By Clare Jerrom and Reg McKay.
‘Foster parents should be paid £186 a week’
Foster carers must be paid attractive packages in a bid to persuade more adults to forgo well-paid jobs and careers to bring up disadvantaged youngsters, a fostering organisation will say today.
More than 40,000 children in Britain live with foster carers and nearly all receive a weekly allowance to cover expenses. No payment to reward their skills is made.
But the National Foster Care Association, which is changing its name to the Fostering Network, says that "reward payments", and access to pensions should be introduced to tackle the shortage of carers.
It says the "standards of foster care in the UK will fall below an unacceptable level" unless important changes are introduced to the system.
The amount carers receive in expenses varies between £50 to £300 a week. Carers do not qualify for state benefits and do not receive pension contributions.
The network suggests carers are paid £93 a week for children under four, rising to £186 for a child over 16, with higher rates in London.
Source:- The Independent Friday 2 November page 9
Violent patients denied treatment
Persistently violent and abusive patients could be denied treatment for up to a year, under guidelines announced yesterday by health secretary Alan Milburn.
Hospitals and clinics should become a "zero tolerance zone" for violence and doctors and nurses should not have to tolerate unacceptable conduct from people in their care.
Around 65,000 assaults on NHS staff are reported each year.
Speaking at a conference in Bournemouth, Milburn said every NHS trust would be expected to draw up clear rules outlining the type of behaviour that could lead to withdrawal of treatment. This could include verbal abuse, threats, violence or drug abuse in hospital.
Patients with mental health problems, and those requiring emergency treatment or suffering life-threatening conditions would not be denied treatment.
Source:- The Guardian Friday 2 November page 11
Lord Woolf sets 12 year tariff for head’s killer
The man who killed headmaster Philip Lawrence will not be considered for release from prison until 2008, the lord chief justice said yesterday.
Lord Woolf set a sentence tariff of 12 years for Learco Chindamo, who was 15 when he stabbed Lawrence as he intervened in a fight outside his school in west London.
As a result of human rights rulings in the Bulger case, the courts rather than the home secretary now determine the tariffs for juveniles.
Lord Woolf said he had decided to uphold the recommendation of the trial judge that Chindamo should serve at least 12 years before being considered for release.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Friday 2 November page 6
Scottish newspapers
Housing transfer ballot may be delayed
It is expected that the Scottish executive will today announce that the ballot of tenants regarding the controversial proposed transfer of Glasgow’s council houses to the independent Glasgow Housing Association will be delayed until March next year rather than the original date of this November.
If the proposal is accepted by the tenants, the £4 billion transfer would be the largest of its kind in the UK, and would see the treasury write off Glasgow Council’s £1 billion housing debt.
Source:- The Scotsman Friday 2 November page 2
Child abuse teacher wins appeal
The teacher convicted of assaulting his seven-year-old daughter has won his appeal against being struck off the teaching register.
The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was found guilty of assaulting his daughter at Hamilton Sheriff Court in June 1999 following the incident in a dentist’s waiting room in December 1998.
He was suspended from his post on full pay and in May 2000 the General Teaching Council decided he had been found guilty of an offence which rendered him unfit to be a teacher.
The man has been working at a resource centre for his employer, North Lanarkshire Council, ever since. In a rare move, three judges at the court of session found in favour of the teacher on the grounds that the there were flaws in the GTC’s disciplinary procedures.
The GTC said that it had introduced new procedures and would review the court’s decision on that basis. North Lanarkshire Council said it was too early to indicate whether or not the man would return to his teaching post.
Source:- The Herald Friday 2 November page 3
