Children

Saturday

Diana Hendry

The loss of innocents

Here are two novels about that most harrowing and haunting of subjects — children who go missing. Here are two novels about that most harrowing and haunting of subjects — children who go missing. Rachel Billington’s Missing Boy is Dan, a 13-year- old runaway. Dan’s disappearance marks the beginning of a nightmare for his parents, Eve and Max, plus aunt Martha. Has Dan run away or has he been kidnapped? Will he be found? The if, where and how are the questions that torment them. As Ronnie, the police liaison officer puts it, though families vary, when there’s a missing child the suffering is always the same, a pattern of

Saturday

Martin Bright

How Does the Public Sector Deliver?

Hats off to my good friend Julia Hobsbawm for sparking a debate over delivery in the public sector via her Editorial Intelligence organisation. I had the pleasure of chairing a discussion as part of her D4Deliver campaign on Thursday and you can listen to the podcast here. The top-notch panel included Mary Riddell of the Daily Telegraph, Chris Melvin, Chief Executive of Reed in Partnership and Octavius Black, who runs Mind Gym. But the tone was set by Nick Jarman, who was brought in as Interim Director of Children’s Services at beleaguered Doncaster Council after a series of scandals. Before we began he said his local authority could have provided

Friday

James Forsyth

Publishing the serious case review in the Edlington case is the best way to prevent more awful mistakes

The Edlington case is shocking and depressing to think about. But I would urge you to watch Gavin Esler’s interview of Ed Balls on Newsnight where he challenged Balls over his reasons for not publishing the full case review. Newsnight, who were leaked a copy of the full case review in the Edlington case, pressed Balls on why the full report was not being published when the summary was misleading and did not highlight some of the biggest problems. Balls, as the government does whenever it is challenged on this point, invoked the support of the NSPC, Lord Laming (whose record, as Iain Martin points out, isn’t that great) and