POLICY

We take a look at some of the key policy updates from the past month

Families are facing multiple barriers to feeding their young children a healthy diet, according to the latest food insecurity survey from The Food Foundation.

The survey found that 15% of households with children experienced food insecurity in January 2026, compared to 11% for households without children, and 2.1 million are directly experiencing food insecurity.

The Department for Education has published a new version of its ‘Working together to safeguard children’ statutory multi-agency guidance, along with a summary of changes.

The updated document – which is available at bit.ly/U5_WTTSC – includes strengthened guidance on certain types of harm such as abusive behaviour in intimate relationship, coercive control and child sexual abuse.

A report from the National Literacy Trust has found that socioeconomic pressures, as well as gaps in confidence and knowledge, have contributed to a sustained decline in parent engagement with daily activities to support their child’s early literacy development.

The survey of 3,000 UK parents of children aged under five found that fewer than half (46%) read with their children daily, a drop of 9% since 2024 and 31% since 2019. Just over half (52%) said they play with their child daily, a drop of 9% in one year and 33% since 2019.

A new report from the University of Cambridge, commissioned by children’s poverty charity The Childhood Trust, has called for AI toys that talk with young children to be more tightly regulated.

The research, which explored how toys capable of human-like conversations can affect development in the first five years of a child’s life, found that generative AI toys can misunderstand children and react inappropriately to emotions.