More than a third of all sex crimes are committed against children, figures have shown. A child was sexually attacked every 20 minutes last year, with more than 60 child sex offences reported to police every day.

I have been grappling with the potential consequences of last month’s Budget, and of the Health and Social Care Bill, for children who are vulnerable. Children’s success or failure relies on how well adults – those close to the child and those working in services for them – bring up, educate and care for them. By Maggie Atkinson

People arrested in Brighton on suspicion of a range of offences are to be tested for drugs at the city’s custody centre.

Secure training centres will only achieve an “adequate” rating if restraint is used as a last resort to protect young people from serious harm, under plans for a joint inspection regime between Ofsted and the prisons inspectorate.

Lack of trust between court officials and social workers, and excessive red tape are among the main causes of delay in adoption cases, according to Ofsted.