Right to 'living will' part of new legislation
People would be given the right to appoint someone to legally act for them over health and welfare issues under "living wills" measures in one of the proposals in the new Mental Health Incapacity Bill.
The measure presently only applies to finances.
The person placed in this position would have far-reaching powers, which would be subject to safeguards to protect the interests of those they are responsible for.
Source:- The Times Saturday June 28 page 11
Mother held after girl, 5, stabbed to death
A mother was being questioned by police yesterday over the murder of her five-year-old daughter, who was found dead with stab wounds to her chest.
Chloe Fahey was found at her home in Stretford, Manchester, in the early hours of Friday morning.
Two men and the girl's mother were arrested by police officers and the two men were later released without charge.
The mother's younger child had already been taken into the care of social services.
Source:- The Guardian Saturday June 28 page 9
Chinese gang jailed over Dover deaths
Seven members of a Chinese gang, responsible for smuggling 58 illegal immigrants who suffocated in a sealed lorry trailer in Dover three years ago, were jailed last Friday.
The people traffickers were imprisoned in Rotterdam and were part of an organised crime syndicate who had been charging immigrants up to £12,000 per person for their passage to Britain.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday June 28 page 4
Asylum family runs up £1/2m legal bill
The taxpayer is set to foot the £500,000 worth of legal fees run up by a family of Lithuanian asylum seekers who alleged that their human rights had been breached by Southwark Council by providing them with inadequate housing.
The Anufrijevas family has pursued more than 15 court actions, petitions and applications for judicial review.
Source:- The Sunday Times Saturday June 29 page 8
Paedophiles set picture phone trap
New 24-hour internet access via mobile phones enables paedophiles to reach children at any time, according to new research.
Built-in cameras also make it difficult for young people to escape the pressure of sending the offenders pictures of themselves, it finds.
The report, due to be submitted to the Home Office next week, warns that there are presently no barriers to prevent paedophiles from using the new technology to reach children.
Source:- The Observer Sunday June 29 page 11
Refugees keep out - this is a British place
The riots in Wrexham last week were not an isolated event. Attacks on asylum seekers are becoming the norm in the UK.
Source:- The Observer Sunday June 29 page 14
Delays dog jail racism report
An official inquiry into racism in Britain's prisons, which has taken two and a half years to complete, is expected to damn the Prison Service as it publishes the first of its findings next week .
The first set of findings is expected to focus on issues relating to the racially motivated murder of Zahid Mubarek in Feltham Young Offenders’ Institution in West London three years ago.
The second, larger part of the report, which looks at allegations that high levels of racism are present in some sections of the Prison Service, has been delayed until September.
Prisons in Brixton, Feltham and Parc, in south Wales, are expected to be highlighted as particularly bad.
Source:- The Guardian Monday June 30 page 8
Airport asylum staff step up strike action
Staff who screen asylum-seekers for diseases at Heathrow airport are going on strike this week as public sector union Unison attempts to gain an increase in the London weighting given to workers.
Thousands of staff in some schools, libraries, and local authorities will also be taking industrial action.
Source:- The Times Monday June 30 page 2
Mothers demand deaths inquiry
Parents who allege that they have been wrongly accused of murdering or abusing their children are calling for a public inquiry into a diagnosis defined by a professor whose evidence was discredited in two recent cases.
Professor Sir Roy Meadow's expert testimonies were discredited in the cases of Sally Clark and Trupti Patel, two mothers subsequently found not guilty of murdering their children.
Meadows has acted as an expert witness in dozens of cases in which babies have died suddenly, claiming that mothers are suffering from a controversial diagnosis of Munchausen's Syndrome by Proxy, where mothers harm or kill their children and then claim that it occurred naturally.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Monday June 30 page 5
Scottish news
Outcry as beds for young psychiatric patients fall to nine
Just nine in-patient beds for children with severe psychiatric disorders exist in Scotland, one sixth of the number that existed in 1994.
A new Scottish executive-commissioned report finds that the number of in-patient beds in Scotland has fallen from 58 to nine, with all beds being concentrated at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill in Glasgow.
The figures, which emerged in the Needs Assessment Report on Child and Adolescent Mental Health, have been described by doctors as “shocking” and a matter of “grave concern”.
Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 29 June
Last minute ‘stay of execution’ for asylum seeker
An African asylum seeker has had her deportation halted at the eleventh hour following intervention by her MP.
Danielle Koudou, who faces imprisonment, torture and possibly death if she returns to the Ivory Coast, had been living in the Gorbals in Glasgow until she was taken into detention after her asylum claim was rejected by the Home Office. Her brother, whose case is virtually identical, has been granted refugee status.
Koudou was scheduled for deportation last Thursday but protests have been so strong that the government has agreed to wait until ministers have considered representations from David Marshall, MP for Glasgow Shettleton, and other MPs.
Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 29 June
Police dismiss wardens as a waste of time
Police have condemned plans for an army of community wardens to remove vandals from Scotland’s streets as a waste of time and money.
The government scheme, which would see 1,000 full-time wardens patrolling the streets, is being trialled in two communities.
But police have warned the Scottish executive that plans have not been properly thought through. They believe it will create extra work for officers and the £20m funding would be better spent putting more ‘bobbies on the beat’.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday Sunday 29 June
Your girl is Hungarian now so we won’t pay for care
A disabled teenager has been informed that funding for her specialist treatment in Hungary is being stopped because she is no longer Scottish.
Victoria Shovlin, who suffers from cerebral palsy, was sent to the Peto Institute aged nine after her local council agreed to fund her education in a landmark ruling. They also paid for here father Nick to stay in Hungary as her carer.
But, after nine years, Fife Council is pulling the plug on the funding. Despite paying for her father’s caring role, the council said it “did not realise” Victoria was staying with her dad.
It said this made her an official resident of Hungary and not Fife and that she was no longer their responsibility.
Her father said he could not bring Victoria home as Fife Council had failed to find similar facilities for her treatment and he now faced applying for political asylum to stay in Hungary.
Source:- Daily Record Monday 30 June
Psychiatric drugs ‘are harming children’
Hundreds of protesters will lobby an international gathering in Edinburgh today, claiming that an alarming number of children are harmed or killed as a result of being prescribed psychiatric drugs.
The campaigners will urge the annual meeting of the Royal College of Psychiatrists to end “the psychiatric labelling and drugging of children nationally and internationally”.
There are an estimated 20,000 children taking psychiatric drugs in Scotland.
Source:- The Herald Monday 30 June
Desperate measures to keep staff
Around half of the social work jobs at East Dunbartonshire Council are vacant, according to a report presented to the council’s policy and resources committee.
Although there should be a team of 59 people looking after the region’s vulnerable population, at the beginning of June 23 jobs were unfilled. Another five social workers were considering handing in their notice. The report claims there is now a high risk in terms of their ability to meet statutory duties.
Source:- The Herald Monday 30 June
Jobs cut to fund social workers’ pay wars
Social workers are being offered “golden hellos” of up to £5,000 as councils are engaged in a cut-throat bidding war to recruit staff.
Smaller local authorities are being forced to cut jobs and channel funding into a reduced number of key staff.
But the strategy of fewer, better-paid workers puts social workers at risk of breaching legal requirements in their duty to care for vulnerable people in the community.
Social work directors have condemned the situation and called for a national review of pay and conditions to put an end to the “Dutch auction” created by the skill shortage.
Source:- The Herald Monday 30 June
Sexual health plan sparks fresh battle with Catholic Church
The Scottish executive’s final draft of its sexual health strategy has been criticised by the senior catholic appointed to help write it, who claims it undermines the sanctity of marriage.
Vice president of the catholic education committee, father Joe Chambers has refused to put his name to the document, which he describes as “a poor inadequate vision for the future health of Scottish young people”.
He is now to draft his own version, which he will send to health minister Malcolm Chisholm next week when the main report will also be submitted.
Source:- The Scotsman Monday 30 June
Child protection team
A team of experts has been appointed to shake up Scotland’s child protection services, in a bid to prevent cases such as the tragic deaths of Danielle Reid and Kennedy MacFarlane being repeated.
The group of six will develop a Children’s Charter for Scotland as well as looking at how well bodies involved in child protection work together.
The members have been seconded from their regular jobs and include a senior social worker and a consultant paediatrician.
Source:- The Scotsman Monday 30 June
Welsh news
Found, a boy like Ben
A Welsh private investigator believes that he may have evidence that a toddler who went missing on Greek island, 12 years ago, is now living in Turkey.
The disappearance of Ben Needham, during a family holiday when he was only 21 months old, sparked an international search.
His family believe that he was snatched and sold, and investigator Ian Crosby says that a photograph of a boy with blonde hair taken recently in Turkey fits the description of what Ben is likely to look like now and could be an important lead.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 30 June page 4
