Daily Safeguarding News - Safer Schools NI

Parents who kill their partner to automatically lose rights over children under government proposals

The Justice Secretary, Alex Chalk, is due to announce, that a parent who has been found guilty of murdering the other parent will now have their parental rights removed.
This will be an introduction to “Jade’s Law”, named after Jade Ward, who was fatally wounded by her partner and will be brought before Parliament by the end of the year.
Despite her partner being sentenced to life in prison for her murder, he still retains parental rights.
It also means family members will not have to apply to the family court to request that parental responsibility is removed.
The new rules are set to become a part of the Victims and Prisoners Bill.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) says this will ensure that children are protected from their remaining parents having any say in their life.
For more, please visit the MSN and the Sky News website.

A teaching union in NI has said the mobile phone ban in classrooms would be “unworkable”.
It comes after yesterday’s news, where Education Secretary Gillian Keegan announced the plan to ban mobile phones in classroom, believing they “pose a serious challenge in terms of distraction, disruptive behaviour and bullying”.
Justin McCamphill, NASUWT national officer for Northern Ireland, said any move to pan phones will have little effect on behavioural problems they are trying to address, and are simply diverting attention from the real issues teachers are facing.
Additionally, Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, stated that ” “Most young people won’t just stop bringing their phones to school, and there could be parental opposition too”.
He further reported that he was concerned about whether the new policy had been checked with the profession.
Mr Whiteman continued: “…a ban on mobile phones in school can cause more problems than it solves, leading to pupils becoming more secretive about their phone use, meaning problems are hidden from staff and therefore more difficult to spot and address.”
For more, please visit the Belfast Telegraph website.

The Listen, Learn, Lead programme, is designed to give men a chance to prevent and reduce violence against women, through teaching about consent and how to intervene and challenge friends who may be acting inappropriately.
Ms McCorry is founder of Northern Ireland’s White Ribbon Campaign, which taught the programme in Hydebank, a prison which houses offenders aged 18-21.
The programme also involved prisoners from C2, which is where sexual offenders are accommodated.
Prison staff witnessed the positive impacts of the programme, when another inmate was being physical with an officer, two prisoners shouted for them to stop.
Ms McCorry reported that there was anger within the group towards sexual offenders and she had to teach them how to intervene in non-violent ways.
Hydebank’s governor, Richard Taylor, said the scheme should be rolled out for all prisoners across Ireland, stating that “The participation has been exceptional”.
For more, please visit the Belfast Telegraph website.