Monday 3 November 2003

By Amy Taylor, Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson.
Slavery fear as 200 children a week arrive alone at
Heathrow
Each week around 200 unaccompanied children arrive at Heathrow
Airport it was revealed after a six-month police operation last
night.
Many of the young people come from West Africa, the Caribbean and
Russia and aim to either “join their families” in the UK or claim
asylum.
The youngsters are sent over by their families, but when they get
here they are forced into prostitution or to work in illegal
sweatshops.
The police’s investigation aimed to work out the scale of
trafficking at the airport.
Source:- Daily Mail Saturday 1 November page 7
Huntley in court to face trial for Soham
murders
The trial of Ian Huntley for the killing of the two Soham school
girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman  is set to begin at the Old
Bailey on Monday morning.
Huntley’s former fiancée, Maxine Carr, will also appear
accused of attempting  to pervert the course of justice.
Huntley, the 29-year-old former caretaker at Soham Village College,
denies murdering the girls in August last year.
The case is expected to last three months and involve 170
witnesses.
Source:- The Independent on Sunday 2 November page 18
Scandal of asylums that lock up the sane
Up to 60 people are being held in hospital prisons for the
criminally insane despite recognition that they have Asperger’s
syndrome, a mild form of autism.
Despite Asperger’s syndrome not being an illness and being
unresponsive to drugs the patients, who were initially declared to
be schizophrenic, are incarcerated in Broadmoor, Rampton and
Ashworth.
Piers Bolduc was supposed to be moved to a non-secure unit over two
years ago, but is still waiting to be transferred. He was sent to
Broadmoor after one incident of violence that he committed while on
heavy doses of prescription drugs for schizophrenia, a condition he
did not have.
Source:-The Sunday Telegraph 2 November page 1
Piers is not a criminal and he’s not insane: so why is he
in Broadmoor?
Piers Bolduc suffers from Asperger’s syndrome, a mild form of
autism. Daniel Foggo discovers the terrible sequence of events that
has led to him being held in Britain’s most notorious hospital –
where he says he was sexually abused by other inmates
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 2 November page 16
Drinking ignorance fuels calls for alcohol health
warning
Alcohol Concern has backed a campaign to place government health
notices on cans and bottles of alcohol warning that excessive
drinking can seriously damage your heath.
The leading campaigner for safer drinking has joined over 1,100 UK
doctors who are concerned about the lack of clear information on
alcoholic products.
The group is also calling for alcohol providers targeting of
younger audiences, such as through sponsorship of television
programmes, to be banned.
Source:- The Observer 2 November page 5
Court order ignored
Over 40 per cent of antisocial behaviour orders given out to young
offenders are being broken according to a report being broadcast on
BBC1 on Wednesday.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 2 November page 2
Move to cut delays in Children Act cases
Measures to shorten court cases where children are taken in care,
which have a reputation for commonly being drawn-out, will take
effect today.
At present, Children’s Act cases normally take almost a year to go
through the courts leaving children confused about their
future.
Source:- The Financial Times 2 November page 2
Granny who took care-home battle to Blair has a
stroke
An eighty-seven-year-old who went to Downing Street to complain
about the planned closure of her care home has suffered a
stroke.
Clara Dudley was being forced to leave council-run Moreton Centre
in Hastings, East Sussex, where she had lived for the past eight
years, despite warnings from her family that it would damage her
health.
She suffered the stroke after five days after she had been taken to
see her new home.
Source:- Daily Mail 2 November page 19
Overseas adoption to be speeded up
Adopting a child from abroad will take half the time under an
overhaul of inter-country adoption being announced by ministers
this week.
The reforms will cut costs, reduce bureaucracy and reduce current
waiting times of up to three years for couples who want to adopt
children from overseas.
Government officials are in talks with the main countries that
children are adopted from by Britons – China, India and Guatemala –
about ending Foreign Office and embassy involvement in the
process.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph 2 November page 6
Primary school children to be given lessons in
talking
The government is to encourage children to learn the art of
conversation. The move follows warnings from educationalists that
parents are merely sitting their children down in front of the
television rather than talking and playing with them.
Every primary school child will be given lessons under the Primary
National Strategy launched this summer.
The children will also be taught how conduct a formal debate,
disagree politely and tell interesting stories.
Source:- The Independent Monday 3 November page 7
Scottish newspapers
Bonus for lone parents
A new government scheme is to help lone parents in Edinburgh
looking for employment.
Those who have been claiming income support or job seeker’s
allowance for more than a year, but would like to start a job are
to be helped with the new funding.
Lone parents actively seeking work under the scheme will get
£20 a week for up to six months in addition to existing
benefits, and those that find work on the scheme will be paid
£40 a week throughout the first year of employment.
Source:- The Scotsman Saturday 1 November
£23,000 for project to do IT by book
A £23,000 Scottish executive grant is to help around 80 people
in one of Edinburgh’s most deprived estates to access
computer training.
Students at the Craigmillar Community Information Service will be
helped to learn new skills over the next six months with the Social
Justice Change Fund money.
Source:- The Scotsman Saturday 1 November
Scotland’s nurses under spotlight at health
event
A conference in Edinburgh yesterday focused on Scotland’s
experiences as the European pilot for family health nurses.
The scheme is designed to help families in their communities by
offering care to a wide range of groups. Scotland has been the lead
site for the World Health Organisation Europe pilot project since
2001.
Source:- The Scotsman Saturday 1 November
McConnell tells private schools: open your doors to less
well-off or lose charity status
Private schools are to be challenged by Jack McConnell to prove
their worth to their communities or face being stripped of their
tax-exempt charitable status.
The first minister will introduce a “public benefit”
test to private schools and to pass it, they will have to show that
they provide a significant number of places for less well-off
children and open their sports facilities to local people.
Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 2 November
Top doctor calls for single vaccinations as worried
Highland parents boycott MMR jabs
Single vaccines for measles, mumps and rubella on the NHS should be
introduced, according to a leading doctor who is concerned that the
number of parents shunning the triple vaccination in the Highlands
has risen to dangerous levels.
Funding single vaccines would prevent an outbreak of serious
illnesses, according to Dr Iain Johnston, chairperson of Highland
Local Health Care Co-operative professional committee and
non-executive member of Highland Health Board.
Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 2 November
Advice clinics ‘increase sexual
diseases’
Family planning clinic are encouraging the spread of sexually
transmitted diseases, according to new research.
Areas where contraception and advice on sex is made more widely
available are the same areas where sexually transmitted infections
rise, the research into the government’s sexual health policy
has found.
Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 2 November
Prince’s Trust warning over youth crime
bill
The government’s attempts to crack down on young people who
hang around street corners could irresponsibly demonise them and
aggravate their sense of isolation, the Prince’s Trust has
warned.
The trust’s Scottish director Euan Davidson made the warning
just days after the Scottish executive announced plans to tackle
antisocial behaviour by extending electronic tagging and antisocial
behaviour orders to under 16s and introducing powers to disperse
groups of young people.
A new survey to be published by the charity tomorrow will warn that
93 per cent of disadvantaged young Scots think that there are gaps
in basic services for them while almost one in four says they have
nobody to turn to for help.
Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 2 November
Council incentives fail to woo new social
workers
Controversial schemes to incentivise social workers to take up
posts with local authorities are failing as increasing numbers of
staff are seeking early retirement and fewer graduates join the
profession.
Councils trying to woo staff with £5,000 “golden
hello” payments and extended holiday entitlements are losing
the battle to fill vacant posts.
It is believed there are more than 400 unfilled vacancies in social
work departments around Scotland, with the worst hit being Glasgow
where there is an estimated 30 per cent shortfall within the
city’s children and family services unit.
Source:- The Scotsman Monday 3 November
English work delays checks by Disclosure
Scotland
The organisation established to protect vulnerable people across
Scotland is failing to cope after taking on extra work from
England.
Disclosure Scotland’s processing times are in chaos after
accepting work from England which has nothing to do with its core
function.
Demand is such that vacancies for unsupervised jobs with children
in Scotland are not now being filled in good time.
Source:- The Herald Monday 3 November
Welsh newspapers
Adverts aim to lure England’s social workers
Services for vulnerable clients in Wales are being compromised
because of a lack of social workers.
The principality is suffering a severe recruitment and retention as
local authorities poach valuable staff from each other or rely on
expensive agency staff to fill the gaps.
In a bid to fill its 13 social worker vacancies and move away from
poaching neighbouring staff, Vale of Glamorgan Council is
advertising in English newspapers in London, Birmingham and other
English urban areas.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 3 November page 8
Branch opens in Adoption Week
National Adoption Week is being launched today in Wales with the
opening of the British Association of Adoption and Fostering
Cymru’s, Carmarthen branch.
The new office will extend the services offered by BAAF in the
principality and the launch of National Adoption Week in Wales will
focus on widening the pool of local people who want to become
adoptive parents.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 3 November page 9