By Clare Jerrom, Reg McKay and Alex Dobson.
Soham pupils get counselling for trauma and depression
Children who attended the same school as Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells are receiving counselling for psychological problems ranging from severe trauma to depression.
A group of clinical psychologists, GPs, teachers and churchmen have been called to the village of Soham in Cambridgeshire in an attempt to help the school friends of the murdered 10-year-olds.
They fear that friends of the two girls will have to return to St Andrew’s junior school while detectives are still looking for clues in nearby grounds.
The US air force base at Mildenhall, Suffolk, has offered the services of a number of its clinical psychologists, and doctors have come out of retirement to help.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 28 August page 2
Vetting backlog starves schools of teachers
Schools are facing shortages of teachers and other staff as the Criminal Records Bureau strives to clear a back log before the new school term starts next week.
Just 4,100 applications were dealt with by staff at the bureau over the bank holiday weekend raising fears that they will eradicate the backlog by next Wednesday.
Following the introduction of emergency working practices, the home office revealed yesterday that the backlog had fallen from 22,355 to 18,193 by 8am on Monday. At that rate the backlog of checks on school staff will be at 6,700 on the 4 September deadline set by ministers last week when they ordered emergency action to deal with the thousands still awaiting vetting.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 28 August page 2
Working mothers suffer ‘burn-out’
More than one fifth of mothers returning to work shortly after childbirth complain of a mental and physical burn out by the time their child is 18-months-old.
While 70 per cent of new mothers return to work or plan to, only 20 per cent do so for intellectual and social reasons, according to the survey of 2,280 new mothers. The remainder cited financial reasons.
Around 22 per cent said they were exhausted by the demands of work and motherhood.
Warren Lenney, consultant paediatrician at the North Staffordshire Hospital, said: "That some women are considering returning to work as early as 12 weeks after birth purely for financial reasons highlights the fact that many mothers need further support from partners, families and the government."
Source:- The Times Wednesday 28 August page 4
Student gap year
A disabled student, who was rejected from Oxford university despite six grade A A-levels, has decided to take a gap year.
Anastacia Fedotova, 19, who is deaf, has named Cambridge as a likely choice, but has not ruled out re-applying to Oxford.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 28 August page 4
Two teenagers killed schoolboy to ‘save face’
Two teenagers who stabbed a schoolboy to death to "save face" over a £10 cannabis deal, were told they faced life sentences yesterday.
The youths who were aged 14 and 16 at the time, attacked Abdul Maye,aged 15, in front of his classmates outside the school gates. A 10 inch kitchen knife was plunged into Abdul’s back by the younger of the boys. This pierced the boy’s heart and lung while the second youth attacked him with a blade.
A jury found the boys guilty of murder by an 11-1 majority at the Old Bailey in London.
The younger boy wept into the arms of his social worker as the verdicts were read out. The older boy, who is Jamaican and in this country illegally, showed no emotion. He was told he would be deported to Jamaica on the completion of his sentence.
Judge Paul Focke, QC, adjourned sentencing until next month while psychological and probation reports are prepared. He warned the youths, who cannot be named, that they face life imprisonment.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 28 August page 7
Climbie social worker is ‘race victim’
A social worker, convicted yesterday of refusing to testify before the Victoria Climbie inquiry, said the decision to prosecute her may have been motivated by institutional racism.
Carole Baptiste was found guilty of ignoring a summons to give evidence before the inquiry into the abused child’s death, headed by Lord Laming.
Baptiste claimed her medical condition meant she was unfit to testify, but this argument was rejected by district judge Hayden Gott.
He found her guilty of breaching the summons to testify before Lord Laming and fined her £500, at Camberwell Green magistrates court, south London. She could have been jailed for up to six months.
Baptiste is the first person to be prosecuted for obstructing a public inquiry under powers in force since 1972. After the case, she said she had been "persecuted".
Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 28 August page 1
Sex offender sent to stay with children
A registered sex offender was given a room in a hotel where children were staying, on his first night out of prison.
The manager of the Grafton Hotel in Manchester was not told of the man’s background, although police and probation staff knew of the man’s arrangements.
The probation service admitted the arrangement was "far from ideal" and spoke of "difficulties" surrounding sex offenders’ release from prison.
Probation chief officer Christine Knott said the case highlighted some of the problems of managing sex offenders in the community.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Wednesday 28 August page 2
Tories seek clarification on asylum seeker target
The government was challenged by the Conservative party yesterday to respond to allegations that it had tried to cover up its failure to meet its own target for the removal of failed asylum seekers.
Shadow deputy prime minister David Davies called on Tony Blair to clarify the status of a manifesto pledge at the last election to remove 30,000 failed asylum seekers a year. Downing Street told lobby journalists in July that the target was not attainable, and that the government had abandoned it in June 2001.
But on 27 June, home secretary David Blunkett reiterated the promise in the Commons.
Downing Street said last night that the government had been open about the problems in meeting the target. "It has been a difficult and ambitious target we have been unable to meet so far."
Source:- Daily Telegraph Wednesday 28 August page 8
Guardian Society
Vote early
Middlesbrough has the first elected youth mayor and other cities have set up youth parliaments. But will this encourage more young people to get involved in public service and, even if they do, will it make a difference?
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 28 August page 2-3
Art of coping
Sarah Lee on a charity stimulating creative talents to help people live with the shock of a terminal illness diagnosis
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 28 August page 52-51
Breaking point
Families with disabled children more likely to suffer poverty
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 28 August page 51
Scottish newspapers
Jobs for young offenders
Young offenders could be paid for on-job training as an alternative to prison if the Scottish executive presses ahead with controversial plans.
Talks are already understood to have taken place between Richard Simpson, deputy minister for justice, and an employment training provider, Wise Group.
Under the draft plans, 16 to 17-year-olds who default on payment of fines would be paid the minimum wage to undertake compulsory work training rather than being sent to jail. Critics of the scheme say it proves to young offenders that crime really does pay.
Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 28 August page 1
Home is the most dangerous place for children
Children suffer more injuries at home than in any other place, according to Glasgow-wide research carried out by Yorkhill NHS Trust.
The trust found that 44 per cent of all accident and emergency injuries to children occurred at home compared with 15 per cent at school and 14 per cent on the roads.
Source:- The Herald Wednesday 28 August page 10
Welsh newspapers
Scandal-hit home to be sold in council U-turn
A residential home for older people that has beeb dogged by controversy is to be sold despite a council pledge that it would be reopened.
The home, Hazelcroft in Fairwater, Cardiff, has had a troubled past with staff making hundreds of allegations and counter claims of misconduct against one another, and there have been a series of disciplinary hearings.
The home was closed for refurbishment and a joint statement from the council and Hafod Housing Association that owned the building stated at the time that the home would be improved to provide additional services not available in the area.
But it is now understood to be " surplus to requirements", and is the site is likely to be put on market. It is understood that the council have turned down an offer from Hafod for the land although the housing association says it has had no response from the council.
A council spokesperson said that the matter was now in the hands of the valuation department.
Two reports are due on Hazelcroft and a third investigation by the Welsh assembly’s social services inspectorate is looking at the relationship at 10 homes between Hafod and the Cardiff and Vale of Glamorgan councils.
Source:- South Wales Echo Tuesday 27 August page 5
Why does a medical student have to travel 550 miles to become a doctor?
A miner’s son with excellent A-levels has been forced to study medicine in Scotland after Welsh university selectors rejected him.
Arfon Powell, aged 18, wants to become the kind of Welsh-speaking doctor that rural communities in Wales are desperately short of. He was inspired to take up medicine after his father developed acute health problems after years of working underground.
But he was turned down by medical schools in Cardiff, Nottingham and London and will now take up a place in Aberdeen.
Arfon said that as a Welsh speaker he would like to work in areas of Wales where older people needed help, and that he was feeling let down because he could not study in Wales.
Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 28 August page 7
