FRIDAY 20 JANUARY 2006

All child sex offenders barred from teaching
All sex offenders will be barred from working in schools, Ruth Kelly announced yesterday. The plans will include an automatic ban from working with children for anyone convicted or cautioned of a child sex offence of serious offence against adults.
Source:- The Guardian, Friday 20 January 2006, page 6

Loophole means after-hours club pupils still at risk
People running out-of-school clubs for children over eight years old are exempt from new reforms to prevent sex offenders working with children. The omission has serious implications for the government’s pledge to provide working parents with “wrap-round” child care from 8am to 6pm.
Source:- The Times, Friday 20 January 2006, page 27

Clarke to overhaul drug classifications
A complete overhaul of the 30-year-old system for classifying illegal drugs is to follow the decision yesterday by Charles Clarke to confirm the lower class C status of cannabis. He said he was ordering the review to ensure that decisions were based on their wider harm to society and not just a health assessment of the clinical evidence.
Source:- The Guardian, Friday 20 January 2006, page 5

Child Support Agency already using private debt collectors, says lawyer
Private debt collectors are already being used to collect money from fathers in dispute with the CSA, often with disastrous results, a family lawyer said yesterday.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Friday 20 January 2006, page 8

Blackcurrants combat Alzheimer’s
Compounds in blackcurrants may help to guard against Alzheimer’s, a study from New Zealand suggests.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Friday 20 January 2006, page 8

Kinnock fires broadside at Blair’s flagship school reforms
Tony Blair’s school reforms were attacked by Lord Kinnock, who warned the government was being “dragged towards an elephant trap”. Kinnock warned the proposals would lead to the fragmentation of the schools system.
Source:- Financial Times, Friday 20 January 2006, page 2                                  

MPs’ report gives Blair a battle plan for school retreat
A leaked report from the Commons education committee tells Tony Blair to dilute plans for new trust schools and give town halls even more control over education. It concludes that councils should be given new powers to force all schools to take their fair share of disadvantaged pupils.
Source:- The Times, Friday 20 January 2006, page 2

A child of our times
A teenage mother, a drug-using father and ten homes in six years. So is Kelston really suffering from a so-called oppositional defiant disorder or are the causes of his bad behaviour more obvious?
Source:- Daily Mail, Friday 20 January 2006, page 26

Scottish news

College employed former teacher struck off for inappropriate behaviour
A teacher struck off for inappropriate behaviour with pupils was given a job at a Scottish college lecturing 17-year-olds. Richard Yuill, banned from teaching after inviting school pupils to drink and cannabis parties at his home, was employed as a lecturer by Clydebank College in August last year.
Yuill had also courted controversy after writing a university thesis which described sex between adults and children as sometimes positive.
Source: The Herald, Friday 20 January 2006

Tax scam fears over migrant workers
Some eastern European workers based in Scotland are exploiting loopholes in the tax credit system to make false claims, according to an employment agency audit.
The Glasgow-based agency found 11 false claims, totalling £50,000, in the city alone. Labour MP Ian Davidson promised to take the issue up with the government.
Source: The Scotsman, Friday 20 January