By Clare Jerrom, Reg McKay and Alex Dobson.
Crucial Climbie paper withheld by top official
Vital information from the Victoria Climbie child abuse inquiry was withheld by a senior government official, because it "did not occur" to her that it was relevant.
Chief inspector of social services for England Denise Platt told the inquiry into the eight-year-old’s death, that with hindsight, she now realised that a key document, commissioned as a result of Victoria’s death, was relevant to the hearing.
The document suggested that the quality of service provided by Haringey social services, responsible for the child at the time of her death, was far worse than had originally been identified.
The material was eventually submitted to the inquiry three weeks after the oral hearings and therefore too late for Platt or its authors to be cross-examined on its findings. It was sent seven months after the Social Services Inspectorate promised to produce all relevant documents in its possession.
Inquiry chairperson Lord Laming said the inspectorate’s delay in providing information had caused great administrative inconvenience, and would hold up the publication of the report by three months.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 10 July page 7
Au pair ‘broke the furniture in attack on boy, 3’
A male au pair attacked a three-year-old child before turning on his older brother for intervening, a court heard yesterday.
Hungarian Zsolt Vamos is alleged to have carried out the attacks on the brothers when he looked after them, and three other children at their home in the Yorkshire Dales. He stayed in the job for just nine days.
Bradford crown court heard how Vamos had been recruited to the short-term post through an au pair agency, and was sharing the responsibility for the children with a French female au pair.
Simon Kealey, for the prosecution, said Vamos assaulted the elder boy three times and the youngest twice when he was in the house.
Vamos denied five offences of assault.
The trial continues.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 10 July page 9
Lord Woolf is blamed for youth custody rise
A rise in the youth jail population has been attributed to the lord chief justice, who demanded longer sentences for mobile phone thieves.
Head of the youth justice board blamed Lord Woolf for the rise of young offenders in jail and the increase in the length of their sentences. Lord Warner said Lord Woolf’s comments had undermined attempts to tackle the root causes of youth crime.
Launching the YJB annual report, Lord Warner said at the start of the year the number of young people in custody fell to 2,683. "Then after January we see a rather steep rise."
"That is around the time the lord chief justice delivered himself a few thoughts on what he thought should happen to mobile phone robbers. We then see a very significant rise in the custody population," he said.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 10 July page 10
Tories drop pledge on public spending
William Hague's pledge to match government spending on frontline public services, such as health and education, has been dropped, it was announced yesterday.
Iain Duncan Smith said money alone was not the answer to failing public services.
"Don’t assume automatically that (the government’s) plans are the benchmark by which everybody else has to be judged," he said.
The Tory leader went out of his way to insist he remained deeply committed to public services, but said people should move away from the idea that money was the only solution.
Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 10 July page 8
Cherie Blair hits out at state of crowded prisons
Thousands of inmates should not be inside British jails, Cherie Blair will declare tonight, having investigated the prison system.
In a speech to be given in London, the prime minister’s wife will describe how she visited the country’s most infamous jails and interviewed prisoners including drug dealers, young offenders and inmates with mental health problems.
The jail population - there are 300 prison places remaining - is "crippling" the prison system in England and Wales, she will say.
In a speech at a lecture, sponsored by the Prison Reform Trust, Blair will also express her deep concerns at the number of mothers and young children in jail.
She will urge society in general and the criminal justice system in particular to favour more community-based sentences as an alternative to prison.
Source:- Independent Wednesday 10 July page 1
Uncertain time
Care staff worried about sector changes
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 10 July page 4
Mixed blessings
Promotion of human rights declared a charitable purpose
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 10 July page 4
In better company
Business ‘exceptions’ praised for attitude to disability
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 10 July page 4
Screen break
Plans to get poor communities using the internet have met with resistance in one former pit village
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 10 July page 5
Built to last
As Emmaus, known for its self-supporting communities of homeless people, prepares to celebrate its 10th anniversary, John Cunningham reports on debate over the charity’s future path
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 10 July page 6
Plus ca change
Social care professionals are increasingly alarmed by reforms sweeping through the sector; but a new survey carried out for the shows how many are still upbeat about the fulfilment their work offers
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 10 July page 10-11
Scarred inside
New research into why teenagers self-harm has shed light on the root of a growing problem
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 10 July page 128-127
Friends for the elderly
Help the Aged to sell its care homes and sheltered housing
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 10 July page 127
Isolated condition
Benefits system unresponsive to the needs of MS sufferers
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 10 July page 127
Scottish newspapers
Pension ‘buddies’ ease fears of older people
An Aberdeen pensioner has set up a 'guardian angels' style scheme to escort older people when they go to cash their pensions.
The scheme, in the Tillydrone area of the city, was established when an older person was mugged earlier this year. It is believed to be the first service of its kind in Scotland.
Source:- The Herald Wednesday 10 July page 5
Boy’s torso in Thames – woman arrested in Scotland
A woman from Glasgow was arrested yesterday in connection with the suspected ritual killing of a young boy whose mutilated body was fished out of the Thames in September last year.
It is believed that the woman is in her 30’s, married, has children and originates from West Africa. She is being held in an unnamed police station in London. It is the first arrest the police have made in connection with this investigation.
Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 10 July page 1
Tenants vote for new owners
Council housing tenants in Dumfries and Galloway have voted overwhelming to transfer to the management of the independent Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership.
More than two thirds of the tenants voted for the transfer of the 12,300 homes. Dependent on final approval of the first minister, Jack McConnell, the move will now take place in Spring 2003.
Source:- The Herald Wednesday 10 July page 10
Welsh newspapers
How did 17-year-old go missing from unit?
A teenager who fled from a unit for people with "challenging behaviour" wandered the streets for hours before handing himself in.
The 17-year-old who cannot be named for legal reasons has Asperger’s Syndrome and was receiving professional help at Cefn Carnau, a unit run by Independent Community Living (ICL) on Caerphilly mountain in south Wales.
He is understood to have left ICL's nursing home, which is protected by fencing and security cameras, on Friday 28 June sometime after 11pm. He was not seen again until he walked into a Cardiff police station in the early hours of the following morning.
In a statement, ICLs director of nursing Jane Watkins said the teenager was homesick and wanted to see his family.
The Caerphilly-based care company has a number of homes throughout south Wales.
Source:- South Wales Echo Tuesday 9 July page 4
Half care homes ‘to close in next six months’
Half of Wales’s care homes for older people will be forced to shut in the next six months unless £100 million is injected into the service, it has been claimed.
Politicians are warning that the sector is in crisis and faces meltdown without a financial lifeline.
Plaid Cymru health spokesperson in the Welsh assembly, Dr Dai Lloyd said: " The situation is approaching meltdown. If nothing is done, the private sector has told us that half the homes in Wales will be shut in six months' time".
Closures on a massive scale could result in an unprecedented number of hospital beds bearing the brunt of the day-to-day care of vulnerable older people. Almost 900 beds in the nation’s hospitals are already classed as ‘blocked’, as there is nowhere suitable for the patients, mostly elderly to be discharged.
Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 10 July page 1 and comment page 10
Asylum seeker released
An asylum seeker who was detained without warning and was a day away from deportation, returned home to Cardiff last night.
Milan Simic was reunited with his fiancée Nicola Blake after she travelled to a detention centre near Heathrow to see him freed.
Blake was asked to supply letters from two referees and £2,000 in bail in order to secure his release.
Last week following a routine weekly registration at a police station in Cardiff, Simic was detained and was due to be deported on Sunday, but a high court injunction put a stop to the process.
He will now be allowed to continue living and working in Cardiff while legal wrangling about his future continues.
Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 10 July page 1
