Source: National Crime Agency (NCA) published on this website Wednesday 1 April 2026 by Jill Powell

Two Vietnamese nationals who advertised small boats people smuggling on Facebook have been sentenced following a major UK-French investigation.

Hoang My Tra Nguyen, 25, from Heathfield Road in Croydon and Hop Cahn Nguyen, 36, from Grasmere Street, Leicester were arrested by NCA officers in April 2024 after a five-month investigation.

Both had arrived in the UK by small boat in January and July 2023 respectively.Hoang and Hop controlled Facebook accounts, together with another male who is awaiting extradition to France, to advertise small boats crossings from France to the UK, targeting the Vietnamese community.

They would include video clips of individuals travelling on a small boat and provide UK mobile numbers to arrange travel.

Messages included: "I still have a few direct flights to the UK. Passport available everyone" and "Orders for you guys who want to enter Europe with a cheap price... you guys hurry and get a seat".

Hoang and Hop would arrange crossings for migrants and helped them to abscond by putting them in touch with a third party once their claims were processed.

Officers put the group under surveillance and began to monitor their movements over the course of five months.

In February 2024, Hop was stopped by British Transport Police officers at Euston station, attempting to travel to Birmingham with migrants who had recently crossed the Channel via small boat.

Following their arrest in April, officers seized numerous mobile phones, sim cards and ledgers detailing the names, costs and details of routes.

Nguyen and Nguyen appeared at Croydon Crown Court in August 2024 and pleaded guilty to assisting unlawful immigration.

They were sentenced at the same court today (30 March).

Hop Cahn Nguyen was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment and Hoang My Tra Nguyen was sentenced to 10 years' and six months' imprisonment.

NCA Branch Commander Saju Sasikumar said: 

"These defendants used social media to advertise small boats crossings for migrants, claiming cheap prices and urgency to entice people looking for a new life.

"These crossings are extremely dangerous and the defendants had no interest in the safety of those making the journey aside from ensuring they received their payment and made significant profits.

"Vietnamese nationals entering via a high risk and clandestine method like this automatically makes them vulnerable to be exploited or held under debt bondage.

"We will continue in our efforts to tackle organised immigration crime, from targeting people smugglers at every step of the route to removing social media pages attempting to advertise people smuggling."

Hilary Ryan, Specialist Prosecutor, from the Crown Prosecution Service said:

"The prison sentences handed down today are the latest in a series of prosecutions of criminals bringing Vietnamese migrants illegally into the UK.

"Hop Nguyen and Hoang Nguyen advertised on Facebook and then arranged illegal travel as part of an international organised crime network trying to undermine our borders.

"Their operation was sophisticated and they stood to make hundreds of thousands of pounds and today's sentence reflects that.

"Prosecutors in the CPS continue to work with the National Crime Agency and others to disrupt these gangs and put them out of business."

The NCA is working in partnership with social media companies to takedown social media posts, pages and accounts advertising the services of people smugglers.

In 2025 we worked with social media networks to have more than 10,000 posts pages or accounts linked to organised immigration crime removed from platforms, a record number.

A fourth man, aged 25, was also arrested at the address in Croydon by the NCA on behalf of the French authorities. 

Source: The Charity Commission published on this website Monday 30 March 2026 by Jill Powell

The Charity Commission is investigating CISV International Ltd (charity number: 1073308) and has appointed an Interim Manager to the charity.

The charity was set up to further education in the international understanding of children and to shape their development, with a focus on peace. It offers educational activities for children, including international camps, through a federation of nearly 70 national associations with over 200 chapters or local groups.

In February 2026, the charity submitted a serious incident report relating to the charity’s safeguarding practices, in line with the Commission’s published guidance.

The report raised several serious concerns about the charity’s safeguarding policies and procedures, and its inability to enforce compliance by member associations. Due to the nature of these concerns, the Commission has escalated its engagement to a statutory inquiry.

The inquiry will examine the extent to which the charity’s trustees are complying with their legal duties in respect of the administration, governance, including safeguarding, and management of their charity in particular:

• whether the trustees have adequate strategic oversight of the charity and its activities
• whether the charity has systems in place to identify, assess and manage risks to beneficiaries
• the extent to which there has been any misconduct and / or mismanagement by the trustees.

The scope of the inquiry can be extended if additional regulatory issues emerge.

Emma Moody of Womble Bond Dickinson has been appointed as Interim Manager of the charity while it is under inquiry. She will be responsible for matters relating to safeguarding. During this time, trustees are not permitted to make decisions or take actions relating to safeguarding. Trustees must cooperate fully with the Interim Manager and their team throughout this process.

It is the Commission’s policy, after it has concluded an inquiry, to publish a report detailing the issues examined, any action taken, and the inquiry’s outcomes.

Source: Department for Education published on this website Tuesday 31 March 2026 by Jill Powell

Government answers parents’ calls for support on screen time with new evidence-backed guidance.

Parents of young children are facing a constant battle with screens. Now, for the first time, the government is stepping in with clear, trusted guidance to help families navigate it.

Following weeks of engagement with over a thousand parents who called for clear support on how much screen time is too much, and how to build healthy habits, the government is delivering on its promise to provide judgement-free, practical support if they need it.

Some will oppose stepping in, but we are clear: if the choice is between standing back or supporting parents to keep children safe, this government will always act.

Currently, parents are left to navigate fast‑moving technology alone – with a quarter (24%) of parents of 3‑ to 5‑year‑olds finding it hard to control their child’s screen time, and 98% of two‑year‑olds watching screens every day. 

This underlines the need for support, which is why we are giving parents the clear, trusted tools they need to cut through uncertainty and conflicting advice online.

The new guidance is available for free on the Best Start in Life website, with key tips including:

• Under 2s: Avoiding screen time other than for shared activities that encourage bonding, interaction and conversation.
• 2 to 5-year-olds: Trying to keep it to no more than one hour a day. Avoid at mealtimes and in the hour before bed.
• Content: Choosing slow-paced, age-appropriate content. Fast-paced, social media-style videos and AI toys or tools should be avoided for young children.
• Co-viewing: Watching or using screens together - talking, asking questions and engaging with the content - is better for children’s development than solo screen use.

This also forms part of wider action to support all children’s wellbeing in the digital world – running alongside the government’s consultation on further measures to keep children safe online.

The guidance is underpinned by the findings of an expert panel report led by the Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza and Professor Russell Viner, a paediatrician and expert in children’s health.

The expert panel reviewed the latest scientific evidence on screen use in under-5s, and found that long periods of time spent on screens alone can get in the way of activities critical for development like sleep, physical activity, creative play, and interaction with parents.

But not all screen use is equal. The evidence shows that watching screens with an engaged adult where parents talk and ask questions is linked to better cognitive development than solo use, that slow-paced content is far better for development than fast-paced social media-style videos, and that time limits shouldn’t apply in the same way for screen-based assistive technologies to support children with special educational needs and disabilities.

Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza said“Children are growing up in a world where screens are everywhere. Parents tell me they want clear, non-judgemental information about why limiting screen use is important, given in a way that reflects the realities of their daily lives.

“That’s why I was pleased to co-chair the group advising the government for this first piece of guidance on screen time for children under five, setting out why it’s so important to avoid particular kinds of screen time, and how.

“Young children need their parents to be confident in managing their screen use, but often this can be overwhelming for parents learning to navigate this.  My hope is that this guidance helps to cut through the conflicting advice available and prioritise children’s development and wellbeing, as well as their safety.”

Today’s guidance is the latest step in the government’s plan to break down barriers to opportunity.

Central to this is the rollout of Best Start Family Hubs, with hundreds of new hubs set to open across the country next week, bringing parenting advice, services and community support closer to families who need it most. The screen time guidance will be available through the hubs, giving parents access to the advice face-to-face as well as online.

The guidance is also supported by The Dollywood Foundation UK, home of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library which sends free age-appropriate books to children aged 0-5 in parts of the country through the government’s Best Start Family Hubs.

Proposed measures in the government’s wider consultation on social media include a minimum age for social media, raising the digital age of consent, overnight curfews for certain age groups, restrictions on AI chatbots for young people, and whether school mobile phone guidance should be made statutory.

New legal powers taken through the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill will allow the government to act quickly on the outcomes of the consultation.

Source: Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) published on this website Friday 27 March 2026 by Jill Powell

A private nursery has admitted corporate manslaughter over the death of 14-month-old Noah Sibanda who died after being suffocated while staff tried to make him fall asleep.

Toddler Noah died at Fairytales Day Nursery on 9 December 2022 having been physically restrained face down on a cushion, with a blanket over his face and a leg placed over him.

Fairytales Day Nursery Limited admitted one count of corporate manslaughter and a Health and Safety at Work Act offence today at Wolverhampton Crown Court. Director and business owner Debbie Latewood, 55, also admitted a Health and Safety at Work Act offence on the basis that she did not know children were being put down to sleep in this dangerous way, though should have known.

Nursery practitioner Kimberley Cookson, 23, previously pleaded guilty to gross negligence manslaughter at the same court. This related to her conduct in making Noah sleep.

The incident was captured on CCTV at the nursey, and showed Noah was tightly wrapped in a sleeping bag, had a blanket placed over his head, and was laid face down to sleep by Cookson.

She held him in place face down on a soft cushion and restrained him with her leg for some of that time, in what appeared to be an effort to make him sleep when he did not want to. After a considerable duration, it was noticed that he was not breathing, and the emergency services were called. Noah was pronounced dead at hospital.

Alex Johnson, Senior Specialist Prosecutor within the Crown Prosecution Service’s Special Crime Division, said: 

“This case has been deeply distressing and represents every parent’s worst nightmare whenever they leave their young child at a nursery.

“Noah Sibanda should have been safe in the care of professionals entrusted with his wellbeing. He lost his life as a result of reckless and dangerous sleeping practices which posed an obvious and serious risk of harm.

“The evidence in this case, including CCTV footage and expert medical findings, showed that Noah was placed to sleep in a way that severely restricted his ability to breathe and move. The prosecution case was that these practices created a suffocating environment, from which a 14-month-old child, was clearly unable to escape.

“Fairytales Day Nursery Limited has now accepted criminal responsibility for the systemic failures that led to this tragedy, and Deborah Latewood has also acknowledged that the failings occurred under her management and oversight. Kimberley Cookson has also taken responsibility for her harmful actions.

“Nursery providers have a fundamental duty to protect the children in their care. This case underscores the devastating consequences of what happens when that duty is breached. Our thoughts remain with Noah’s family, who have endured an unimaginable loss.”

The defendants will be sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court on 16 April.