A daily summary of social care stories from the main newspapers

By Sally Gillen, Reg
Mckay and Alex Dobson.

Paedophile
set free

A
judge sparked anger yesterday by allowing a paedophile with a record stretching
back nearly 40 years to walk free from court.

Former
dentist Trevor Mellis received only a suspended sentence after admitting taking
and distributing indecent pictures of children.

Mellis,
80, was one of a ring of four paedophiles who preyed on hundreds of children
over 20 years. Although he has convictions dating back to 1964, he has never
served a jail sentence.

After
the Old Bailey case, NSPCC investigators – who worked with Scotland Yard
detectives on the inquiry – criticised Judge David Paget for his leniency.

Beverley
Clarke said: “This man has destroyed his victims’ lives. This is a really
negative sentence.

Source:
Daily Mail Tuesday 19 March page 29

Charities join forces to call government to
account on fees

Nineteen
charities and care home providers were yesterday forming an alliance to warn of
a crisis in the sector that is causing distress to thousands of older people.

The
Fair Rate for Care campaign said 50,000 care home places had been lost over the
past five years as owners quit the business under pressure of increased
standards and a squeeze on fees paid by hard-pressed local authorities. In the
past year 750 homes have closed.

Source:
The Guardian Tuesday 19 March page 8

Downing Street Protest by care home woman,
102

A
woman aged 102 who faces being evicted from her second care home in three years
arrived at 10 Downing Street yesterday to demonstrate against the home’s
closure.

Rose
Cottle, who is nine months older than the Queen Mother, arrived in a wheelchair
carrying a petition of 5,000 names protesting against the closure of Boreham
Wood Care Village in Hertfordshire. The home is likely to be handed over to
property developers.

Source:
The Times Tuesday 19 March page 16

Scottish
and Welsh papers

Addict
beat child and left him to die

Anti-drugs
campaigners called for new measures to protect the children of drug abusing
parents after Mark Connolly was found guilty of murdering his co-habitee’s
two-year-old son.  

Connolly,
a heroin addict, was found guilty of beating, neglecting and starving the child
in his home in Rutherglen. The boy’s mother, Cheryl Hanson, had earlier been
found guilty of culpable homicide and sentenced to nine years’
imprisonment.  Connolly’s sentence will
be decided on 4 April at the High Court in Edinburgh.

Source:
The Herald Tuesday 19 March page 4

Mrs Glasgow quits landlord she voted for

Glasgow
Council and the Scottish executive faced some embarrassment last night as it
was revealed that the woman who fronted the campaign to encourage tenants to
vote for the transfer of the council’s housing stock to the Glasgow Housing
Association (GHA) has bought her own council house.  

Kathleen
Glasgow and her family have appeared in adverts on behalf of the transfer since
the inception of the plan in April 2000. It has now emerged that she has
recently bought her own council house at a 60 per cent discount. Glasgow is
also entitled to a vote on the controversial proposal to transfer property.
Campaigners against the proposal now say Glasgow represents the undemocratic
nature of the ballot in that some people are entitled to vote who will never be
a tenant of the GHA.

Source:
The Herald Tuesday 19 March page 2

Demand
for services leads to £1m in extra costs

Social services in Neath Port Talbot are facing
extra costs of more than £1m because of "significant" pressure for
additional services.

Councillors were told in a joint review report to
the authority that the extra costs had arisen in a number of critical areas
including looked after children, care for older people and learning disability
services.

In addition the review team identified areas for
development and if these recommendations were implemented "expenditure
reductions elsewhere in the budget will be necessary".

The report points out that the full effect next year
of service pressures will be in excess of £1m, resulting in a shortfall of
£380,000 and warns that new demands in relation to children, adults and older
people will have to be monitored carefully to remain within the cash limit.

Source: Western
Mail Tuesday 19 March page 9

Drive
to cut hospital ‘bed-blocker’ patients

The Welsh assembly is giving an additional £7m to
local authorities to help ease bed blocking.

The extra money will be used to provide increased
care packages for older people who have completed their medical treatment but
are too frail to go home. The additional money is on top of the
£5m that has already been allocated by the assembly to help tackle the problem
in the coming year.

Source: South
Wales Echo Monday 18 March page 2