All posts tagged: warns

Cabinet Minister Warns Of “Lifelong Cost” To Taxpayers If Youth Employment Isn’t Addressed

Cabinet Minister Warns Of “Lifelong Cost” To Taxpayers If Youth Employment Isn’t Addressed

Published by Sam

(Alamy) 3 min read26 September A cabinet minister has said failing to get young people into work could result in a “lifelong cost” for “them and for the taxpayer”, as the Government announced its plans for a new youth guarantee. Liz Kendall, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, spoke to PoliticsHome on a visit to Anfield prior to her speech at Labour Party conference.  On Wednesday she was part of an event for young people in Liverpool’s stadum, where she gave more details about how the Government will implement its youth guarantee alongside business and charities to improve youth employment and education. Government data has found that more than one in eight young people are not in education, employment or training. Statistics from the House of Commons found the unemployment rate for those between 16-24 years old rose from 13 per cent in 2023 to 14.2 per cent in 2024. In an interview with PoliticsHome, Kendall warned of the cost to the British state and taxpayer if the government could not improve youth employment, …

Reports warns of ‘long slog’ to resolve Covid challenge

Reports warns of ‘long slog’ to resolve Covid challenge

Published by skeptic

The impact of Covid is “moving like a series of waves” through the school system as secondaries grapple with reading difficulties and poorly-organised pupils and primaries tackle “acute developmental needs” among new starters, a new report has warned. The paper by assessment expert Tim Oates for the ASCL school leaders’ union lays bare the “sliding set of distinctive challenges”. He cautions against assuming schools are “back to normal” and says the educational challenges will continue to unfold over the next five to 10 years. Oates, who works for Cambridge Assessment, called for better early years and parental support, earlier intervention for pupils with mental health needs, as well as other “well-funded” and targeted actions. Tim Oates Although a “wealth of high-quality research” into the impact of Covid on schools exists, “we have spent little time on how this all adds up – the pattern of individual, local and system-wide impacts”. In working through the existing studies, “we begin to understand that the totality of the problems across all age groups presents a very new type …

Tom Hanks Warns That Deepfake Scams Are Stealing His Face

Tom Hanks Warns That Deepfake Scams Are Stealing His Face

Published by José

“DO NOT BE FOOLED. DO NOT BE SWINDLED.” Hanks for Nothing Tom Hanks is pleading with netizens to avoid falling for online deepfake scams that use his likeness to hawk drugs and supplements. In a Thursday evening Instagram post, the beloved actor issued a “public service announcement” — cheesily captioned with an old-timey “Extra! Extra! Read all about it!” — warning that “there are multiple ads over the internet falsely using my name, likeness, and voice,” which Hanks says are being used to promote “miracle cures and wonder drugs.” “These ads have been created without my consent, fraudulently and through AI,” the actor added. “I have nothing to do with these posts or the products and treatments, or the spokespeople touting these cures.” “DO NOT BE FOOLED. DO NOT BE SWINDLED,” Hanks continued. “DO NOT LOSE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY.” You heard the man! If you see a social media-shared clip of Tom Hanks trying to sell you on a miracle pill or supplement — or anything, for that matter — air heavily on the side of …

‘Religion-phobia’ definitions must be avoided, NSS warns Government

‘Religion-phobia’ definitions must be avoided, NSS warns Government

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The Government must ensure freedom to criticise religion is preserved in efforts to counter far-right extremism, the National Secular Society has said. The NSS has written to Angela Rayner, Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, warning that adopting a definition of ‘Islamophobia’ could threaten free speech around religion. Its letter follows reports that the Government is engaging with stakeholders in support of adopting a controversial ‘Islamophobia’ definition in the wake of recent attacks on mosques and Muslims by far-right rioters. “We deplore this violence and welcome efforts to protect people and places of worship, as well as hold perpetrators to justice,” the NSS said. “However, we believe adopting an ‘Islamophobia’ definition will inflame, rather than dispel, community tensions and division.” Islamophobia definition risks “creating a blasphemy law via the backdoor” While in opposition, the Labour Party adopted a definition of ‘Islamophobia’ by the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on British Muslims. The definition says ‘Islamophobia’ is “a type of racism that targets expressions of Muslimness”. The definition has been criticised …

SEND system ‘very likely’ to become unsustainable, warns DfE

SEND system ‘very likely’ to become unsustainable, warns DfE

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More from this theme Recent articles The SEND system is now “very likely” to become financially unsustainable, while the risk that council finances will impede “essential” support services is “critical”, the Department for Education has warned. The DfE has upgraded its risk register on the two issues, showing the scale of the challenge ahead for the new government with systems on the verge of collapse. Here’s what we learned from the department’s annual report and accounts. 1. ‘Very likely’ SEND system will be unsustainable Schools Week revealed earlier this year how more than a third of councils with “safety-valve” deals to plug high-needs deficits face bankruptcy, despite being set to receive more than £1 billion in government bailouts before the end of the decade. The DfE said the risk that “high needs pressures continue to outstrip available funding significantly, making the SEND and AP system financially unsustainable” has been upgraded to “critical-very likely”. Despite “substantial cash increases in high needs funding, in the medium term (1-4 years) high needs costs continue to rise significantly”. This …

Global IT outage: NHS warns of GP disruption next week – as travellers report long delays and lost baggage | UK News

Global IT outage: NHS warns of GP disruption next week – as travellers report long delays and lost baggage | UK News

Published by skeptic

The NHS has warned of “continued disruption” to GP services into next week following the global IT outage – as airline passengers reported lengthy delays and lost baggage this weekend. The outage spread globally on Friday morning after an update from global cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike knocked many Microsoft Windows PCs offline with a “blue screen of death” appearing on screens. The company’s founder confirmed it was caused by a bug in the update and not a cyber attack, as some had feared. NHS England reported its systems were “coming back online in most areas” on Saturday afternoon but were “still running slightly slower than usual”. A spokesperson said: “As practices recover from the loss of IT systems on Friday, there may be some continued disruption, particularly to GP services, in some areas into next week as practices work to rebook appointments.” Image: An NHS warning about the IT outage. Pic: PA There was also significant disruption to pharmacy services on Saturday. Nick Kaye, chair of the National Pharmacy Association, said systems were “by and large …

NSS warns against allowing the promotion of religious views in RSHE

NSS warns against allowing the promotion of religious views in RSHE

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The National Secular Society has warned new guidance on Relationships, Sex, and Health Education (RSHE) will continue to enable the spread of stigmatising religious ideas about LGBT people, women, and reproductive health. Responding to a government consultation on the draft guidance, the NSS said the requirement that “pupils should understand the importance of equality and respect” is incompatible with permitting schools with a religious character to “teach their distinctive faith perspective on relationships”. NSS research from 2018 found many faith schools explicitly teaching that same-sex relationships are wrong and criticising sex outside of marriage. Some were also found condemning contraceptives and abortion, encouraging taboos around menstruation, and stigmatising same-sex relationships by teaching about them primarily through education about HIV/AIDs. The NSS said that respect and understanding “cannot be fostered” for children who are themselves LGBT or who have LGBT parents whilst religious perspectives can be promoted as part of RSHE. It called for allowances for faith schools to do so to be removed from the guidance. The NSS said the guidance around LGBT inclusion had …

Watchdog warns reliance on nuclear weapons rising amid global tension | Nuclear Weapons News

Watchdog warns reliance on nuclear weapons rising amid global tension | Nuclear Weapons News

Published by Sam

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute says Russia and the US possess ‘almost 90 percent of all nuclear weapons’. The world’s nine nuclear-armed states have raised their reliance on nuclear weapons, a watchdog has said. A report released by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) on Monday said the states increased their spending on modernising their atomic arsenals by one-third last year. The watchdog pointed to the contribution of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to the deterioration of international security. Wilfred Wan, director of SIPRI’s weapons of mass destruction programme, said nuclear weapons have not been seen “playing such a prominent role in international relations since the Cold War”. The report found that the effects of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza are “visible in almost every aspect of the issues connected to armaments, disarmament and international security examined”. The nine nuclear armed states – the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel – modernised their nuclear arsenals and several “deployed new nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable weapon systems …

Hindu manifesto demands would silence human rights groups, NSS warns

Hindu manifesto demands would silence human rights groups, NSS warns

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Calls by Hindu groups for the next government to criminalise ‘Hinduphobia’ would threaten the work of human rights campaigners, the National Secular Society has warned. The ‘Hindu manifesto‘, recently published by a group of Hindu organisations, calls on candidates to recognise “anti-Hindu hate as a religious hate crime” and “proscribe organisations and individuals engaged in it”. Examples of Hinduphobia given in the manifesto include saying that “all inequity in Indian society”, such as “caste” and “misogyny”, stem from and are “inextricably bound up with” Hinduism. But the NSS argues that combatting misogyny and caste discrimination in India and the Indian diaspora must include challenging Hinduism and Hindu institutions. Groups which challenge caste discrimination and misogyny in UK Hindu communities include Southall Black Sisters, the Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance, the Dalit Solidarity Network, and CasteWatchUK. The Hindu manifesto is backed by groups including the Hindu Council UK (HCUK), which last year threatened Leicester Secular Society with police action after it hosted a talk critical of Hinduism’s caste system. HCUK has been highly vocal in its opposition …

Vulnerable children locked up and ‘gravely damaged by the state’, former top family judge warns | Mental health

Vulnerable children locked up and ‘gravely damaged by the state’, former top family judge warns | Mental health

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Vulnerable children with complex needs are being locked away in unregulated placements and are being “gravely damaged by the state” while their parents are driven to despair, according to England and Wales’s former top family judge. Sir James Munby terms the lack of provision of safe and therapeutic homes “a shocking moral failure”. According to the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, the number of applications for “deprivation of liberty” orders for children suffering from psychological and behavioural difficulties reached 1,368 last year. Writing in theObserver, Munby, the immediate past president of the family division of the high court, said that soaring applications for this draconian measure were a sad reflection of the catastrophic failure to support children whose complex needs frequently lead to self-harm and suicide attempts. Lambasting the government, which he said has “failed to address the dire lack of suitable provision”, Munby referred to “dozens and dozens” of judgments expressing his fellow judges’ concerns, which have been published since his own “blood on our hands” ruling about a 17-year-old girl called “X”, which made …