In Today's Papers

By Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson

Gap year cash offer to working class youth
Working class teenagers will be given help with college fees or given cash to start up their own businesses, if they carry out voluntary work during their gap year, Chancellor Gordon Brown announced yesterday.
Gap year voluntary work has traditionally been carried out by middle class student, and the initiative aims to extend the scope to young people from poorer backgrounds to help broaden their horizons before a career or further education.

Source:- The Times Thursday 19 February page 2
Police ‘must step up efforts to tackle domestic violence’
Police have been urged to increase their efforts in tackling domestic violence after it emerged that only one in 11 complaints results in a conviction.
A report by two government inspectorates found that only one in five complaints of domestic abuse led to a prosecution and only half of those resulted in conviction.
The report highlights that despite the high profile being given to tackling violence in the home, practice on the ground among police forces and prosecutors is patchy.
Source:- The Times Thursday 19 February page 4
Ecstasy death
Five people have been arrested after a 16-year-old who took two ecstasy tablets at an illegal rave in High Wycombe, has died.
Sophie Ksher collapsed and banged her head and died six days later. Police said that more arrests were expected.
Source:- The Times Thursday 19 February page 4
Howard visits BNP heartland to urge migrant job curbs
The Conservative leader will today call for restrictions on the rights of east European migrants to work in the UK, at a speech in Burnley, the power base of the British National Party.
Michael Howard is expected to say that the government should bring in measures to prevent migrants from countries joining the EU in May having free access to jobs and benefits in Britain.
Source:- The Times Thursday 19 February page 10
NHS inquiry after dismembered body found
A serious incident inquiry was launched by the NHS last night after a psychiatric patient was found hours after he was released from a London mental hospital in a flat in which a man had been killed.
Managers at East London and City Mental Health Trust were investigating how the patient came to be discharged from one of its hospitals.
The victim is believed to have been a former psychiatric patient and a police spokesperson said he had suffered “multiple injuries, including some dismemberment”.
Source:- The Guardian Thursday 19 February page 1
BNP memorial to murdered teenager removed by council
A plaque erected by the British National Party in memory of a white teenager killed by a gang of Bengali men was removed by Oldham Council yesterday.
The council in Greater Manchester is considering action against the right-wing party group which installed the stone plaque at the scene of the murder of Gavin Hopley.
Source:- The Independent Thursday 19 February page 8
Cardinal criticises ‘obsession with sex’
The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales yesterday said society’s obsession with sex was threatening children’s health and happiness.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor said while he welcomed greater openness about sexual issues, sex was often presented within the media without its proper moral context.
It was instead depicted as “something which has no real significance”, and love was hardly ever mentioned, he added.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Thursday 19 February page 4
Conmen sell names of victims
Help the Aged has warned today that conmen who trick their way into older people’s homes are selling details of their victims’ addresses to one another for cash.
Networks of bogus callers, who steal something then tell other criminals whether it is worth them going back to steal more, have been uncovered by the charity.
A survey for the charity found that bogus callers entered the homes of at least 180,000 older people last year.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Thursday 19 February page 11
Scottish newspapers
Funding shortfall is failing children
A £150 million shortfall in funding to local authorities is causing child support services to suffer, Scottish ministers were warned yesterday.
There is almost a 50 per cent annual shortfall in Scottish executive funding to care, the 32 local authorities have calculated.
There is growing concern that a focus on tackling antisocial behaviour has diverted resources away from child protection.

After ‘The Herald’ revealed yesterday that children in care were being abused by their peers, social workers have highlighted that the provision of residential care would be greater if the executive ensured children’s services were adequately funded.
Source:- The Herald Thursday 19 February
School exclusion rate rises by fifth
The number of children excluded from schools in the Lothians has increased dramatically as teachers battle to tackle discipline problems.
Youngsters suspended or expelled from schools have risen by almost a fifth over four years.
The number of exclusions has risen steadily in Lothian schools at a time when the number of case nationwide has started to fall.
Source:- Evening News Wednesday 18 February
Critics say warden plan is policing on the cheap
Plans to recruit 400 wardens to patrol communities were attacked by police and opposition MPs yesterday as “policing on the cheap”.
The new posts, which will cost £30 million to recruit and train for, are part of the executive’s drive against antisocial behaviour.
The Scottish Police Federation said they would rather the money was spent on recruiting more police.
Source:- The Scotsman Thursday 19 February
My Pam has a mental age of 12… and she’s run off with her uncle
An 18-year-old with a mental age of 12 has run away with her 30-year-old uncle after it emerged the two have been involved in an alleged sexual relationship for the past two years.
Pamela Seath was taken from her home in Fife by her uncle a week ago. The teenager’s mother said her daughter was very vulnerable as she had a mental age of 12.
She said her daughter had admitted to sleeping with her uncle over a two-year period.
Fife police believe the pair are in London after tracing bank details.
Source:- Daily Record Thursday 19 February page 6
Disabled Donnie is put in a hut
A man with multiple sclerosis has been forced by council chiefs to live out his days in a wooden workmen’s hut.
Donnie Cross needs to have a bed on the ground floor because of a loss of mobility due to his illness.
But South Lanarkshire Council has lowered a wooden hut into his garden by crane and fitted it to the back door, after refusing to re-house Cross and his blind wife.
Source:- Daily Record Thursday 19 February page 7
Welsh newspapers
What is going on?
Older patients, some of whom have dementia, are being treated in children’s wards at the University Hospital of Wales, Cardiff.
The crisis at the 1,000-bed hospital follows a recent surge of seriously ill patients into the emergency unit. Hospital managers say that up to 200 beds are blocked by patients who have finished their treatment and need to be cared for elsewhere.
Source:- South Wales Echo Wednesday 18 February pages 1, 2 and 3
Libraries are set to ban computer chat
Council chiefs in Blaenau Gwent are set to ban access to internet chatrooms on public computers as fears grow about children’s safety.
The council is to look at the issue after receiving complaints that teenagers have been using the chatrooms inappropriately. The potential dangers to young people were highlighted recently when a 15-year-old girl from Brynmawr went missing for a week after meeting someone she had met while using a chatroom in a library. She later returned home of her own accord, and a man from Birmingham has been charged with unlawfully detaining her.
Source South Wales Argus Wednesday 18 February page 5
Home-help stole cheques, court told
A home-help for older people stole cheques from two clients in their 90s, a court has been told.
Leann Venables is accused of stealing blank cheques that were later cashed for more than £12,000 after allegedly preying on vulnerable people in their own homes.
Venables of Roath in Cardiff denies two charges of theft.
Source Western Mail Thursday 19 February page 3