There are more and more western TV channels following this but there never appears to be any Isreali NGOs helping the Palestinians/TV Crews.

Meanwhile Woodcock has faced allegations of sexual harassment and financial corruption, but can get paid up to £371 per day of taxpayers' money for simply being a 'Lord'.

Governments have responded with initiatives to attract graduates into teaching. While much attention has focused on increasing supply, far less attention has been paid to why experienced teachers decide to leave, despite the high costs of turnover in recruitment, training and lost continuity.

Administrative data records that a teacher left, not why, or what might have kept them in their job. Leaving is treated as a single event, when for many teachers it is closer to a slow unravelling.
Some step back gradually, stepping down from promoted posts or moving to part-time hours before they formally resign.

This a shift that workforce statistics may count as a retention success rather than the early stage of an exit. The result is a policy conversation too often weighted towards the front door of the profession, while the back door swings largely unexamined.

My colleagues and I interviewed 63 teachers from publicly funded Scottish schools who had left teaching, or cut their hours or responsibilities, before retirement age.

Of these, 36 had left altogether and 27 had reduced their hours, in most cases within the previous 18 months. On average they had around 18 years of teaching experience. We excluded people who left for unavoidable reasons, because we wanted to understand exits that might have been avoided. Although we did not speak to teachers who stayed under similar pressures, the pattern was consistent across accounts and warrants attention.

Leaving was seldom sudden. Of the 36 who left, 25 described dissatisfaction building over months or years through rising workload, challenging pupil behaviour and the experience of not being heard by school leaders.

Separately, 25 of the 36 were “reluctant leavers”: teachers who wanted to stay but could no longer carry on. Many described exhaustion, disturbed sleep and anxiety. Some reached a health crisis that needed medical help. Sixteen left with no other paid work to go to.

Resignations like these are usually recorded as “voluntary”, which implies the teacher chose to go. That label hides what is driving departures and points policy in the wrong direction. A teacher tempted away might be retained with better pay or prospects; one who wanted to stay needs the conditions that pushed them out to change.

Nearly half of our participants discussed accepting, or expecting, lower earnings on leaving, which suggests pay was not what pushed them out.

Reducing hours is often seen as a way of keeping experienced people. Among the 27 who cut back, however, many described it as a way of coping rather than flourishing. For some it was a planned exit route, buying time while they explored alternatives and retrained. For others it kept exhaustion manageable. They reduced hours or gave up promoted posts to survive. As one put it, “I’m still absolutely exhausted on those three days, but I see it as containable.”

The role of headteachers

My colleagues and I carried out a second analysis of 58 teachers outside senior leadership (32 of them leavers). We found that more than six in ten of them described leadership practices that hastened their withdrawal.

Only two felt genuinely heard by senior leaders. In some cases, headteachers who found practical ways to accommodate family or health needs kept teachers in their employment for longer.

However, that help rested on one person and did not always survive a change in leadership. Only one of the 32 leavers had a formal exit interview, and most reported no attempt to establish why they left.

Our evidence suggests requests to downscale should be treated as an opportunity to explore sustainability, not as closed cases. Leaders cannot always say yes, but they often shape the point at which teachers decide they can no longer stay.

Participants described council decisions that limited what school leaders could offer, and leaders who cared but lacked the means to act.

Scotland’s teachers have been promised relief, but not yet. A national deal reached in March 2026 will cut the time teachers in Scotland spend in front of a class by 90 minutes a week, but primary and special school teachers will not see it until August 2027 and secondary teachers two years later.

Who will pay for it remains unresolved.
Councils estimate the change will cost up to £310 million a year. In October, Scotland’s education secretary Màiri McAllan told a Holyrood committee that the government had yet to cost the policy, but that a figure of that size was neither accurate nor affordable.

Even when it arrives, less time in front of a class will not, on its own, change what the work demands or whether teachers’ concerns are heard.

A number of local authorities across England have already exhausted, paused or rationed their initial Warm Homes money, as public demand for home energy upgrades outstrips available central government funding.

Schemes in locations including York, Lewisham, Sheffield, Liverpool and Cambridgeshire have been forced to close to new applicants or restrict access just months after launching.

On 28 September energy secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh promised to devolve the Warm Homes Plan and to give “mayors, local government and communities the power to invest billions of pounds in their place”.

So far, despite councils bidding for £1.7bn for the 2025-28 allocation period, only £500m has been distributed. The wider Warm Homes scheme comprises £4.4bn of promised government grants – meaning £3.9bn remains unallocated.

Now cross-party local authority network UK100 and a host of councils are urging the chancellor to use the upcoming Budget to release the £3.9bn.

Douglas Johnson (Green), chair of the housing policy committee at Sheffield City Council, said: “Demand for our Warm Homes scheme is already high enough that we need to ration by strict need criteria.

If the chancellor commits the rest of the Warm Homes funding at the Budget, we can start delivering more comfortable homes this winter rather than telling families they need to wait.”

The council has identified more than 26,000 homes are in fuel poverty in the city but current funding will only upgrade around 1,000 by 2028.

As part of the Employment Rights Act reforms, employers will be required to give workers a written statement explaining their right to join a trade union. The Government has now confirmed that it expects the duty to come into force in January 2027, rather than in October 2026 as previously indicated.

Alongside delaying the implementation date, the Government have also published their response to the public consultation on this change. Key points:

• There will be a standardised statement for employers to issue, set out in regulations. No amendments will be allowed, save where specific workplace information is added.
• The written statement will need to include a brief explanation of union functions, a list of and information on recognised trade unions and/or statutory access agreements (where applicable) and a summary of statutory rights.
• Employers must also either include a link to the Certification Officer’s list of trade unions within the statement or provide a copy of the list alongside the statement.
• For new workers, the statement will need to be provided directly at the same time as their written statement of particulars.
• For existing workers, the statement can be delivered directly or indirectly – but must be reasonably accessible.
• Where existing workers are informed directly, this must be repeated annually by 5th April.
• Where indirect methods are used, the employer needs to make sure the statement remains continuously available – and issue an annual reminder of where to find it. If the location of the statement ever changes then employers need to inform workers of this directly.
• Where there is a change to the identity of recognised unions or statutory access agreements, the statement will be required to be reissued within one month of the change.

Vacancies in adult social care have fallen to their lowest level in a decade, but workforce growth has slowed as international recruitment declines.

The number of filled posts rose by 1.4% in the year to March 2026, down from a peak of 4.9% between 2022/23 and 2023/24, according to the latest annual report from Skills for Care.

England’s adult social care workforce has grown for four consecutive years, but that growth is slowing as demand for care is expected to rise. The number of people aged 65 and over is expected to reach 14.1 million by 2040.

Young people are underrepresented in social care, making up just 7% of the workforce, compared with 12% of the working population. Under-25s were also the most likely to leave their jobs, with a turnover rate of 35.5%.

Professor Oonagh Smyth, chief executive of Skills for Care, said it is ‘positive to see that the adult social care workforce is becoming more stable. 
‘However, workforce growth is slowing and we must continue to attract more people into adult social care to meet future demand.

‘In particular, we need to do more to attract younger people and men into the sector, as set out in the Workforce Strategy for Adult Social Care in England.’

The report, published on Wednesday, found care workers were less likely to leave their jobs when employers offered better pay, guaranteed hours and opportunities for training and qualifications.
Turnover fell from 34.3% to 15.3% among employers that combined these measures with chances for full-time work.

It made me so angry that the government is wasting millions of pounds to build social housing. Instead they should be spending the money creating jobs so people can afford to buy their own homes.

Unemployment is a bigger problem than creating housing due to the migration crisis.

​

>Wes Streeting once called for an arms embargo on Saudi Arabia. Now he’s helping its air force bomb Yemen.

>Britain is expanding its aerial refuelling of Saudi fighter jets to include bombing raids on Yemen, despite a major spike in civilians being killed in these airstrikes.

>Wes Streeting initially said the UK would only provide air-to-air refuelling for Saudi jets patrolling the kingdom’s skies to ward off drone and missile attacks on airports and oil infrastructure by Yemen’s Houthi movement.

>The defence secretary is now letting British fighter jets join those patrols, as well as providing refuelling for Saudi airstrikes on “Houthi military targets in Yemen”.

>It comes as last month saw more civilian casualties resulting from Saudi airstrikes on Yemen than any other since 2022, according to the Yemen Data Project.

What a complete and utter waste of money, Labour what are you doing?

We’re in a cost of living crisis, and about to be invaded (according to you) in case you hadn’t noticed.

We need to hunker down and save monies, rather than spend, spend, spend.

Gawd only knows how much that Northern No 10 folly is costing us (I noticed there is no cost discussion on that / where’s the Press when they are needed?)….

It’s losing ground…week by week

>Brexit didn't cause Britain's economic malaise. Its roots lie much earlier with the increasing dominance of finance, culminating in the 2008 banking crash.

>Reversing Brexit won’t correct these problems. Instead, we need a fundamental reorganisation of our bloated financial sector and our distorted capitalist structures.

>The EU isn't a progressive haven. It habitually prioritises corporate “competitiveness” over social protection. Neoliberal orthodoxy has colonised its decision-making structures, buttressed by centrist and right-wing majorities. It has enforced austerity, created inequality and low pay, and allowed the European Court of Justice to rank cross-border corporate freedoms above the rights of workers.

The genocide never ended – and neither has Britain’s complicity. Britain is still supplying F-35 parts to Israel. Britain is still supplying military intelligence. Britain is still facilitating acts of genocide.

In blocking this inquiry, the Government is not just covering for the complicity of its predecessors. It is hiding its own ongoing complicity in the greatest crime of our time.

Just like Iraq, we will remember those who obstructed the path to justice.

Burnham may have apologised for the last government’s approach in Gaza, but his words of regret will mean very little if he doesn’t break with its shameful record of complicity, secrecy and evasion.

Ultimately, delaying scrutiny will not make questions about British complicity in genocide disappear. The public deserves to know the full extent of Britain’s military, economic and political cooperation with Israel from October 2023 to date.

It’s not complicated: if the Government has nothing to hide, then why block our efforts to expose the truth?

>The government has accepted all of the 27 recommendations made in the government-commissioned review including dedicated training for teachers and more consistent recording of incidents.

>In response to the recommendations, the government will also encourage schools to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA)'s working definition of antisemitism, although it cannot make it compulsory.

British under-30s could soon be able to work freely in any job in Europe – as Andy Burnham sets his sights on a closer relationship with the EU.

Brussels is understood to be in talks with other EU states to allow young people to work in the UK without restrictions, following tense negotiations over the Youth Experience Scheme.

Previous discussions have raised concerns that young Britons may face tighter restrictions than their counterparts coming to the UK, as individual member states have the final say over who can be issued work visas in their country.

But, according to The i Paper, Brussels is seeking an agreement with EU countries to ensure Britons will be able to work in any job under the scheme. The UK side would be willing to accept this agreement, the newspaper reported.

Mr Burnham has promised to use the UK-EU summit in Brussels next month to push for improved relations with the bloc.

UK and Brussels are still working on how many people will be able to access the youth mobility scheme, with the UK wanting to limit the number of young people who come into the country to below 50,000, while the EU wants a cap of 150,000 visas.

According to the newspaper, EU states are also considering delaying a demand to reduce tuition fees, which has been one of the thorniest issues in discussions.

EU member states have pushed for young people to access home fee status, while the UK has resisted lowering tuition fees amid pressure from universities.