Childminder is sent to jail for baby’s manslaughter

By Mithran Samuel

Childminder is sent to jail for baby’s manslaughter

A professional childminder has been jailed for three years for the manslaughter of an 11-month baby girl in her care in March 2005.

Keran Henderson, 43, was convicted of killing Maeve Sheppard, who died of brain injuries after Henderson shook her violently.

Henderson had seven years’ caring experience and Maeve’s parents said they had vetted her thoroughly.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 14 November 2007 page 5

Poor children in rich areas are bullied, says study

Poor children living in affluent areas are facing poverty-related bullying, while, more generally, poverty is a cause of anxiety, frustration and sadness for children, a report by the NSPCC, York University and the Frank Buttle Trust said today.

Children as young as five blamed themselves for the stresses faced by their parents due to poverty and hid their own wishes and even lent family members money, the report found.

The study included a foreword by prime minister Gordon Brown, backing the report.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 14 November 2007 page 13

Fit for purpose

A city financier, diagnosed with bipolar disorder, has taken a year’s sabbatical to set up a charity designed to tackle the stigma of mental ill-health at work, particularly among professionals.

Jonathan Naess has established a network of professionals to campaign for better approaches to mental ill-health from employers.

Recent research by charity the Shaw Trust showed one in three employers thought people with a mental health problem were less reliable than other employees and most did not have an effective formal mental health policy.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 14 November 2007 page 2-3

Sleepwalking into an unhealthy alliance

The Guardian’s social affairs editor John Carvel warns social care will lose out from the planned merger of the Healthcare Commission and the Commission for Social Care Inspection.

He says the government’s rationale for creating the new inspectorate has switched from saving money and cutting bureaucracy to cleaning up hospitals and tackling hospital-acquired infections.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 14 November 2007 page 4

Level’s best

The former head of the government’s Women and Equality Unit has defended its much-criticised green paper on discrimination law against charges it will weaken duties on public sector bodies to tackle inequalities in race, gender and disability.

Angela Mason, who is now national adviser for equalities and cohesion and the Improvement and Development Agency for local government, said moves to focus on local priorities, rather than the whole of an organisation’s functions and policies, would bear greater results.

The move has been criticised as downgrading the importance of equality by groups including the new Equality and Human Rights Commission.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 14 November 2007 page 5

Call for ban on under-5s in reality shows

Broadcasters should be banned from using children under the age of 5 in reality television programmes, leading children’s charities said yesterday.

The call, led by the NSPCC, comes after a number of scandals involving programmes featuring children and babies.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 14 November 2007 page 25

Schoolgirl hanged herself after ‘minor row’ with parents

A coroner recorded a verdict of suicide yesterday in the case of a 15-year-old girl who hanged herself after a row with her parents.

They had banned Rosemary Edwards from using the internet or her mobile phone after she lied to them over how she lost a Saturday job.

Southampton Coroner’s Court heard Rosemary Edwards had previously befriended four teenagers on the internet chat service MSN Messenger, all of whom suffered from depression.

Following the row, she texted them to say that she could no longer stay at home and would have to run away or kill herself.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 14 November 2007 page 8

Welfare to Work ‘a revolving door’

A National Audit Office report today finds that nearly half of benefits claimants going through the New Deal are unemployed six months later.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 14 November 2007 page 10

Paedophiles offered ‘happy pills’ to curb their sex drive

Paedophiles are to be offered free Prozac as a softer alternative to ‘chemical castration’, it has emerged.

The government secured headlines this summer when it promised offenders would be given – on a voluntary basis – strong medication to curb their sex drive.

However, these drugs, which amount to chemical castration by making it difficult to have sex, have a number of side-effects which could deter potential users.

Source:- The Daily Mail Wednesday 14 November 2007 page 17

Councils want asylum payout

Nine local authorities have called on the government to pay them £35m to cover a shortfall in the cost of caring for unaccompanied children seeking asylum.

Source:- The Financial Times Wednesday 14 November page 4