Source: The Children’s Commissioner’s Office published on this  website Tuesday 14 April 2026 by Jill Powell

“The findings from today’s inquiry into the terrible events in Southport in summer 2024 are a bleak reminder why the way children’s services work together is so crucial – failure can mean the death of an innocent child. In this case, it was three children: Bebe King, Alice da Silva Aguiar and Elsie Dot Stancombe, and it is their families I am thinking of today.

“Clear opportunities were missed to stop these three little girls being killed. Time and time again we have seen the real life consequences of services and professionals failing to take responsibility for these most complex groups of children like Axel Rudakubana: those with severe mental health conditions, those fixated on violence, or those who do not fit neatly into a category like counter-terror. I am working to understand these cases of children motivated by violence more deeply and what is needed to identify them sooner.

“Each failure like this is as devastating as the last, from the deaths of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and Star Hobson in 2020, to Sara Sharif in 2023, to these murders. This inquiry must lead, finally, to the kind of change that I have called for throughout my time as Children’s Commissioner, where services are required to take responsibility, share information and work together to stop the most at-risk children becoming invisible.”

Source: Home Office published on this website Thursday 26 February 2026 by Jill Powell

Victims and survivors of ‘honour’- based abuse will be kept safer through a new legal definition and guidance to help improve how frontline professionals support victims and pursue perpetrators.

Recent statistics show that nearly 3,000 ‘honour’- based abuse related offences were recorded by the police in England and Wales in the year ending March 2025. However, due to the hidden nature of ‘honour’- based abuse, this is likely to be just the tip of the iceberg, as it is believed many of these harrowing incidents and crimes go unreported.

A legal definition of ‘honour’- based abuse has been brought into the government’s flagship Crime and Policing Bill. Alongside a power to issue crucial statutory guidance for authorities, the new legal definition will help the police, social workers and other public authorities better support victims, and set clear expectations for professionals with safeguarding responsibilities in the handling of these cases.

It will also help stop vital information, which could hold perpetrators to account in a criminal trial, from falling through the cracks.

The move is supported by over 60 charities, including Karma Nirvana, which has campaigned for these reforms since the tragic murder of Fawziyah Javed in 2021.

Fawziyah, from Leeds and pregnant at the time, was brutally killed when her husband pushed her from Arthur’s Seat, in a case that showcased how harmful ideas of perceived ‘dishonour’ can lead to tragedy.

Fawziyah experienced domestic abuse which was compounded by ‘honour’- based abuse in the lead-up to her death, highlighting the need to improve the way that statutory systems recognise this form of abuse.

Minister for Safeguarding and Violence Against Women and Girls, Jess Phillips, said:

There is no honour in ‘honour’-based abuse.

For too long, these devastating crimes have often been misunderstood and victims badly let down.

Now we are tackling these crimes head on and bringing them out of the shadows. Introducing a new definition and important guidance into law will ensure professionals will work together to ensure more victims are protected and more perpetrators face justice.

‘Honour’-based abuse can include ‘honour’- motivated killings, female genital mutilation (FGM), and forced marriage, all which are crimes that often take place in deep secrecy.

The definition, alongside a power to issue statutory guidance, has been introduced via an amendment at Report stage of the Crime and Policing Bill in the House of Lords, making both measures law across England and Wales.

The bill aims to restore public confidence in the criminal justice system and drive forward the government’s highly ambitious missions to halve both knife crime and violence against women and girls within the next decade.

In addition, the Home Office is exploring the feasibility of a prevalence study for forced marriage and FGM, first announced in August, to better understand how widespread these crimes are, alongside a community engagement campaign encouraging victims to come forward.

These initiatives will help uncover the true scale of the abuse, ensure more victims receive the support they deserve, and bring the most dangerous offenders to justice.

The measures follow the publication of the VAWG Strategy in December, which unveils how every lever of the state is to be used to protect women and girls and halve VAWG crimes in a decade.

Source: Independent Commission on Adult Social Care published on this website Tuesday 10 March 2026 by Jill Powell

In a speech on the 5 March at the Nuffield Trust Summit, Baroness Casey said social care has never had its own “creation moment” and called for a national reckoning equivalent to Beveridge’s reforms in 1948.  

In her speech, Baroness Casey set out how there is currently a reliance on cobbled together underfunded services relying on low-paid care workers, a lack of ownership and accountability, and a deep divide between health and social care which leaves families to navigate alone.  

In her remarks at the Nuffield Trust Summit, Baroness Casey of Blackstock said:  

“Unlike the NHS or indeed the benefits system, social care has never had its own creation moment. No moment when the nation decided what it was for, what people should expect or who should pay, and how. 

“Instead, we inherited a system shaped for a very different age, held together  with add-ons and work arounds, sticking plasters and glue. Without ever having the moment of reckoning we now need.”  

She stated that a national conversation would be needed to seek backing from the public who pay for health and social care through their taxes, but might not even know what social care is.

Baroness Casey also confirmed she has written to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care asking the Government to take six immediate actions on dementia, motor neurone disease and adult safeguarding due to the urgency of the reform needed in these areas.

This includes asking the Government to scale up dementia trials, appoint a new Dementia Tsar, set up a new National Safeguarding Board to protect vulnerable adults, and to introduce a new fast-track, social care passport for people diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

For more detail:

• The full speech was streamed by the Nuffield Trust here: Nuffield Trust Summit 2026

• The speech is available to watch on the Nuffield Trust’s YouTube account: Click here to view.

• The prepared text of the speech has been published on The Independent Commissions website: Click here to view.

• Baroness Casey’s letter to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care with her immediate asks of the Government can be found here: Click here to view.

Source: Department of Health and Social Care published on this website ednesday 4 February 2026 by Jill Powell

Children with cancer will have their travel costs paid for, with a new government support package worth up to £10 million a year.

For every parent of a child with cancer, each day presents real challenges, not only in confronting the disease itself, but also in managing the considerable demands and costs associated with transporting their child for specialist treatment.

More than a third of these families must travel over an hour to reach hospital. There are 13 expert centres caring for children with cancer across England, with many young patients and their families face long and frequent journeys, sometimes several times a week, over many months or even years.

The financial burden can be significant, with petrol costs, train fares and lost earnings making an already difficult time, even harder. For some families, it could mean money that means heating their home for fewer hours, or going without fresh, nutritious food at dinner time. These are choices no parent should ever be forced to make.

This commitment sits alongside decisive action to transform cancer care for children and young people; including improving hospital food, ensuring medical psychosocial care during treatment, expanding genomic testing, and detecting cancers earlier when treatment is most effective.

The upcoming national NHS food standards review will ensure young cancer patients have access to high-quality, child-friendly food, including outside mealtimes.

The government will also improve the experience of those children who have to stay in hospital. The NHS and Starlight’s Play Well toolkit will help services deliver high-quality play provision for children, while youth support coordinators will help teenagers and young adults with education, emotional support and fertility concerns.

Furthermore, mental health support will be standardised for all young cancer patients during diagnosis, treatment and long-term follow-up, recognising the experience of cancer often surfaces years after treatment ends.

Taken together, these measures will ensure that when a child faces cancer, their family can focus on what matters most, being by their side and helping them get well.

This follows a series of reforms announced as part of the National Cancer Plan, including measures to improve access to specialists in rural and coastal communities, a crackdown on illegal underage sunbed use, improved bowel cancer screening to catch thousands more cases earlier and a new partnership to support England’s 830,000 working-age cancer patients to remain in employment during and after treatment.