RADAR Round-Up: A look at the stories delivered by the RADAR-AI editorial team in the month of February
By Adam Care 28/02/2024February has been a busy month for the RADAR AI team, who have produced some strong stories with local and national media pick-up.
From the murder rate to dangerous animal licenses, bin collections to Ukrainian refugees, the team have used their data journalism skills to cover a wide range of topics, shedding new light on issues across the country.
While most of RADAR’s work originates with public data released by Government departments, they also work with figures provided by charities and campaigners, to produce hundreds of unique, original news stories for all corners of the UK.
Here are some of their recent highlights:
- School funding
More English schools are now running financial deficits – spending more than they earn in a single year.
Some 13.1% of local authority-run schools had a deficit in 2022-23 – an almost 50% per cent rise on the year before.
We showed how many schools were losing money in each part of the country, and whether things were getting better or worse year-on-year.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union the National Association of Head Teachers, said the number of schools being forced into deficit shows “government funding of education is nowhere near where it should be for the level of demand that actually exists.”
- Police misconduct
There were fewer formal allegations of misconduct made against police officers last year, but the proportion that led to no further action remained unchanged.
Over 86,000 complaints were made against police forces across England and Wales, with 89% of them being dismissed by investigators.
Amnesty International said the story shows how the police can’t be trusted to investigate themselves, while Liberty warned the stats were “really concerning”.
- Homeschooling
Over 97,000 children have been taken out of the school system to be educated at home, an increase of over 50% since 2019.
However, Covid is seemingly not to blame – with parents’ ‘philosophical reasons’ given as the most common explanation.
Over 12,000 parents also cited their child’s mental health as the main factor in their decision, with experts warning “anxiety, bullying, academic pressure, difficult relationships and a lack of support” can lead to some children avoiding school.
https://www.sthelensstar.co.uk/news/24104337.hundreds-children-home-schooled-st-helens-figures-show/
- Mortgage repossessions
The number of tenants told to leave their homes by landlords increased by more than a tenth, as the Government continues to stall on its promise to ban no-fault evictions.
Nationally, landlord repossessions claims increased from approximately 20,400 to 23,400, while Section 21 notices reached 7,600 in the last quarter of 2023, compared with 6,600 in 2022.
There were also over 6,000 evictions in the latest quarter.
Francesca Albanese, from homelessness charity Crisis, said: “These figures are a shameful reminder of just how volatile renting a home is.
“Insurmountable pressures of skyrocketing rents and the cost-of-living crisis have left renters struggling to make ends meet, and for many, that has meant losing their home.”
https://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/24117519.landlords-cumberland-filed-dozens-repossession-claims/
- Waste management
Environmental campaigners have called for household recycling to be made much simpler, after it emerged recycling rates in England fell further behind the rest of Europe.
The amount of waste sent for recycling fell from 42.5% in 2021-22 to 41.7%, with all regions bar London seeing a decrease.
Keep Britain Tidy said it pales in comparison to Germany, where 71% of municipal waste is recycled, and Slovenia which saw recycling rates increase from 22% in 2010 to 60% in 2021.
https://www.gazetteherald.co.uk/news/24120667.household-recycling-rate-ryedale-worsened-last-year/
- Ofsted complaints
Our original investigation into complaints to the school inspectorate gained widespread coverage last month.
Special projects lead Will Grimond obtained exclusive figures via Freedom of Information requests, which revealed over 1,100 complaints were made to Ofsted last year.
Just under half of these related to the behaviour of inspectors, something facing much greater scrutiny following the suicide of Berkshire headteacher Ruth Perry in 2022.
As well as use across the regional media, the story made several national papers and websites.
- Homicides
The homicide rate in England and Wales has reached its lowest level since 2016, excluding the Covid-affected year of 2020-21.
Official figures show the total number of murders, manslaughters and infanticide deaths reached 590, with 10.2 homicides logged per million people.
However, they also show a black person is more than four times more likely to be killed by homicide than a white person.
The Home Office said its programme of activity and interventions, such as Violence Reduction Units, “are targeted in hot-spot areas based on the prevalence of crime and are designed to help address homicide and drug misuse among other crimes.
- Blind People
Most data we regularly use for stories is released monthly, quarterly, or annually, so it was an unexpected surprise to see a scheduled ‘triannual’ release with the numbers of people registered blind or partially sighted across the UK.
After analysing the numbers, we approached a number of charities and campaign groups, to see what they made of the data – with the National Federation of the Blind UK giving us details of their campaign against local BBC radio cuts, which they say will directly impact the blind community.
While the raw numbers themselves don’t necessarily make for a story, we were able to link them to this campaign, producing something of value to our subscribers and their readers.
https://www.hexham-courant.co.uk/news/24136844.bbc-radio-cuts-harm-1-000-visually-impaired-people/
- Ukrainians
Last week saw the two-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which prompted over 200,000 refugees to come to the UK seeking shelter.
We looked at the localised figures, showing how many Ukrainians each local authority had taken in through the Government’s two resettlement schemes.
However, we were able to combine this with figures showing how many Ukrainian households have since received homelessness duties, after suffering or being at risk of homelessness.
Both the humanitarian organisations we spoke to for the story expressed their concern over the Government ending new registrations for the Homes for Ukraine scheme, which prevents any new arrivals from coming to the country.
https://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/24137959.ukrainians-sought-sanctuary-bolton/
- Dangerous Wild Animals
An investigation by the Born Free Foundation has revealed how many dangerous animals are held in private hands in the UK – and we were able to show exactly where they are located.
Working closely with the charity, reporter Sonja Tutty was able to map all the licences, showing how many big cats, venomous snakes and rare lizards are kept in each part of the country.
As well as our traditional localised stories, she also filed national copy to the PA Media wire, for a story which also saw significant coverage in the national media.
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