Articles by Date : September 01 2006 - September 30 2006

Funky feet: a disco for people with learning difficulties in Merton, London
Anabel Unity Sale takes to the dance floor to find out how a disco called Funky Feet is providing a night of grooves and tunes for people with.... more
(28 September 2006 00:05)

Registration of self-employed adoption social workers: minister intervenes
The government has moved to avert a possible crisis in adoption support services by agreeing to amend regulations on the registration of.... more
(27 September 2006 11:45)

Collaborative commissioning: why London councils are clubbing together to buy services
Several London councils are pooling resources and attracting new funding in a bid to improve services while achieving savings. David Callaghan looks.... more
(28 September 2006 00:01)

False economies: the risks for councils who cut services without thinking
Efficiency need not be achieved at the expense of services to users, argues Rob Griffiths. To overcome the seven sins of cost-cutting he offers seven.... more
(28 September 2006 00:01)

The social exclusion action plan: pros and cons
The government is promising “immediate action” to reduce the social exclusion of several vulnerable groups. But progress is likely to be uneven.... more
(28 September 2006 00:02)

Home Office accepts responsibility for death of Sarah Campbell
Click on the above headline for more social care related news from today's papers. more
(27 September 2006 09:44)

Government urged to support childcare for disabled children
Disabled children’s charities today challenged Treasury minister Ed Balls to provide more government funding to support childcare for disabled.... more
(26 September 2006 00:00)

Social care spending may lose out to education, hints Gordon Brown
Chancellor Gordon Brown today labelled key social care issues as “the greatest failures of social policy” historically but said education would be.... more
(25 September 2006 14:22)

Chancellor pledges better relationship with the voluntary sector
Voluntary organisations working with children and families would be given a boost under a Brown government, the Chancellor has told the Labour Party.... more
(26 September 2006 18:00)

Sixty Second Interview with Judith Doyle
Judith Doyle is a member of Gateshead Primary Care Trust’s sexual health promotion team (which works in partnership with the council). more
(26 September 2006 00:00)

Book Review: Independent Futures: Creating User-Led Disability Services in a Disabling Society
In effect a short history of the disability rights movement in the UK, this book traces the gradual politicisation of disability issues in the second.... more
(21 September 2006 13:38)

Book Review - Finding The Right Support? A Review of Issues and Positive Practice in Supporting Parents with Learning Difficulties and their Children
This review of the issues surrounding parents with learning difficulties analysed existing literature, carried out a web-based questionnaire with.... more
(21 September 2006 13:35)

Book Review: Children and Young People Who Sexually Abuse Others – Current Developments and Practice Responses
This is a second edition of a volume reasonably well known in this professional field, with eight of the 17 chapters newly written, while the others.... more
(21 September 2006 13:31)

Bill to protect vulnerable groups launched in Scotland
The Protection of Vulnerable Groups (Scotland) Bill was published in Scotland today taking forward key recommendations from Sir Michael Bichard’s.... more
(26 September 2006 00:00)

Co-ordination between agencies criticised in Michael Stone report
An independent report into the care of murderer Michael Stone has today criticised the lack of co-ordination and planning between agencies in Kent. more
(25 September 2006 15:46)

Numbers living in temporary and unsuitable housing in Scotland up
The number of homeless households in temporary accommodation in Scotland rose 8 per cent in 2005-6, according to Scottish executive figures published.... more
(26 September 2006 11:42)

If you ask me...David Hart
David Hart is chair of Working Together for Independent Living in Lambeth and is a wheelchair user more
(21 September 2006 10:17)

The Big Question
Have we robbed our kids of childhood? more
(21 September 2006 10:14)

The Simon Heng column
I have a friend who is warm and funny; she is passionate about the causes that she has taken up – in fact, she’s enthusiastic about life itself. more
(21 September 2006 10:12)

Back in the loop
Joe Ethell, who is deafblind and lives alone, was becoming isolated before social services intervened more
(21 September 2006 10:10)

Open Forum
Efforts to return incapacity benefit claimants to work are hampered by incompetence and insensitivity, says Peter Linnett more
(21 September 2006 10:08)

Megan's killer told nurse he would murder a family days before attack
Click on the above headline for more social care related news from today's papers. more
(26 September 2006 09:46)

Frontlines - Targetting people before they are born
I see from the news that Tony Blair is planning to identify “yobbish” children before they are even born, and put in extra measures to tackle their.... more
(21 September 2006 10:06)

User groups are more than mom and apple pie
User involvement in social care and health is at a worrying and complex crossroad. Something must be done soon, if such involvement isn’t to be.... more
(21 September 2006 10:05)

Question from Community Care - Truancy and ill-health among children at school by Ming Zhang
Click on the headline to go through to the full article more
(26 September 2006 09:44)

Adults with learning difficulties college courses cut
Adults with learning difficulties are losing out as colleges drop courses that fall below GCSE standard. But who is at fault? Some are blaming the.... more
(21 September 2006 17:57)

Focus on Learning Difficulties
Many of the UK’s 1.4 million people with learning difficulties are gaining independence after years of institutional living. more
(21 September 2006 09:24)

Morgan anger at lack of spending on prevention compared with custody
The government’s top adviser on youth justice has slammed the “pitiful” funding the Home Office allocates to preventing youth crime. Rod Morgan,.... more
(21 September 2006 09:04)

‘We were ahead of the game’
Ahead of his retirement, one-time Barnardo’s “hatchet man” Hugh Mackintosh tells Derren Hayes about some of the painful decisions he has had to make more
(21 September 2006 11:41)

Truancy and ill-health among children at school by Ming Zhang
The campaign against truancy and taking term-time holidays may be attacking the wrong targets, writes Ming Zhang. For research shows that illness is.... more
(21 September 2006 18:27)

Education: special report
As children and young people return to schools, colleges and universities this month, we investigate: more
(21 September 2006 20:13)

Management for services for people with learning difficulties: tough financial choices
The increased life expectancy for people with learning difficulties is, of course, great news. But, with pressure to improve the quality of services.... more
(21 September 2006 19:52)

Closing campuses for people with learning difficulties
By 2010 the several thousand people with learning difficulties in NHS campuses should have moved into the community. Amy Taylor reports on the.... more
(21 September 2006 19:43)

Corporate parents and the education of children in care
Why do so many local authorities have the non-Midas touch when they become corporate parents of looked-after children? Anabel Unity Sale reports more
(21 September 2006 17:47)

Ealing looked after children education exam success
The London Borough of Ealing has been blazing a trail in the education of looked-after children. So how is it being done? Natalie Valios reports more
(21 September 2006 17:34)

Government concedes need for more support for autistic pupils
The government has admitted that more needs to be done to improve educational services for children with autism, after the children’s commissioner.... more
(25 September 2006 17:15)

Step by step guide to collaborative commissioning
1. Look around and if there are other local authorities you can work with then you have made it to first base. more
(25 September 2006 15:24)

Joint plans can stop enforced treatment
Future mental health treatment plans jointly agreed by service users and medical staff could reduce the use of compulsory treatment, according to a.... more
(21 September 2006 14:10)

Director hits out at survey time limits
A children’s social care leader has hit out at the government after it only allowed six weeks for responses to an in-depth questionnaire that feeds.... more
(21 September 2006 14:07)

Scots councils need to be better parents
Scotland’s councils need to improve the way they act as corporate parents for looked-after children, according to a major inspection report. more
(21 September 2006 14:06)

Livingstone backs direct payments
London mayor Ken Livingstone has pledged action on direct payments and older people’s mental health in a strategy for the capital’s older people. more
(21 September 2006 14:00)

Review at Cardiff may lead to cuts
Cardiff Council is to review its adults’ services and cut operational costs to tackle a projected £5.9m overspend this year. more
(21 September 2006 13:57)

Review backs government move to extend compulsory treatment
An independent review of homicides by people with severe mental illness has recommended introducing compulsory community treatment. more
(21 September 2006 12:34)

Narey backs stand on problem parents
The chief executive of Barnardo’s has backed compulsory measures for problem parents. more
(21 September 2006 12:22)

Progress on private notification erratic
Some councils are only “at the very beginning” in developing private fostering notification systems in line with government regulations introduced.... more
(21 September 2006 12:18)

Carers in capital save nation £6bn
London’s carers save the state £6.1bn a year by providing care services but lack adequate support, according to a new report. more
(21 September 2006 12:05)

Watchdog accuses Birmingham of putting vulnerable people at risk
Up to 200 people in Birmingham with severe learning difficulties could be at risk of abuse because the council has failed to keep track of them, a.... more
(21 September 2006 11:52)

Rough sleepers count in dispute
The head of a major London homelessness charity has cast doubt on the accuracy of government statistics on rough sleepers. more
(21 September 2006 11:19)

Loose connections spark housing crisis as Westminster seeks help
Westminster Council has called for an overhaul of local connection rules to tackle pressure on social housing. Gordon Carson reports more
(21 September 2006 11:13)

Cafcass private law practice under fire in damning inspectorate report
Front-line social work practice in private law family proceedings will have to undergo a “culture change” if children are to be properly served, the.... more
(21 September 2006 10:41)