Cambridgeshire councillor says some children in care are 'evil'
A councillor has told a committee meeting that some children in care are "not just naughty children, they can be downright evil".Reform UK's Andy Osborn made the comment during a Cambridgeshire County Council meeting, which heard that the authority had overspent on care placements by £7.5m.Executive director for children, education and families Martin Purbrick said "any child in care is a child that has experienced early childhood trauma" and that had "really changed the way that they are able to manage their own emotions".He added that the overspend at the Liberal Democrat-run council was mainly due to more children than expected going into care.
Mr Osborn told the Children and Young People Committee that he had heard of cases where children were "smashing cars up, running away from home, and are on drugs", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.He said: "It is not just a case of somebody being a bad boy or a bad girl, it is a case of they have learnt from their bad parents not to react correctly."Mr Purbrick said: "Sometimes [trauma] can manifest itself in behaviours like you have described... but I do think it is important that we as a committee also remember that under that behaviour is a child that has experienced something incredibly difficult and something that has really changed the way that they are able to manage their own emotions."Liberal Democrat member Anna Bradnam said children's behaviour could be challenging because they had been through "a very challenging time beforehand".Labour's Bryony Goodliffe said: "They are our children under the corporate parenting legislation. They are very much our responsibility."Despite the overspend, Cambridgeshire had some of the lowest numbers of children going into care in the region, Mr Purbrick said.
Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
28 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Labour spends £35k on pub beer mats to boast about minimum wage rise
Labour spent more than £35,000 of taxpayer cash on beer mats in pubs advertising the increase to the national minimum wage, a minister has admitted. The Government sent out promotional material to pubs across the country to tell workers that the minimum wage and national living wage were going up. Justin Madders, the employment minister, rationalised the £35,580 expense as he said the beer mats offered a 'unique opportunity to engage audiences in a social, high-dwell environment where financial conversations naturally occur'. The red and pale blue beer mats were government-branded and said: 'Millions got a pay rise.' 'National minimum and living wages went up on 1st April', it added, and displayed a barcode for customers to scan for details on how to 'make sure you're getting paid correctly'. The employment minister responded to a written question by Richard Holden, the shadow paymaster general, about the cost of the drink mats. He said: 'The cost to advertise in pubs using beer mats was £35,580, which was approved at official level.' He confirmed that the advertising push was approved by the Cabinet Office, and came out of the 2025 National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage campaign budget of £650,000. He added: 'The 2024 campaign saw an increase in reach to eligible workers. However, recognition remained low, reinforcing the need for bolder, more engaging formats for the 2025 campaign, which expected to deliver an estimated 3.2 million impressions. 'It offered a unique opportunity to engage audiences in a social, high-dwell environment where financial conversations naturally occur. 'This setting encourages discussion and word-of-mouth sharing about rate changes and offers an effective nudge for audiences to 'check their pay'.' 'We will be ruthless' Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have both pledged a war on waste in Whitehall, with the Government having taken such moves as freezing government credit cards and abolishing NHS England. The Prime Minister said in October: 'We will also be ruthless in clamping down on government waste, just as we will be ruthless on clamping down on tax avoidance ', emphasising the intention to show so the British people that 'every penny counts'. He added: 'Every single person in this country had to do that during the cost-of-living crisis and government must be no different.' The national living wage for those aged 21 and over rose from £11.44 per hour to £12.21 per hour, an increase of 6.7 per cent. The national minimum wage for those between 18 and 20 went up from £8.60 to £10 per hour, a 16.3 per cent boost. The Government has also begun to name and shame firms that do not pay their workers the appropriate wages, demanding they pay back what they owe and in some instances a further financial penalty.
BBC News
31 minutes ago
- BBC News
Caerphilly World War Two veteran turns 100 on D-Day anniversary
An RAF veteran has said he would not change a thing about his life as he celebrated his 100th birthday on the anniversary of 'Ted' Carter from Caerphilly turned 19 on D-Day, 81 years ago on 6 June was deployed in India at the time, a memory he described as "wonderful".Reflecting on becoming a centenarian, Mr Carter said he had had "a very, very happy life". "I think we should all live a peaceful, happy life, helping people as much as we can, give back as much as we can," he said. After leaving school at 16, Mr Carter joined the railway and said his father told him "you won't make much money"."I didn't want to work anywhere else," he initially worked in the signal boxes, then "on the trains",When he was called up to serve in the war effort, he did not want to join the Army."And I couldn't swim, so I thought the air force was best for me," he four-and-a-half years, he served in the Royal Air Force as an engineer, working on Wellington and Lancaster bombers."You had to learn in six months what in peace time would take you three years."Reflecting on the conflict, Mr Carter said: "I think, I hope, the world has got a better place."All we want is a quiet, peaceful life." When he left the RAF, he joined what is now Great Western to Wales in 1946, home became the cottage he shared with his late wife met as teenagers, and married aged 22 and 23."I'm so glad I met Margaret when she was 15," he said."We had 61 years of a lovely life together."With savings of £380, they spent £320 on their cottage in Bedwas and £11 on solicitors fees and went on to raise three children there – Paul, Sharon and fact, the letter he recently received from the King, marking his big birthday, was actually his second correspondence from a monarch, having also had one for his 60th wedding anniversary from Elizabeth II. "[Our dad] taught us to be hard working, kind," said added: "He's been an exceptional human being. He's terrific."At 98, Mr Carter was still regularly seen tending to his beloved garden at the cottage, particularly its orchard with pear, apple and plum trees."We grew everything," he now lives at Castle View care home in Caerphilly, where staff and residents threw him a birthday party."All my life I've had very good luck and health. What can you ask for more than that?"If I had to do it all over again I wouldn't change it."
Telegraph
43 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Concern over mass migration is terrorist ideology, says Prevent
Lord Young suggested the definition could even capture Mr Jenrick, the former immigration minister, who has previously warned that 'excessive, uncontrolled migration threatens to cannibalise the compassion of the British public.' Senior Labour politicians could also fall within the scope of the definition, he claimed. Lord Young cited Sir Keir's recent statement that without fair immigration rules, 'we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.' There are growing fears that police are wrongly seeking to limit free speech. The Telegraph disclosed last month that Julian Foulkes, a retired police officer, was arrested and detained over a social media post warning about the threat of anti-Semitism. Officers who conducted a search of his house described a collection of books by authors such as Mr Murray as 'very Brexity'. Mr Foulkes later received an apology and £20,000 compensation. Last year, Allison Pearson, the Telegraph columnist, was questioned at home by two officers over an X post following pro-Palestinian protests. The Telegraph has also covered the case of Hamit Koskun, who was fined this week for burning a Koran. It led Mr Jenrick to accuse the courts of reviving blasphemy law. Lord Young said the course material appeared to reflect a shift in the Prevent approach from focusing on conduct – such as acquiring weapons or inciting violence – to 'treating ideology itself as a risk indicator, encompassing belief, alignment or political attitude'. He said the FSU had already had to support members referred to Prevent, including a 24-year-old autistic man whose social worker reported that he had been viewing 'offensive and anti-trans' websites and 'focusing on lots of Right-wing dark comedy'. Prevent referral could stain person's name Even if a person was subsequently deemed to require 'no further action', their name would risk remaining on police and other databases that could be accessed by MI5, MI6, the Home Office, Border Force, HMRC, the Charity Commission and local safeguarding teams. Lord Young said: 'There are multiple documented cases in which individuals referred to Prevent – despite not meeting the threshold for further action – suffered serious and lasting consequences simply because their names were logged in the system.' The row comes despite a report by Sir William Shawcross, a former independent reviewer of Prevent, which criticised the way that mainstream literature and even a former Cabinet minister had been described as 'cultural nationalists' by a Home Office research unit on extremism. The minister was later revealed as Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg. Sir William recommended that Prevent must be 'consistent in the threshold that it applies across ideologies to ensure a proportionate and effective response.' He added that there were major failings with Prevent more broadly, including that it wrongly funnelled money to extremist organisations and had repeatedly failed to identify people who went on to carry out terrorist attacks. Lord Carlile, a former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said: 'It is a very difficult job that the Home Office has to do, but maybe they should do a careful bit of editing so that people who are close to the political mainstream are not caught up in it.' A former government adviser said the 'cultural nationalism' definition was 'pretty shoddy'. 'Agencies like counter-terrorism police and MI5 are much more rigorous in their classifications,' they said. 'We are talking about Right-wing extremists, who are often neo-Nazis. It undermines the seriousness of what counter-extremism is all about.' Professor Ian Acheson, a former government adviser on extremism, said: 'We are now beginning to see the consequences of a referral mechanism built on training like this which skews away from suspicion by conduct to the mere possession of beliefs that are perfectly legitimate but regarded by Prevent policy wonks as 'problematic.''
