of Raising Babies.
Reference: www.bbc.co.uk/news
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UN study reveals global child abuse
A shocking picture of physical, sexual and psychological violence being perpetrated against children on a daily basis has been revealed in a UN report.
The first UN study of global violence against children says such abuse is often socially approved or even legal. It concludes that violence against under-18s occurs in every country, every society and every social group.
The UN has called on states to outlaw violence against children and to ensure their rights are protected. The study, which was requested by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, is the result of four years of research.
The report's author, Professor Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, says the situation revealed is not acceptable and decades of silent abuse can no longer remain unchallenged.
"Protection from violence is a matter of urgency," writes Mr Pinheiro, "Children have suffered adult violence unseen and unheard for centuries."
The UN is calling on every country to have a national strategy to prevent violence against children.
The report, the first of its kind, charts various kinds of violence, from prostitution to school bullying, taking place in different stages and spheres of children's' lives - at home, in the community and in institutions.
It estimates that some 150 million girls, 14% of the planet's child population, are sexually abused each year, as well as seven percent of boys, or 73 million children.
Such violence can leave serious long-term psychological scars which result in increased risky sexual behaviour, substance abuse and violence towards others in adulthood.
The study suggests that between 80-93% of children suffer physical punishment in their homes, although many of them do not speak of it due to stigma, shame and a lack of faith in legal systems.
The home can also be a dangerous place for some of the estimated 82 million girls who marry before the age of 18 and can face violence from their partners.
"There are several modalities of violence that are invisible or there is a wall of silence - violence inside the school, inside the home, at the workplace, the community and institutions," Mr Pinheiro told the BBC.
This is the moment to recognise children as being protected by rights, as full citizens
Gender also shapes the likelihood of experiencing different types of violence.
A study of 21 mainly developed countries, for example, found that up to 36% of women and 29% of men reported being sexually victimised during childhood.
But boys, especially in the 15-17 age group, are up to four times more likely to be murdered than girls of the same age.
The authors said they were encouraged by the participation of 135 governments from across the globe.
But the report recognises that one of the greatest challenges is changing a social mindset that tacitly accepts violence towards minors.
It includes a list of recommendations including the creation of national commissioners to prevent violence against children and national legal frameworks to protect children.
"After the emancipation of the workers in the 19th Century, the emancipation of the women in the 20th Century, I think that this is the moment to recognise children as being protected by rights, as full citizens, and not as mini-human beings or the property of their families," Mr Pinheiro said.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk/news
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03 October 2006 - Tories seek to focus on families
Parents of children of all ages should be able to ask to work flexible hours, says Conservative leader David Cameron. Mr Cameron said he was also looking at a possible tax allowance for families where one parent stays at home.
On the Tory conference's third day, he said he wanted to focus on things important to people rather than "banging on" about issues like Europe.
Critics accuse Mr Cameron of being a policy-free zone but he said he would be delighted if Labour called a snap election.
He argued he could ask his policy groups to report their progress immediately if the Tories did form a government.
Mr Cameron told BBC Radio 4's Today programme his party had talked to the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) about his plans to allow more people to ask to work flexible hours.
"I think it will help people have a better work-life balance, that's really important - that's the centre ground for me, it's the issues people care about in their lives," he said.
Mr Cameron said the "tax lever" was not the only way of helping families as his mother had taught him there was more to life than money.
Tory officials say the party is looking at creating a transferable tax allowance worth about £2,000 so parents can pass on the benefit of their personal tax allowance to their working partner.
Source: www.bbc.co.uk/news
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