By Sally Gillen, Simeon Brody, Derren Hayes and Amy
Taylor
Boarding schools for state pupils to be built
Labour will increase the number of government-funded places at
state boarding schools if elected, according to Ruth Kelly. Parents
would not have to pay tuition fees but those who could afford would
be expected to meet the cost of food and accommodation.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 23 April 2005 page
1
Surgeons fear hospital closures
Surgeons fear the introduction of independent treatment centres,
set up to cut waiting lists, will lead to hospital closures and
lower standards of patient care.
Injuries from violent crime fall to five-year low
Serious violence resulting in injury has fallen 13 per cent since 200, according to research from Cardiff University.
Last week’s figures showing a rise in violent crime include harassment and common assault, which do not result in injury.
Source:- The Independent Monday 25 April 2005 page 4
Electronic tags fail to prevent offenders from dodging curfews
Electronic tagging is failing to cut crime and dozens of offenders are breaching their curfew orders without being brought back to court, according to probation union Napo.
Source:- The Independent Monday 25 April 2005 page 4
NHS faces recruitment crisis as nurses retire
The number of new nurses joining the NHS needs to double within 10 years just to keep staff figures stable, the Royal College of Nursing has claimed.
Source:- The Independent Monday 25 April 2005 page 4
Boy, five, still critical after being shot in playground
A five-year-old boy shot in the head in a primary school playground in Co Fermanagh, by what police believe may have been stray bullet from a hunter’s gun, was still in a critical condition yesterday.
Source:- The Independent Monday 25 April 2005 page 6
UK low in social mobility league, says charity
Children born to poor families in Britain are less likely to fulfil their potential than in other developed countries, according to a report by the London School of Economics.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 25 April 2005 page 8
Trust sued over twin born after abortion
A mother who gave birth to a twin girl following an incomplete termination is suing Perth Royal infirmary, where she had the procedure, to help with the cost of raising the child.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 25 April 2005 page 10
Hundreds more heroin addicts to given a fix on the NHS
Hundreds more heroin addicts, who do not respond to other treatments such as methadone, will be able to get the drug free on the NHS as part of pilot schemes starting in June.
If the pilots in Manchester and South London are successful wider prescribing of the drug will be extended.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Monday 25 April 2005 page 11
Yob culture “learnt in the classroom”
Classrooms are a spawning ground for the rude and violent behaviour of Britain’s children, documentary film maker Roger Graef claimed yesterday.
Graef said problems of discipline have to be tackled in school and not just on the streets with Asbos.
Source:- The Times Monday 25 April 2005 page 5
Just a day in jail for ASBO thug
A teenager who was warned he could be jailed for up to five years if he ignored an asbo banning him from a Suffolk village was locked up for just 24 hours when he did so.
Source:- Daily Mail Monday 25 April page 27
Scottish newspapers
Autistic schoolchildren treble to over 3,000
The number of schoolchildren suffering from autism has broken
through 3,000 for the first time as campaigners called for more
resources to tackle the condition.
Ministers and doctors insist the more than threefold rise in the
past six years is entirely due to increased awareness and better
diagnosis of the condition.
But campaign groups insist that the statistics reveal an "autism
epidemic" which may actually be even higher than the statistics
show.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday Sunday 24 April
Departing council boss hits out at ‘poverty industry’ failure to tackle city deprivation
Charlie Gordon, who stands down as leader of Glasgow Council
next month, has hit out at the political system and ministers for
failing to tackle poverty properly.
Rather than focusing on getting people into work, he says the
Scottish executive is obsessed with buzzwords such as
“communities” and “social inclusion”, both
of which require “co-ordinators” and
“programmes”.
In an interview in the Sunday Herald, Gordon says economic
development is more important to me than social inclusion and
environmental sustainability.
Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 24 April
School bullies should go into care, urges official
A senior education official has suggested that persistent school
bullies should be removed from their families and placed in foster
care.
Reverend Ewan Aitken, education spokesperson for the local
authority umbrella group COSLA, will make the controversial call at
a conference in Edinburgh today.
Aitken, also Edinburgh Council’s executive member for
education, will say that putting bullies in foster care would allow
the child and their family time and space to resolve any problems
they have at home.
Source:- The Scotsman Monday 25 April
'Uninformed' ministers closed youth project
An independent report into the closure of a groundbreaking
residential project which attempted to prevent re-offending among
high-tariff young male offenders is expected to be highly critical
of ministers.
Hugh Henry, the deputy justice minister, was responsible for the
decision to withdraw Scottish executive funding from the Airborne
initiative.
He is accused of giving in to "nimbyism" from residents in the
surrounding area who wanted to see the project closed down, and
allowing himself to be influenced by a critical BBC documentary
into the programme.
Source:- The Scotsman Monday 25 April
Community halves crime by hiring police force
Hundreds of housing association tenants have nearly halved crime
in their community by hiring police officers to patrol the
streets.
Reidvale Housing Association, which manages 950 properties in
Glasgow’s Dennistoun area, has paid Strathclyde police
£15,000 to provide two hours of additional policing, two
nights a week, over the past 12 months.
The scheme, which costs each household 30 pence a week, has
resulted in a dramatic fall in crime, particularly in reducing the
incidents of fighting in the streets.
Source:-The Scotsman Monday 25 April
Welsh newspapers
Charity cool or just a wristbandwagon
Children wear wristbands because they want to support charities
rather than to make a fashion statement experts said this
week.
Next month the children’s commissioner for Wales is launching
two free bands with the slogan “Everyone has rights” on
them.
Source:- Western Mail Saturday 23 April
Family’s fury over dad’s death
The family of a man with mental health problems who died after
trying to hang himself have said that the care he received was
inadequate.
David Edmund Zasikowski died from a heart attack the day after his
suicide attempt in October 2004.
Speaking after the inquest, which took place at Cardiff
Coroner’s Court, his daughter Victoria Zasikowski said that
she felt that her dad’s death may have been avoided if his
care and monitoring had been better.
Source:- Western Mail Saturday 23 April
Alzheimer victim ‘abandoned in car park’
claim
An investigation has been launched after the family of an older
women with Alzheimer’s disease alleged that she was left
alone in a supermarket car park while her carer went
shopping.
The family claim that 81-year-old Iris Davis was left in a car
outside Tesco Superstore in Station Yard, Merthyr Tydfil. They say
Davies was found wandering around the car park alone by
shoppers.
Merthyr Tydfil Council has launched an investigation.
Source:- Western Mail Saturday 23 April
