One in four UK teenagers in care have attempted to end their lives, study says

One in four teenagers in care have attempted to end their own life, and are four times more likely to do so than their peers with no care experience, according to a landmark study.The research analysed data from the millennium cohort study, which follows the lives of 19,000 people born in the UK between 2000 and 2002, and considered how out of home care, including foster, residential and kinship care, affected the social and mental health outcomes of the participants.More than one in four (26%) 17-year-olds who have lived in foster or residential care have attempted to end their own lives, the analysis found, compared with only one in 14 (7%) of teenagers with no experience of being in care.Although previous research has found that about 7% of UK children have attempted suicide by the age of 17, this study, conducted by academics from the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, is the first to calculate the elevated suicide risk teenagers with care experience have.Lisa Harker, the director of the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory, said the fact that one in four care-experienced children had attempted suicide was a “national emergency”

Football fan took his own life after using illegal ‘predatory’ betting sites, inquest told

A football fan took his own life after his love of the sport fuelled a gambling addiction that led him to bet with illegal offshore operators that “prey on” vulnerable people, a coroner has heard.Ollie Long, from Wendover in Buckinghamshire, died in February 2024, aged 36, after struggling with his addiction for eight years.In statements read by Long’s sister, Chloe, East Sussex coroner’s court in Lewes heard the “endlessly kind” Liverpool FC fan had started gambling through his passion for football and won £15,000 through a sign-up offer.She said the gambling websites he went on to use were “highly addictive, predatory systems designed to exploit”.The court heard the sites included illegal offshore operators that target UK consumers who have signed up with the the country’s self-exclusion scheme, GamStop, promoting themselves online as “Not on GamStop”

Death on the inside: as a prison officer, I saw how the system perpetuates violence

There are hotspots for violence in prison. The exercise yard, the showers. There are peak times, too. Mealtimes and association periods are particularly volatile.But first thing in the morning is not when you expect to hear an alarm bell

HMRC accepted ‘tolerable’ risk of harm in child benefit fraud crackdown

UK tax authorities believed that withdrawing child benefit payments from parentswithout prior consultation as part of an anti-fraud drive carried a “tolerable” risk, with only a “remote” chance of inflicting harm, according to internal documents.The revelations come just weeks after it emerged that at least 63% of those who had their child benefit stopped were in fact still living in the UK and had not emigrated, as inferred by incomplete Home Office data used in the crackdown.Senior HM Revenue and Customs officials are due to be questioned about the episode by the Treasury select committee on Tuesday, which last year said the department appeared to have been “cavalier with people’s finances”.The controversy began after HMRC suspended almost 24,000 child benefit accounts between July and October. Parents received letters referring to overseas holidays – sometimes dating back as far as three years – for which the Home Office had no record of a return journey

Excessive screen time could limit vocabulary of toddlers, experts warn

Excessive screen time could damage toddlers’ ability to speak, the UK government has warned as it prepares to issue advice to parents for the first time on how to manage screen use in under-fives.Research has found that children aged two with the highest screen use – about five hours a day – could say significantly fewer words than those with screen use of about 44 minutes a day.Screen use is now near-universal in early childhood, with 98% of two-year-olds watching screens daily, the research also found.The education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, said parents and teachers had warned that “too much passive screen time can start to crowd out the talking, play and reading that are so important for children’s language and development in the early years”.“Screens are part of family life now

Women are feral for Heated Rivalry. What does that say about men?

The explosive popularity of the gay hockey TV drama reveals women’s desire for sex and romance without violence or hierarchyThe first time gay hockey romance crossed Mary’s radar, she was warned off it. A 64-year-old non-profit executive from Toronto, Mary recalled mentioning the Canadian author Rachel Reid’s Game Changers series to her son, a twentysomething queer writer and fellow hockey obsessive, a few years ago.“I said: ‘Have you heard of these books?’ and he said: ‘Yeah.’ I said: ‘Should I read these books?’ And he said: ‘No. They’re not for you