The Bishop of Sheffield received the following written answer on 26th November 2024:
The Lord Bishop of Sheffield asked His Majesty’s Government what percentage of 11–18-year-olds in Sheffield currently have access to regular out of school activities, adventures away from home and opportunities to volunteer, in accordance with the goal set out in the National Youth Guarantee.
Continue reading “Bishop of Sheffield asks about access to extracurricular opportunities for young people”The Bishop of Sheffield received the following written answers on 18th November 2024:
The Lord Bishop of Sheffield asked His Majesty’s Government how many of the eight Youth Guarantee Trailblazer areas will be located in the north of England.
Baroness Sherlock (Lab, DWP): The Government’s plan to Get Britain Working includes a new Youth Guarantee for all young people in England aged 18-21 to ensure that they can access quality training opportunities, an apprenticeship or help to find work. More detail on the Youth Guarantee will be set out in the upcoming Get Britain Working White Paper.
Continue reading “Bishop of Sheffield asks about opportunities for young people in the North of England”
The Bishop of Derby received the following written answer on 11th December 2024:
The Lord Bishop of Derby asked His Majesty’s Government whether they plan to introduce a national wellbeing measure for children to provide local authorities and national policymakers with data for the purpose of improving the mental health and wellbeing of young people.
Continue reading “Bishop of Derby asks about improving mental health and wellbeing for young people”The Bishop of St Albans asked a question on the mental health of young people and the potential effects of social media and smartphones, during a discussion on health-related benefits claims on 5th November 2024:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans: My Lords, I pick up the Minister’s reference to mental health. Some estimates suggest that up to two-thirds of those claiming incapacity benefits are doing so on the basis of mental health-related issues. Can the Minister tell us whether a focus on young people, in particular their use of things such as smartphones and social media, is being both researched and fed into the Government’s early intervention strategy?
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about effects of smartphones on young people’s mental health”
The Bishop of Newcastle tabled a question on government steps to educe the number of young people not in employment, education, or training on 29th October 2024:
The Lord Bishop of Newcastle: To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to reduce the number of young people not in employment, education, or training.
Continue reading “Bishop of Newcastle asks about reducing number of young people not in employment, education, or training”
The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 23rd May 2024:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to tackle image-based sexual abuse among teenagers.
Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Con, Home Office): The Government is committed to intervening as early as possible to prevent vulnerable children and young people from experiencing all forms of child sexual exploitation and abuse. This includes education and awareness raising initiatives and equipping frontline professionals and safeguarding partners with the tools and training to identify child sexual abuse and provide support to children and young people.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about proliferation of intimate-image based abuse among teenagers”The Bishop of Derby asked a question on steps to eliminate racial bias against gypsy, Roma and traveller children in the youth justice system on 25th April 2024:
The Lord Bishop of Derby: My Lords, I hold responsibility in the Bishops’ prison team for children in the youth justice system, so my question arises not only from access to what I find to be quite disturbing data but also from direct contact with children in the justice system. What steps are His Majesty’s Government taking to eliminate racial bias, including in charging, against Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children in the youth justice system, who are often hidden within official statistics?
Continue reading “Bishop of Derby asks about racial bias in youth justice”The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answer on 15th April 2024:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the report by Gallup, the Oxford Wellbeing Research Centre and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network World Happiness Report, published on 20 March; in particular, the finding that the happiness of young people under the age of 30 in the UK has declined.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about mental health of young people in the UK”The Bishop of Winchester spoke in a debate on the second reading of the Schools (Mental Health Professionals) Bill on 1st March 2024, pointing out the need for a consistent, universally applied policy to improve student mental health, and the need to address the causes of mental health issues at a root level:
The Lord Bishop of Winchester: My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Baroness for bringing this Bill to us for its Second Reading. We indeed face a crisis in this area and need to be aware of the long-term consequences of not addressing it.
The Bill would pave the way for just the kinds of interventions that are sorely needed. The NSPCC and our own Library briefing state that more than 20% of children and young people are living with poor mental health. CAMHS referrals are provided for only the most severe presenting issues, while early intervention, though widely recognised to be key to good long-term outcomes, is now a thing of distant memory. The sobering fact is that children are taking their own lives while they wait to be seen, and that is deeply shameful.
Last summer, the Church of England published the document Our Hope for a Flourishing Schools System, which makes specific mention of mental health, it being the issue school leaders most often raise with us. It states:
“Children’s mental health and wellbeing is prioritised and resourced generously by a society that invests in the long-term future of its nation by placing children first in funding and political direction. The fulfilling of a child’s potential should never be hindered, blocked or prevented by the system in which they find themselves”.
However, those words are, sadly, far from being the current reality.
Continue reading “Schools (Mental Health Professionals) Bill: Bishop of Winchester applauds measures to address mental health issues in young people”The Bishop of St Albans received the following written answers on 5th December 2023:
The Lord Bishop of St Albans asked His Majesty’s Government how many children and young people were being treated by the NHS for addiction to video games or gaming disorder annually from 2015 to 2022.
Continue reading “Bishop of St Albans asks about gaming related harms suffered by young people”
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