By Amy Taylor, Nicola Barry and Alex Dobson.
Missed housing targets adds to Labour's list of failures
The government's battle to meet its targets in a range of public services was shown yesterday by its latest failure - that 100 councils will not be able to comply with aims to make all social housing ‘decent’ by 2010.
The admission comes in new 'autumn departmental performance reports' being published quietly by Whitehall departments.
It follows previous admissions that the government will not meet targets to cut traffic congestion, improve literacy standards for 11-year-olds, or remove 30,000 asylum seekers. Major anti-drugs targets have also been scrapped.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday 19 December page 1
Blunkett payout for abuse libel pair
The home secretary, David Blunkett, has agreed to pay compensation to Dawn Reed and Christopher Lillie, the former nursery nurses who won a libel case after falsely being accused of child abuse.
The pair have been exonerated of criminal charges by Blunkett, based on the facts arising from a case in the civil courts.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday 19 December page 5
Council must pay damages to couple who adopted 'wild child'
A couple who adopted a "wild child" they claim was so emotionally disturbed that he made their lives unbearable, won an unprecedented claim for damages in the high court yesterday.
The couple, who cannot be named, said they would never have adopted the boy had they been told the true facts about him by Essex council, who placed him and his younger sister for adoption.
The judge awarded them damages for the effects they suffered from the boy's placement with them, but not for anything they suffered as a result of the adoption. He said that by the time the adoption was finalised, they knew the worst about the boy and had still gone ahead with it, so Essex was not to blame post-adoption.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday 19 December page 6
Childcare policy fails to help poor
The Chancellor's flagship childcare policy amounts to a "drop in the ocean" that is failing to help enough of Britain's poor families, the trade and industry secretary Patricia Hewitt, conceded yesterday.
Hewitt said that her department and the Treasury were to investigate why the childcare tax credit, which helps relatively low income working parents pay nursery or childminding costs, has not fulfilled government hopes.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday 19 December page 9
Ainlee's death blamed on staff 'paralysed by fear'
A two-year-old girl was tortured to death because social workers and health visitors were afraid of her violent parents and would not visit their home, a report concluded yesterday.
Ainlee Labonte's body was marked by 64 bruises when paramedics found her dead in a dirty council flat in January of this year.
Her parents, Leanne Labonte and Dennis Henry - a "violent, aggressive, obstructive, devious and dishonest couple" - were jailed for manslaughter at the Old Bailey three months ago.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Thursday 19 December page 1
Jail for single mother over truant daughters
A single mother has been sent to prison because her two daughters, aged 12 and 14, persistently played truant from school.
The unnamed woman, whose daughters have been attending school only two or three days a week for the past year, was sentenced to seven days in prison by Brighton magistrates.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Thursday 19 December page 6
So much for that deal!
Hundreds of asylum seekers have flooded towards Calais in just a few days despite the closure of the Sangatte refugee camp.
Almost 100 were found by French police in a sports hall in the port, and dozens more have been found sleeping rough in the ruins of a wartime gun battery. Another 100 took over, and many more have been found camping in sewer pipes.
All are desperate to reach Kent to try and claim asylum in Britain.
Source:- The Daily Mail Thursday 19 December page 25
Swiss town's immigrant 'apartheid'
A small Swiss town has caused outrage with a plan to bar asylum seekers from using public facilities such as swimming pools and parks.
It is planning to enforce its proposal with signs showing a black figure inside a red circle, with a red line through the middle.
Meilen councillors said they were fed up with 'rowdies' from an asylum centre on the outskirts of the town.
Source:- The Daily Mail Thursday 19 December page 25
Scottish newspapers
Patients in Carstairs fight for sex rights
The State Hospital at Carstairs could become the first in Britain to allow conjugal visits.
Patients are expected to make a legal challenge to end the maximum security hospital’s ban on sex.
Source:- Daily Express Thursday 19 December page 8
Executive introduces tough new targets to tackle youth crime
Tough new targets to improve the youth justice system north of the border will be revealed today.
Minister for young people Cathy Jamieson will announce more than 100 new national standards aimed at speeding up the children’s hearing system, and improving the performance of local authority youth justice teams.
Source:- The Scotsman Thursday 19 December page 13
Housing transfer is over the threshold
Glasgow yesterday took the penultimate step in the controversial handover of its 82,000 houses to a new landlord.
The city council’s ruling Labour group voted 52 to nine in favour of the switch to the Glasgow Housing Association after more than three years of fractious negotiations.
Source:- The Herald Thursday 19 December page 11
MSP criticises needle scheme for drug addicts
Police are to hand out needles and syringes to drug addicts at police stations in Lanarkshire as part of a drive to combat an increase in HIV and hepatitis infections.
The plan has been condemned as "defeatist" by Bill Aitken, Tory deputy justice spokesperson, who says police should be tougher on people who use drugs.
Source:- The Scotsman Thursday 19 December page 11
Cost fears over move to help homeless
A row broke out yesterday after ministers vowed to spend about £127 million on tackling homelessness amid fears that the proposals were uncosted and that homeless people from south of the border might be attracted to Scotland.
Source:- The Herald Thursday 19 December page 8
Call to keep drug users out of jail
Users found guilty of possessing drugs should be referred to the health service for treatment, not put in prison, according to a report published today.
The document, ‘Making Sense of Drugs and Crime’, produced by the Scottish Consortium on Crime and Criminal Justice, claims imprisoning drug users marginalises rather than helps them.
Source:- The Scotsman Thursday 19 December page 10
Welsh newspapers
Suicide-bid boy ‘could be autistic’
A 15-year-old boy, who became the first child in Britain to be charged with attempting to procure a suicide, could be suffering from a form of autism, a court was told.
Earlier this year, a jury decided that the boy who cannot be named for legal reasons had encouraged his 15-year-old girlfriend to jump from a jetty at a seaside resort.
As a result she suffered serious injuries but yesterday in Carmarthen crown court where the teenager was appearing for sentencing, two experts told the judge that the boy was probably at the less disabled end of autism spectrum disorder.
Source:- Western Mail Thursday 19 December page 8
High-level summit will discuss child protection strategies
Child protection will be top of the agenda at four ground-breaking conferences to be held in Wales in the New Year.
Experts in child abuse will gather for a series of seminars that will look at different aspects of the problem. The first seminar will take place at the All Nations Conference Centre, Cardiff, and will examine shaken baby syndrome.
Source:- Western Mail Thursday 19 December page 9
