A daily summary of social care stories from the main newspapers

By Clare Jerrom, Reg McKay and Alex Dobson.

Immigrants ‘will double demand for new
homes’

Two million extra homes will be needed in Britain if immigration
continues at its current record levels, the government’s
planning advisers have warned.

Immigrants will nearly double the number of houses needed, far
exceeding the government’s published plans.

Mortgage lenders have also warned that immigration will continue
to push house prices up, making them less affordable for first time
buyers.

The government is taking desperate measures to force through a
housebuilding programme. Gordon Brown will announce plans to reduce
planning controls, and give extra taxpayers money to house builders
to boost the number of new homes.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 3 July page 4

Cambridge to eject non-local homeless

People sleeping on the streets of Cambridge who have no ties
with the area will be sent back to their home area.

The policy has been introduced in response to a severe housing
shortage in the city, according to housing needs manager at
Cambridge council, Naisha Polaine.

“Cambridge is full up,” she said.

Around half of the 20 or so people who sleep rough in Cambridge
have no local links.

Homelessness organisations have raised concerns that the move
could breach human rights, and could exacerbate the situation by
deterring homeless people with drink or drugs problems from seeking
help.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 3 July page 4

Police rescue US child after Net paedophile
raid

A six-year-old girl who was being sexually abused has been
rescued by detectives investigating a worldwide internet paedophile
network.

The officers investigating the network called ‘Shadowz
Brotherhood’ found video film of the child being raped when they
raided one of the network members in Bradford, west Yorkshire, last
December.

Two officers from the national crime squad’s high tech
unit flew to the United States and co-operated with sheriffs, who
arrested the girl’s 31-year-old unemployed father.

The man is now awaiting trial, and details of the arrest were
released yesterday as the unit co-ordinated a second international
wave of arrests on the ‘Brotherhood’.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 3 July page 5

School pays £200,000 to abused
ex-pupils

Eight former pupils of a leading preparatory school have been
paid £200,000 in compensation after the school admitted that
it failed to prevent its former headmaster from sexually abusing
them.

Dulwich College Preparatory School in Kent reached the
out-of-court settlement at a meeting with the victims only weeks
before the case was to be heard in the high court.

The former pupils said the school had failed in its basic duty
of care when they were repeatedly indecently assaulted by Robin
Peverett.

Some claimants received up to £75,000, and the total sum is
thought to be around £200,000.

The action was brought after Peverett received a suspended
18-month sentence two years ago when he pleaded guilty to nine
charges of indecent assault between 1969 and 1977 at Maidstone
crown court.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 3 July page 7

Children of violent parents may be expelled

Parents are to be warned that they face prosecution if they are
violent or abusive to staff, the government announced yesterday.
Ministers are also considering the exclusion of pupils whose
parents have been aggressive.

Tony Blair met head teachers at Downing Street to discuss the
increase of indiscipline in schools.

The prime minister told the group he acknowledged the serious
problems with the behaviour of pupils and parents, and admitted
that violence in classrooms was forcing teachers out of the
profession.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 3 July page 10

Councillors reject plans for local authority league
tables

John Prescott was warned not to press ahead with government
plans to introduce league tables for local authorities unless they
were given greater freedoms, by councillors yesterday.

Delegates at the Local Government Association conference in
Bournemouth voted overwhelmingly to express “strong reservations”
about the government’s plans to divide councils according to
their performance.

Delegates said that Labour had failed to give authorities the
freedoms they had promised.

Today they will press the deputy prime minister to provide extra
cash to implement the plans, which are designed to improve
standards in local councils.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 3 July page 10

Teenager’s death ‘was
personal’

A teenager with learning difficulties has been found with
multiple stab wounds face down in a ditch, police said last
night.

Three teenage boys and a girl have been arrested and were being
questioned about the attack, which police believe was personally
motivated.

Richard Parker’s body was found concealed in a ditch in
Hurst near Reading on Sunday by a man walking his dog.

Police believe that his body was taken to the ditch, more than
20 miles from his home in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, some time on
Friday night.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 3 July page 11

Appeal court to hear case of solicitor jailed for
killing babies

New evidence may help to free a solicitor serving a life
sentence for killing her babies.

Corporate lawyer Sally Clarke has had her case referred to the
court of appeal by the criminal cases review commission, which
reviews potential miscarriages of justice.

Clarke was jailed at Chester crown court in November 1999 foe
the murder of her sons Christopher and Harry. An appeal was later
dismissed.

Medical tests uncovered recently by her husband Steve, but never
shown to the defence at the trial, form the basis of the submission
to the CCRC.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 3 July page 1

Care home owners urged not to panic over new
guidelines

New care home regulations should not panic care home owners into
shutting them down, according to the head of the independent body
in charge of implementing the regulations.

The plea follows the death of Alice Knight, 108, who went on
hunger strike after the home where she had lived happily for six
years shut down.

The home owner said she was forced to shut because she would not
have been able to afford the work needed to meet the new standards,
brought in under the Care Standards Act 2000.

Chief executive of the National Care Standards Commission Ron
Kerr said: “Owners should not be panicked out of business by
misinformation about the new national minimum standards.”

He said his body would have been happy to have met with the
owner of the home where Knight lived and insisted most owners had
“nothing to fear”.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 3 July page 6

Guardian Society

Visiting charges

Care home residents paying medical fees

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 3 July page 4

Doubly deprived

Women unable to work face greater financial hardship

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 3 July page 5

Doors slammed

Council house sales cause shortages

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 3 July page 5

Out on the street

Chris Holmes won many plaudits in his seven years as director of
homelessness charity Shelter. So why his sudden departure?

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 3 July page 10

Marked change

Patients are to be involved in the assessment of mental health
care in order to improve services

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 3 July page
120-119

Joint ambitions

Charities working with deprived families consider merger

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 3 July page 119

Bills of rights

Utility companies back scheme to trace ‘hidden’
carers

Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 3 July page 119

Scottish newspapers

Prison chief condemned

Tony Cameron, chief executive of the Scottish prison service,
came under pressure to resign last night as ministers faced a
constitutional crisis over an influential cross-party
committee’s condemnation of the executive’s plans to
build private prisons.

The committee criticised executive plans to build three private
prisons and close Peterhead Prison, moving its renowned sex
offenders programme to institutions in the central belt.

MSPs cited a lack of spending estimates and inadequate research
as shortfalls of the report and went on to condemn Cameron for his
“extraordinary and unconvincing” evidence before the justice
committee.

Source:- The Herald Wednesday 3 July page 1

‘Vegetable’ slur charity boss
quits

An Aberdeen-based charity is due to fold following the
resignation of its founder who caused a public outcry by claiming
that two men with learning difficulties who had been indecently
assaulted by a care worker had “probably asked for it”.

Paul Miller, the head of Disabled, Elderly, Lonely and Those
Associated (DELTA), had also branded people with learning
difficulties as “vegetables”.

His remarks, which followed the court appearance of Henry
Spalding, one of the charity’s voluntary drivers, were
condemned by other voluntary and statutory organisations.

Miller was former deputy convener of the social work committee
of Grampian regional council, founded DELTA in 1977, which is now
expected to close in October.

Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 3 July page 2

Welsh newspapers

Bully Boys In Jail Top Jobs

Staff at Parc Prison in Bridgend could be on the verge of a
walk-out because of claims that they are being bullied at work.

In a document leaked to the ‘Welsh Mirror’ there are claims that
harassment is rife within the Securicor-run private prison, and a
recent questionnaire sent to staff reveals that a high proportion
of staff complain of bullying by senior managers.

According to the survey 50 per cent of staff were considering
leaving the prison that has been dogged by a succession of scandals
since it opened in 1997.

A spokesperson for the prison said measures had been put in
place to combat bullying following the survey in March.

Source:- Welsh Mirror Wednesday 3 July page 11

Crown decides against charging Owen’s
colleagues

The crown prosecution service has come under attack for failing
to bring charges against five people questioned during the inquiry
into the activities of alleged paedophile, John Owen.

The five were alleged to have been implicated in incidents of
abuse that were said to have taken place while Owen was a drama
teacher at a school in south Wales, but police confirmed yesterday
that no further action would be taken.

The allegations had been made during evidence sessions to the
inquiry led by children’s commissioner for Wales, Peter Clarke,
that was looking into all the circumstances surrounding alleged
abuse at the school, Ysgol Gyfun in Pontypridd.

The mother of one of the alleged victims said she was
disappointed and disgusted at the decision not to bring any further
charges.

Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 3 July page 1

Charities welcome child protection moves

A new project to help protect children from abuse was launched
yesterday to help avoid a repeat of the Victoria Climbie case.

Children’s charities in Wales welcomed the launch by Gwent
police of the all Wales child protection procedures that will
ensure all agencies in the principality work closely together and
share information on child protection matters.

Health and social services minister Jane Hutt described the new
national guidance procedures as robust and effective.

Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 3 July page 8