By Maria Ahmed, Simeon Brody, Derren Hayes and Amy
Taylor
Radical plan to stop Muslim extremism
A royal commission to investigate how the London bombings
happened and a media unit to rebut negative stories about Muslims
and counter propaganda from Islamist extremists should be set up,
according to a government task force appointed to tackle
extremism.
Source:- The Guardian Saturday 17 September 2005 page
1
Council tax revaluation is called off
The government has decided to postpone a review of the property
values of all homes in England.
Ministers are to promote cut-price summer holidays to parents in an effort to stop them taking children away during term time.
Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 18 September 2005 page 4
Wildest pupils prefer to learn the hard way
An experiment to test rival “progressive” and “traditional” teaching methods on a group of disruptive schoolchildren has shown that firm discipline may work best.
Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 18 September 2005 page 4
Mental problems soar among children using cannabis
The number of children treated mental disorders caused by smoking cannabis has quadrupled since the government downgraded the legal status of the drug, according to charity Addaction.
Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 18 September 2005 page 7
Asylum officers stuck at desks
Immigration officers have been criticised for wasting public
money claiming overtime while spending excessive hours at their
desks, when they should be catching illegal entrants.
A report by Home Office officials and consultants has shown that
less than half an officer’s time is spent tracking down the
estimated 300,000 failed asylum seekers. The rest is spent on
paperwork and training.
Source:- The Sunday Times, Sunday 18 September 2005, page 7
Scotland tops world league for violent crime
Scotland is the most violent country in the developed world, according to a United Nations report.
Source:- The Sunday Times, Sunday 18 September 2005, page 7
Inside the mind of a stalker
Last week a girl was shot and killed by her former lover. It’s an extreme case but each year more than 5,000 people are charged with harassment.
Source:- The Sunday Times, Sunday 18 September 2005, page 13
‘Low IQ’ pair can appeal over adoption
A couple who had their children taken away by social services
because the mother was said to be ‘too backward’ to
care for them have won the right to appeal against their
adoption.
Essex Council social workers removed the children – a
14-month-old boy and his sister who is nearly four – late
last year, and last month a judge ruled both could be freed for
adoption.
Source:- The Mail on Sunday Sunday 18 September 2005 page 34
Alarm as prescriptions of Ritalin to children reach a record high
Doctors are condemned as “irresponsible” as figures show a 180-fold increase in use of stimulant on under-16s.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph, Sunday 18 September 2005, page 4
Pupils’ ‘behaviour charter’ launched
Teachers will attempt to combat the rising tide of classroom disorder by launching a charter of behaviour tomorrow. The 20-page document – Learning to Behave – has been drawn up by the National Union of Teachers.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph, Sunday 18 September 2005, page 4
School taxi fares for pupils cost councils £40,000 a day
Local councils are spending up to £40,000 a day on taxis to
take children to and from school.
The sums paid out by some authorities in rural areas account for
almost three per cent of their total education budget and have been
condemned as an “astounding” waste of money.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph, Sunday 18 September 2005, page 6
Top football clubs hit by child abuse allegations
A report compiled by the government-backed Independent Football Commission after an 18-month investigation discloses that 250 suspected child abuse cases are being probed by the Football Association and that two more allegations are being investigated at Premiership clubs.
Source:- The Observer Sunday 18 September 2005 page 1 and pages 8-9
Fear for child safety in bid to end care checks
Children left in daycare while their parents work will be put at risk under government plans to scrap official checks on carers, children’s organisations are warning.
Source:- The Observer, Sunday 18 September 2005, page 4
Housing policy under fire
The government is failing to provide social housing for vulnerable homeless people stuck in hostels, claims a report by the Salvation Army.
Source:- The Observer, Sunday 18 September 2005, page 6
Has the shine comes off the £30m model?
Kate Moss’s sponsors are less than happy with tabloid pictures of her apparently snorting cocaine – but she is still loved her legions of teenage fans.
Source:- The Observer, Sunday 18 September 2005, page 15
Sedated, abused and confined in bleak wards: a woman’s life inside Broadmoor
In a new book, Janet Cresswell, who spent 25 years in the top security unit, reveals her dark world.
Source:- The Independent on Sunday 18 September 2005, page 8
Snapping at yobs
Talking cameras are to be used to deter yobs from vandalising trains and railway equipment across the east of England.
Source:- The Times, Monday 19 September 2005, page 13
Racism blamed as black pupils struggle
Black children are being condemned to failure early in their school careers because of racist attitudes among teachers, according to Professor David Gillborn, of the London University Institute of Education.
Source:- The Times, Monday 19 September 2005, page 18
Adults need help to report child abuse, says NSPCC
Most adults find it hard to report suspected child abuse, according to research by the NSPCC.
Source:- The Times, Monday 19 September 2005, page 28
Clarke plans prisons shakeup
Charles Clarke is planning a network of community prisons in which prisoners serve time closer to their family in an effort to reduce reoffending.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 19 September 2005 page 1
Hidden stress of the nursery age
Toddlers starting nursery experience high levels of stress in the first weeks after separating from their mothers, according to a study.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 19 September 2005 page
3
Tagged teenager in murder case was left
unsupervised
A catalogue of errors was made by probation staff and an electronic tagging firm in their supervision of a teenager convicted of murdering a Nottingham jeweller.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 19 September 2005 page 7
Amnesty urged for illegal immigrants
Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten will urge the government to offer an amnesty to all illegal immigrants before tightening procedures to enter Britain.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 19 September 2005 page 11
Sally Clark to sue pathologist over baby death post-mortem
Sally Clark and her husband are seeking large damages in a lawsuit against Home Office pathologist Alan Williams who performed the autopsies on the two baby sons she was convicted of murdering.
Source:- The Guardian Monday 19 September 2005 page 12
Britain “is sleepwalking into New Orleans-style segregation”
Harriet Harman warned yesterday that some of Britain’s black and poor communities were sinking into the same underclass exposed in the US by Hurricane Katrina.
Source:- The Independent Monday 19 September 2005 page 6
Gran starves to death
A 79-year-old woman starved to death because her council home had no letterbox so her pension could not be delivered. None of her 10 children, 30 grandchildren, social services or pensions official noticed Ivy Allen was dying at her home in Warrington.
Source:- The Mirror Monday 19 September 2005 page 1
Scottish news
Boss of worst council steps down
One of Scotland's worst-performing local authorities parted
company with its chief executive yesterday as part of a management
shake-up designed to turn its fortunes around.
Robert Cleary agreed to leave his position as chief executive of
Inverclyde Council after negotiations were completed over a
financial settlement. There is speculation he’s been allowed
to leave with a pension of around £50,000 a year.
Source:- The Scotsman Saturday 17 September
Men slow to come forward to sit on Children's Panel
More than 542 people in the Lothians have volunteered to join
the Children's Panel - but fewer than a quarter are men.
The latest figures from the recruitment hotline show that of the
volunteers from Edinburgh and West, East and Midlothian, only 126
were male. Deputy education minister Robert Brown has called for
more volunteers to fill the gaps in the panel, which helps address
the needs of vulnerable children.
Source:- The Scotsman Saturday 17 September
Asylum seekers gain support
Around 300 protesters staged a demonstration at the treatment of
refugees in Scotland outside immigration offices in Glasgow on
Saturday.
The Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees said asylum seekers were
undergoing "utterly traumatising" treatment by being removed from
their homes in the early hours of the morning to be taken to
England to be deported.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday 18 September
Police struggle to cope as hidden sex offender list tops 30,000
Scottish police don’t have enough resources to properly
monitor the ever growing number of sex offenders in the
country.
It follows a report by Fife Council into the circumstances behind
the death of Karen Dewar eight months ago at the hands of Colyn
Evans, a repeat sex offender, had been living alone and
unsupervised in the community.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday Sunday 18 September
Housing shortage causing crisis in homeless hostels
Hostels in Scotland are being “bed-blocked” by
homeless clients who could move into community housing if only
provision were available.
A new report from the Salvation Army has shown that hundreds of
their badly needed residential places are being occupied by
residents who have been prevented from moving on because of the
lack of social housing and support services from health or social
workers.
Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 18 September
Cops’ fury at violent Scotland
A leading police officer has refuted claims Scotland is the most violent country in the developed world. Fife chief constable Peter Wilson spoke out after a UN report said Scots were three times more likely to be assaulted than people anywhere else on the planet.
Source:- The Record Monday 19 September
Welsh news
Care leavers are struggling
A children’s charity has called for action to address
underachievement by care leavers in education.
NCH Cymru said that only 42 per cent of 16-year-olds left care with
one GCSE or GNVQ or more.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 19 September
Adults’ fear is leaving abused youngsters at
risk
Children are left being abused in Wales due to adults being too
scared to report their concerns.
One in 14 Welsh adults suspect that a child they know is being
abused but three per cent of them do nothing.
The majority of this group cited fears for their own safety as the
main reason behind their lack of action.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 19 September
Refugee doctors now at work
A scheme to help refugee doctors to gain employment in the NHS in
Wales has been praised by the social justice minister Edwina
Hart.
The scheme helps refugee and asylum seeker doctors to pass the
language tests required to become an NHS doctor.
Source:- Western Mail Monday 19
September
