Schools 'let down invisible poor'
By Anonymous on Jun 20, 2013 02:53 am 19 June 2013 Last updated at 18:55 ET By Angela Harrison Education correspondent, BBC News 
Sir Michael Wilshaw is expected to blame low expectations and problems recruiting good teachers
Many of the poor children being left behind in schools now are in suburbs, market towns and seaside resorts rather than big cities, England's chief inspector of schools is to say.
In a speech, Sir Michael Wilshaw will say such pupils are often an "invisible minority" in schools in quite affluent areas.
He wants a new team of "National Service Teachers" sent in to help.
Sir Michael will praise schools in London and other big cities.
He is expected to say that 20 or 30 years ago, inner London schools were the "best-funded and worst-achieving in the country", but that now the city's schools are the best.
He will also praise the "transformation" of schools in parts of Birmingham, Greater Manchester, Liverpool and Leicester over the same period.
'Unseen children' "Today, many of the disadvantaged children performing least well in school can be found in leafy suburbs, market towns or seaside resorts," he is expected to say in a speech in London.
"Often they are spread thinly, as an 'invisible minority' across areas that are relatively affluent.
"These poor, unseen children can be found in mediocre schools the length and breadth of our country. They are labelled, buried in lower sets, consigned as often as not to indifferent teaching.
"They coast through education until, at the earliest opportunity, they sever their ties with it."
Continue reading the main story KEY FACTS
- 37% of pupils on free school meals (FSM) achieve good GCSEs in maths and English
- Among other pupils, 63% do
- Schools receive extra money for each pupil on FSM - known as the pupil premium
In a report, he will make recommendations aimed at closing the achievement gap between rich and poor.
"National Service Teachers", he will say, should be employed by central government to teach in "schools in parts of the country that are currently failing their most disadvantaged pupils".
And he will call for smaller, "sub-regional" versions of the London Challenge, the initiative which ran in the capital in the 2000s and is credited with turning around many schools.
Under this Labour policy, schools were encouraged to help each other, with successful schools, heads and teachers working with those in less successful schools with similar intakes and circumstances.
The chief inspector will also:
- Confirm that schools will not be rated as outstanding by inspectors if pupils on free school meals fall significantly behind others
- Warn that schools will be inspected earlier than planned if the performance of poorer children drops
- Recommend ways of closing the achievement gap early in primary schools and for school leavers in further education or on apprenticeships
In England, the government has committed itself to closing the achievement gap.
The gap is seen in the national figures for 2011-12, which show that only 37% of 16-year-olds eligible for free school meals got a GCSE in maths and English at grade C or higher, compared with 63% of other pupils that age.
The coalition introduced an extra payment for schools - known as the pupil premium - for each pupil who receives free school meals.
This was £600 and is rising to £900 in September.
A Department for Education spokesman said: "Closing the unacceptable attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is at the heart of our reforms. That is why we introduced the pupil premium, worth £2.5bn per year by 2015, to target additional funding for disadvantaged pupils.
"Ofsted itself has increased its focus on how schools use the pupil premium to narrow gaps in their inspections."
'Regular testing' Platanos College in Stockwell, south London, is one of the London schools to have turned itself around. Some 60% of pupils there receive free school meals.
Deputy head teacher Michael Rush said that in 2000, just 11% of pupils achieved five GCSEs at C grade or above.
Last year, 80% of all pupils achieved five good GCSEs including English and maths, with teenagers on free school meals only a few percentage points behind at 77% - way above the average for pupils on free school meals nationally.
Mr Rush said: "If you look at our intake, we don't have an option not to target the disadvantaged kids as they make up a high proportion of our students.
"We have had to look seriously at how to close the gap and raise the achievement of all children."
He said the school's strategies included having good information about children's abilities through regular testing and then targeting them with the right support.
Children are grouped by ability and there is an emphasis on getting the basics of English and maths right, plus extra classes at weekends and in the holidays - especially for the GCSE years.
Mr Rush said data was important - with the school educating children and parents about the various levels - and that all pupils were set "very challenging targets".
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CQC 'may reveal NHS cover-up names'
By Anonymous on Jun 20, 2013 02:47 am 19 June 2013 Last updated at 21:06 ET 
Joshua Titcombe died nine days after being born at Furness General Hospital
England's NHS regulator is to review a decision not to name those behind a possible "cover-up" after a series of baby deaths at a Cumbria hospital.
A review of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) response to complaints about the Furness General Hospital deaths found a manager may have ordered the deletion of a report critical of the regulator.
The individual denies the allegations.
CQC chief executive David Behan said it was reviewing legal advice not to reveal the names of those involved.
He said the CQC would now see if they could be "put into the public domain".
It follows growing pressure to publicly name those involved.
More than 30 families have taken legal action against the hospital in relation to baby and maternal deaths and injuries from 2008.
'Deliberate cover-up' Consultants Grant Thornton were asked by the health regulator to investigate its own failure to spot the problems: in 2010, Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, which ran the hospital, had been given a clean bill of health.
Grant Thornton found that, a year after this, with more concerns emerging, an internal review had been ordered into how the problems had gone unnoticed.
In March 2012 it was decided the findings should not be made public because the review was highly critical of the regulator.
That order is said to have come from a senior manager who has not been named and who denies the allegations.
The latest report said this "might well have constituted a deliberate cover-up".
On Thursday, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that was "completely unacceptable" and that there should be "no anonymity, no hiding place, no opportunity to get off Scot-free for anyone at all who was responsible for this".
And Information Commissioner Christopher Graham told BBC Two's Newsnight: "This feels like a public authority hiding behind the Data Protection Act - it's very common but you have to go by what the law says and the law is very clear.
"You have to process data fairly, you have to take into account people's expectation of confidentiality."
He said that was "obviously" the case with patient data in particular.
But when it came to officials, "there you have to apply a public interest test", he added.
He said he was "not convinced" the CQC had been correctly advised.
'Good faith' Its chief executive, Mr Behan, said he had been advised that "to put people's personal data [into the report] would be a breach of their rights".
"I was acting on the legal advice I was given, I acted in good faith," he told Newsnight.
He said he had "listened to what the information commissioner has said".
He added: "We've decided today that we will review that legal advice and we've commissioned a review of that legal advice to see if we can put this information into the public domain."
In a statement to the House of Commons on Wednesday, Jeremy Hunt said the CQC was already introducing a tougher inspection regime and had just appointed a chief inspector of hospitals.
He added: "What happened at Morecambe Bay is, above, all a terrible personal tragedy for all the families involved.
"I want to apologise on behalf of the government and the NHS for all the appalling suffering they have endured."
The CQC has said it is "desperately sorry this has happened" and said publication "draws a line in the sand for us".
The publication of Wednesday's report comes four months after a public inquiry into the failings at another hospital - Stafford - criticised the culture of the NHS as more concerned with protecting "corporate self-interest" than patient care.
Mr Hunt told MPs the government was introducing measures to make the NHS more transparent, including a duty of candour to compel the health service to be open and honest about mistakes.
Read in browser » Sopranos actor James Gandolfini dies
By Anonymous on Jun 20, 2013 01:54 am 19 June 2013 Last updated at 19:56 ET 
James Gandolfini, the US actor best known for his role as the mob boss in The Sopranos, has died at the age of 51, the HBO TV network has confirmed.
Gandolfini died of a possible heart attack while on holiday in Italy, the network told the BBC.
Read in browser » Afghans reject Taliban talks moves
By Anonymous on Jun 20, 2013 03:27 am 20 June 2013 Last updated at 03:19 ET
Afghan officials tell the BBC the removal of flag and nameplate from Taliban's Qatar office does not go far enough
More to follow.
Read in browser » Government leads new GM crops push
By Anonymous on Jun 19, 2013 06:52 pm 19 June 2013 Last updated at 18:52 ET 
By Matt McGrath Environment correspondent, BBC News 
While there are many field trials, only two GM crops have been approved for commercial growing in the EU
The government has a duty to explain the benefits of genetically modified crops to the British people, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson is to say.
In a speech today, he will argue that GM has significant benefits for farmers, consumers and the environment.
The UK and Europe risk being left behind unless the technology is embraced, he will say.
But green groups say this new push for GM is dangerous and misguided.
The environment secretary has never made a secret of his support for GM technology. In his speech he will set out the scientific, financial and moral arguments in favour of genetic engineering.
Persuade the public Mr Paterson will say that GM could be as transformative as the original agricultural revolution - and the UK should be at the forefront.
He will argue that the government, along with industry and the scientific community "owe a duty to the British public to reassure them GM is a safe, proven and beneficial innovation".
"At the moment, Europe is missing out," Mr Paterson will say.
Continue reading the main story Global GM
Last year about 170 million hectares of GM crops were cultivated in 28 countries. Proponents argue that about half of the GM crops grown worldwide are produced by resource poor farmers. Apart from the US, the world's leading growers are Brazil, Argentina, Canada and India.
"While the rest of the world is ploughing ahead and reaping the benefits of the new technologies, Europe risks being left behind."
The European Union has been deadlocked on GM for a number of years. Only two crops have been approved for commercial growing - another seven are awaiting the green light.
But Mr Paterson is expected to say that member states who are open to the safe use of GM crops should not be prevented from moving forward with the technology.
But critics have been quick to condemn Mr Paterson's view that GM is a "safe, proven and beneficial innovation".
Soil Association policy director Peter Melchett said that GM would make it harder, not easier, to feed the world.
"The British Government constantly claim that GM crops are just one tool in the toolbox for the future of farming. In fact GM is the cuckoo in the nest. It drives out and destroys the systems that international scientists agree we need to feed the world.
"We need farming that helps poorer African and Asian farmers produce food, not farming that helps Bayer, Syngenta and Monsanto produce profits," he added.
Mr Paterson's stance was backed by a number of scientists, including Professor Dale Sanders, the Director of the John Innes Centre in Norwich. He wants to see a greater focus on solving global problems such as malnutrition rather than arguments about one technology or another.
Continue reading the main story EU spud spat
Only two commercial GM products, have so far been licensed, and neither of them was for human consumption.
One was a type of potato called Amflora developed by German chemical firm BASF. It had been modified to produce more of a type of starch useful for industrial processes.
But in January this year, BASF announced it was withdrawing the product and ending development of all its GM potato varieties.
"Evaluation of potential scientific solutions to agriculture should be evidence-based," he said.
"The overwhelming global conclusion regarding the deployment of GM technologies in the field is that the risks associated with the technologies are infinitesimally small."
Mr Paterson's speech comes in the same week that the National Farmers Union warned that the UK's wheat crop could be 30% smaller than last year because of extreme weather.
The environment secretary will say that GM could "combat the damaging effects of unpredictable weather and disease on crops."
The technology has "the potential to reduce fertiliser and chemical use, improve the efficiency of agricultural production and reduce post-harvest losses. If we use cultivated land more efficiently, we could free up space for biodiversity, nature and wilderness."
At present there are no commercial GM crops grown in the UK although cattle, sheep and pigs are often fed on imported GM. There is only one active GM trial of wheat that has been modified to deter aphids.
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Read in browser » UK banks face £27.1bn shortfall
By Anonymous on Jun 20, 2013 03:24 am 20 June 2013 Last updated at 02:26 ET 
Royal Bank of Scotland was the regulator's main cause of concern,
UK banks need to raise billions more in capital to cover their risks, according to the financial regulator.
The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) says Britain's top banks and building societies need to fill a £27.1bn hole in their balance sheets.
Royal Bank of Scotland was the regulator's main cause of concern, accounting for £13.6bn of the total.
Lloyds Banking Group accounts for £8.6bn and Barclays £3bn. Nationwide had a small shortfall of £400,000.
Co-operative Bank has already identified a £1.5bn hole in its finances and announced a bond-to-equity 'bail-in' plan to deal with the shortfall.
HSBC, Santander UK and Standard Chartered were given a clean bill of health by the regulator.
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