A summary of social care stories from the main newspapers

By Clare Jerrom.

Blair storms back to No 10

Tony Blair returns to Downing Street today after a second
landslide general election victory.

The prime minister will go down in history for being the first
Labour leader to secure a second term in office.

Blair said in his victory speech: “I hope that over the past
four years we can take pride in what we have done, though we must
have absolute humility in the amount we still have to do.”

The Conservatives did not win their first seat – in Poole,
Dorset – until 1am.

Signalling business as usual, Blair will today announce changes
to his Cabinet.

Source:- The Times Friday 8 June 2001 page 1

Blair’s fear will speed reform of services

Tony Blair’s commitment to reforming public services will be
evident today, as he announces sweeping changes in Whitehall.

The immediate Cabinet reshuffle will increase the pace of change
in schools, hospitals, the police service and transport system.

The prime minister will announce a new Department of Work and
the Family, encompassing the Department for Social Security, and
taking responsibility for employment away from the Department for
Education.

David Blunkett looks set to take the role of home secretary,
Estelle Morris is tipped for promotion to the post of education
secretary and Jack Straw could be given the responsibility of
transport.

John Prescott is expected to move to the Cabinet Office, while
Keith Vaz looks set to lose his job of Europe Minister, following a
series of allegations.

Reforming the criminal justice system and secondary schools will
be the government’s priorities.

Source:- Daily Telegraph Friday 8 June 2001 page 2

Nurse ‘gave woman a fatal overdose’

A nursing home nurse gave an elderly woman an overdose of
sedatives then said she wished the woman would hurry up and die to
give her something to do, a court heard yesterday.

Cleaner Julie Palmer saw Alison Firth feeding resident Alice
Grant a brown substance through a syringe on the day she died, at
St Aidan’s Nursing home in Gateshead, last May.

QC for the prosecution John Milford told the court that Firth
refused Palmer’s offer of an extra pillow for Grant, saying she
would not need it as she was “going to die anyway”.

Senior care assistant Joan Fergie-Dodds noticed the smell of
Heminevrin, the sedative found to be the cause of Grant’s death.
Firth then “uncharacteristically” washed the beaker and syringe
claiming the smell was probably coming from another room.

Firth denies murder. The trial continues.

Source:- The Times Friday 8 June 2001 page 4

Boy, 5, excluded after school attack

A five-year old boy in Wales has become one of the youngest
pupils to have been permanently excluded from school, following an
incident involving an alleged assault on a school care worker.

Secretary of the National Union of Teachers in Wales, Gethin
Lewis, confirmed the boy’s expulsion from a Cardiff primary school.
Social workers and education chiefs had been called in to
investigate.

The boy’s parents have apparently not contacted the school about
the decision or appealed to governors.

Source – The Guardian Friday 8 June 2001 page 13