A daily summary of social care stories from the main newspapers

By Katie Leason, Reg McKay and Alex Dobson.

Mind games “answer” to Alzheimer’s

Research shows that simple self-help measures and treatment by
doctors reduces or removes the risk of Alzheimer’s and other
forms of dementia, according to a leading authority on the
disease.

These measures include physical exercise such as walking, taking
fish oil, and brain stimulating activities like playing cards.

Source:- The Guardian Thursday 6 June page 7

School phobia “is just an excuse for missing
lessons”

School phobia is just an excuse for failing to attend, the
general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers said
yesterday.

“It certainly is not a reason why a child should be kept off
school,” said David Hart. “You have to get to the root of the
pupils’ problem – it may be their relationship with
teachers, bullying or just that they haven’t settled in.

“Transferring the child to another school could be the solution.
But school phobia is just an excuse for failure to attend.

Source:- Daily Mail Thursday 6 June page 39

The Booster Boy is locked away at last

A young offender who has appeared in court 158 times was put
behind bars yesterday, nearly a month after his twelfth
birthday.

He was remanded to a secure accommodation unit until next
month.

The boy is said to have stolen a car almost every day for two
years, earning the nickname “Booster Boy” because he tears out the
vehicles headrests to sit on to reach the pedals.

He has been in trouble with the police since he was nine, with
offences including burglary, theft and breaching curfew orders.

Source:- Daily Mail Thursday 6 June 6 page 28

Pushy parents “cause school phobia”

Pushy parents and success obsessed schools could create a
generation of “school-phobic” children, according to an expert on
social policy and parenthood.

Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer said many children felt that making
errors was shameful and tried to avoid going to school at all.

Source:- The Times Thursday 6 June page 4

Scottish newspapers

Child abuser’s sentence raised to 10
years

Joseph Millbank, a predatory paedophile who sexually abused
children as young as three years, had his sentence increased from
six to 10 years at the court of criminal appeal in Edinburgh
yesterday.

In January this year, Lord McCluskey had sentenced Millbank to
six years plus 10 years extended sentence. With the additional time
now ordered, Millbank will spend 20 years in prison. He had
prompted Scotland’s largest nationwide paedophile inquiry
because he had attacked children in various locations as he
travelled around in his job.

He had pleaded guilty to 16 charges committed mainly in Aberdeen
and Dundee in 2000. In the search of his house, police found a
digital camera on which he recorded the assaults, and a dress which
he forced his victims to wear.

Source:- The Herald Thursday 6 June page 9

Sex offences will increase if prison closes

Sex offences in Scotland will soar if the executive proceeds
with its plans to close Peterhead prison according to Peter
McKinlay, former chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service.
McKinlay’s views had been sought by Aberdeenshire council
where Peterhead is located.

The executive plans to close Peterhead and move its world-wide
renowned STOP programme of working with sex offenders to other
prisons in the central belt. McKinlay warned that such a move will
disrupt the programme for years, and will result in an increase in
sex offending. Instead of closure McKinlay recommended that, in the
grounds of Peterhead Prison, the executive build a new unit to
accommodate Scotland’s total of 500 imprisoned male sex
offenders rather than the 300 currently located there.

Source:- The Herald Thursday 6 June page 6

Peterhead closure report censored by prison
chiefs

An international expert on sex offenders claimed yesterday that
he was forced to remove certain sections of his report by top
prison service managers.

Professor Bill Marshall from Queen’s University in Canada
had been asked to submit a report to the Scottish prison service on
the effects of plans to close Peterhead Prison and its world
renowned STOP programme of working with sex offenders.

Giving evidence to the Scottish parliament’s justice 1
committee, Marshall claimed that Alec Spencer, director of
rehabilitation and care for the SPS, had told him to remove a
section on the damaging economic impact of the prison’s
closure on north east communities.

Marshall’s statements have fuelled opposition parties’
claims that the executive failed to take all relevant matters into
account in planning to shut Peterhead.

Source:- The Scotsman Thursday 6 June page 2

Welsh newspapers

DNA helps police identify woman as Oliver’s
mother

A woman who came forward to claim a baby abandoned in south
Wales five months ago, is the boy’s mother, the police can
confirm.

The baby named Oliver by the police, who found him was left in
the front garden of a house in Newport in January, sparked a
nationwide hunt.

Police and Newport social services have been investigating the
claim of the woman to be Oliver’s mother, and although no details
can be released for legal reasons the DNA match has proved
conclusive.

Oliver has spent the last few months in the care of foster
parents, and a high court judge will now decide his future.

Source:- Western Mail Thursday 6 June page 1