What options are available to a social work team manager? The Guardian explores five available options, what they would involve and also the expected salary:
1. Working for the youth offending service as a parenting expert is an option. Lucy would be responsible for parenting orders and would have to write reports for courts….
2. Lucy could become a Connexions project co-ordinator of a pilot scheme looking at developing a district-wide system to support government policy to raise the school leaving age to 18 and keep more young people in education, employment …

The Independent Commission on Social Services in Wales will be giving the public a chance to air their views in a Call for Evidence process:
"We are opening up various communication channels so that your views can be heard and I would encourage all interested parties to use this opportunity to help us shape the future of social services in Wales. There are many excellent projects and services ongoing in Wales and I want to make sure that we hear and learn about them all. We want to build on the …

There are many software choices for protecting children online, but do they really work?
Before you can understand how best to protect your child online, you need to know what threats they face. If your only metric is the media, you might be forgiven for thinking the internet is a paedophile paradise, with predatory behaviour the norm.
However, Dave Miles, director at the Family Online Safety Institute reminds us that while predation is perceived as the most challenging threat, “the reality is that cyber-bullying is probably a larger problem”.
Children used to be …

As an alternative to the Queen’s Speech, this Christmas Teens’ speech will air on MySpace at 3.10pm
The Teens’ Speech, to be aired on Christmas Day on MySpace (just after the Queen at 3.10pm) has listened to the hopes, fears and dreams of hundreds of teenagers over the last 50 days up and down the country. From Christians to Muslims, young adults with Asperger’s syndrome, a transgender teenager, rich kids to poor, these are Britain’s teenagers shown for once in their diversity rather than as a homogenous, faceless mass.
Here we see …

Bolton Young People’s Substance Misuse is in danger after government plans to cut funding by over half:
Over the next two years, cash given to Bolton Young People’s Substance Misuse could be slashed from £427,610 to £177,409.
The potential impact on the service, which runs a number of initiatives, has been described as “stark” and "potentially disastrous".
Services for young people with drug and alcohol problems include Project 360, which provides treatments including detox education and employment support and emotional health help to under 18s. The project was has been a finalist in …

A new initiative in Halton will give residents a say in the punishments that offenders will receive:
The scheme, which is administered through youth offending teams and which applies to offenders aged 10-17-years-old, has been rolled out across the North West by justice secretary Jack Straw.
If the current trials prove successful the scheme will be introduced nationally next year.
The project aims to toughen up punishments for young offenders.

According to findings by the BBC, teen killings in the UK have dropped by 30%, from 72 in 2008 to 51 in 2009:
Most 2009 victims were male and half of all those killed were stabbed. Twelve were beaten and two were shot.
Police say anti-knife crime tactics explain the drop, but critics argue it is too early to make such conclusions.
The BBC News website’s database shows that of the 51 young people killed so far this year, the youngest was just 10 years old and the oldest 19. The most common …

The UK Council for Child Internet Safety has launched the first Click Clever, Click Safe internet safety campaign, detailing how the Council is keeping children safe online:
Download a copy of the Strategy
This is the first UK Child Internet Safety Strategy. It sets out:

The things we have done so far to keep children safe online
Our commitments to parents, children and young people and the things we are planning to do to make them happen
How you will know whether we are succeeding in making children and young people safer.

This strategy focuses on …