By Clare Jerrom, Reg McKay and Alex Dobson.
New Deal has helped only 20,000 to find jobs
The New Deal programme has found work for just 20,000 young people – far from the 250,000 promised.
A report published today suggests that most of the young people would have found jobs anyway due to a strong economy and natural turnover.
The National Audit Office report suggests that only 8,000 to 20,000 extra people found a job as a result of the £3 billion programme in its first two years.
Shadow work and pensions secretary David Willetts said the report showed the scheme had little success, far lower than ministers had claimed: "It shows that the whole scheme needs to be thoroughly reviewed because it clearly isn’t working."
Source:- The Times Thursday 28 February page 2
Damilola trial judge rejects girl’s pack of ‘lies’
A 17-year-old youth was cleared of the murder of Damilola Taylor yesterday after the judge discarded evidence from the prosecution’s main witness.
The judge described her testimony as full of lies, and attacked the way the 14-year-old girl had been given "inducements" during police interviews that may have persuaded her to falsely claim she witnessed the attack on the school boy.
A 22-page ruling rendered the girl’s evidence as totally unreliable.
After the ruling was delivered, Mark Dennis for the prosecution delivered no further evidence, and the judge directed the jury to find the teenage boy not guilty of murder and other charges.
Two 16-year-old boys and a 15-year-old are still charged. They deny murder, manslaughter and assault with intent to rob Damilola Taylor in November 2000 in Peckham, south London.
Source:- The Times Thursday 28 February page 3
Migrants threat to drop babies overboard
A gang of Romanian asylum seekers said they would throw their babies overboard a Channel ferry unless Britain would let them enter.
The eight asylum seekers carrying eight children went on the rampage after immigration officials barred them from entering the country.
Immigration officials and security guards were kicked and spat at by five women and three men during a three hour stand off, after they were refused entry to Britain because they had false travel documents.
No criminal charges have been brought against the asylum seekers. The home office said even if charges had been brought they would still have to allow the Romanians to enter the country once they had claimed asylum.
Source:- The Times Thursday 28 February page 4
UK confirmed as the asylum capital
Britain will be confirmed today as the asylum capital of Europe.
A United Nations report shows refugees select Britain above any other European country.
New home office figures will show 90,000 asylum seekers and their families lodged asylum applications here last year.
Germany was the next most popular with 88,000 new cases.
The biggest group of claimants in the UK are likely to be from Somalia, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Despite the figures, David Blunkett will take some comfort in the fact that applications are down on last year when there were 99,000 claims by asylum seekers and their families.
Source:- Daily Mail Thursday 28 February page 6
Drug addict services ‘are a shambles’
The £234 million spent on helping drug addicts and misusers each year, is money badly spent, according to a report published by the Audit Commission today, which says drug treatment services are a shambles.
Waiting lists of up to 100 days for treatment give users more opportunities to continue thieving to get cash to feed their habit and can deter them from seeking help.
Ministers have promised to increase spending on treatment to £401 million over the next three years as part of a drive to tackle the problem, which costs Britain £4.5 billion a year.
The report cites long waiting lists, treatment that failed to deal with drug misusers social problems, inconsistent treatment and patchy working between agencies.
Controller of the Audit Commission Andrew Foster said: "There is fragmentation, not very good value for money and certain people in great need in our society are falling through the net."
Source:- The Times Thursday 29 February page 10
‘Agencies hid scandal of aid workers who brought child
sex with food’
The knowledge that young girls in refugee camps in west Africa were sexually abused in return for food, was common but consistently covered up by senior aid workers, it was claimed yesterday.
A UNHCR and Save the Children UK report revealed yesterday that aid workers have been involved in the sexual exploitation of refugee children, offering food rations in return for sexual favours.
One aid worker who did not want to be named said: "People have known about these abuses for months, but they were afraid to do anything because they didn’t want to be critical of the international agencies involved."
Another said corruption and abuse had been allowed to flourish because international agencies failed to provide adequate supervision of locally employed staff: "Everyone knows these things are common, but they always cover them up," he said.
But a UNHCR spokesperson denies a cover up and said the report had been edited from an original 80 pages to a released 16 to protect the children.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday 28 February page 14
Scottish newspapers
Homes for all pledge
Homelessness in Scotland will end by 2012 according to a pledge by the Scottish executive.
The executive’s plans are regarded as one of the biggest drives ever aimed to end homelessness and are based on a blueprint devised by the multi agency homelessness taskforce. Campaign groups welcomed the plans, but some expressed doubt that the executive’s initial investment of £11 million over two years would be sufficient to meet the planned timetable.
Source:- The Scotsman Thursday 28 February page 9
Schoolboy defends father accused of assault
An eight-year-old French schoolboy defended his father of assault charges against him in a case which last summer raised a public debate about the Scottish executive’s plans to ban smacking. The boy, who cannot be named, claimed his father smacked him once on the bottom. However, witness Bernadette Gallacher told how she and her husband had seen the father "punching and kicking the child viciously" before they intervened. The trial continues today.
Source:- The Herald Thursday 28 February page 6
Final housing stock document issued to tenants
Tenants involved in the controversial proposals to transfer Glasgow council’s housing stock to Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) are to receive the final consultation document today.
The booklet, 'Your Home – Your Choice', lists changes made to the plan since the first consultation exercise last year. These include a £300 million loan from the Scottish executive to the GHA, and the new landlord promising £4 billion of investment in the stock over 30 years. Ballot papers on the proposal will be issued to tenants on 14 March and the result is due on 5 April.
Source:- The Herald Thursday 28 February page 7
Welsh newspapers
Crisis in children's welfare services unit
Unison in Cardiff is claiming that there is a crisis in the city's children homes with staffed stressed, frustrated and suffering high sickness levels.
Unison's branch secretary Peter King has written to every councillor highlighting the extent of the problem, which he says is putting frontline workers under pressure. He added that failings in the service might lead to some vulnerable children suffering psychological and emotional harm, and that this is part of the reason why violence against staff is on the increase.
Councillors have also failed to visit the homes regularly with the joint inspection unit for Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan noting that this was a "very poor reflection on the priority afforded to the oversight of the service by the authority".
Source:- South Wales Echo Wednesday February 27 page 1 and page 10.
Lack of services hit drug addiction fight
Drug addicts are failing to get adequate treatment to help them kick their habit because local services in England and Wales are inadequate, says a new report from the Audit Commission.
The report highlights the huge increase in drug addiction and the related costs to society through crime, and points to a serious lack of counselling and rehabilitation services.
In England, a national treatment agency has been formed to develop strategies and increase understanding of effective ways to deal with drug addiction, but no parallel body exists in Wales, in spite of the major problem that exists in many regions.
Source:- Western Mail Thursday 28 February page 5
