A daily summary of social care stories from the main newspapers

By Clare Jerrom and Reg McKay.

Care home funding plan is unfair to the old say angry
nurses

The government’s plans to subsidise nursing care for
people in care homes undermines the basic principles of the NHS,
according to the Royal College of Nursing.

Britain’s largest nurses’ union believe the plans are
“unfair and unworkable”, and help would depend on how much a local
authority or NHS trust could afford.

The RCN said the plan also discriminates against older people
because NHS nursing care is completely free in hospitals and
residential homes, and for people in their own homes.

In a letter to the department of health RCN general secretary
Beverly Malone said: “Nursing care should be free to all, no matter
where provided, or by whom.”

Under the plan the government will subsidise nursing care for
the first time to care home residents who currently pay for it.
Residents including older people and physically disabled people
will be entitled to £35, £70 or £110 per week
depending on their needs.

Critics say the amount falls short of the actual cost, which can
be up to £400, and the RCN warns of delays in admission and
treatment as nurses will be forced away from caring to fill in
forms.

Source:- Daily Mail Thursday 23 August page 10

For the world’s dispossessed, Sangatte is a
staging post on a traumatic journey in search of
freedom

Source:- The Independent Thursday 23 August
page 8

Fears for child asylum seekers ‘dumped in adult
B&B accommodation’

Unaccompanied minors entering Britain are being dumped in adult
bed and breakfast accommodation, charities warned yesterday.

Children fleeing ‘unimaginably horrific’ situations
where they had experienced or witnessed torture, were then dumped
in such accommodation while seeking refuge in Britain. Services
provided to the children are a lottery because of the “general lack
of co-ordination” in the provision, according to Save the Children
and The Refugee Council.

‘Separated Children in the UK’ expresses
‘significant concern’ that some children as young as 15
are expected to look after themselves as adults, and are often
subjected to racially motivated attacks.

The report calls for more co-ordination between the department
of health, department for education and skills and the home office
to ensure the quality of care improves.

Source:- The Independent Thursday 23 August
page 8

Jail crisis forces JPs to cut juvenile
detention

Magistrates were told to cut the number of teenage criminals
given sentences yesterday as youth prisons are so close to
bursting.

Lord Warner, chairperson of the Youth Justice Board, said
sentences of two to three months disrupted the lives of youths and
wasted resources. They were less effective in changing behaviour
than tough non-custodial penalties.

A statement issued said: “The board is calling for a reduction
in the number of short custodial sentences in favour of better use
of community penalties, particularly the new intensive supervision
and surveillance programmes.”

His letter was written amid fears that youth jails were becoming
over crowded as a result of shortage of space.

The number of juvenile offenders aged 15 to 17 in custody was
3,395 yesterday compared to 3,206 a year ago.

Source:- The Times Thursday 23 August page 1

P & O excused immigrant fines

A Channel ferry operator will be exempt from paying £2,000
fines on each illegal immigrant found aboard their vessels, the
home office announced yesterday.

P & O Stena will be not have to pay the fines, having
invested £500,000 to stem the influx. The company has
discovered 2,600 illegal immigrants since December.

Source:- Daily Telegraph Thursday23 August page 2

Scottish newspapers

Plea to justice minister in prison dispute

Edinburgh Council’s community services scrutiny panel is
to write to Jim Wallace, justice minister, asking him to intervene
in the dispute over social work services to prisons.

Council managed social workers are to leave Saughton Prison,
Edinburgh, next Thursday in a step towards privatising the service.
Edinburgh councillors fear that the move could result in violent
offenders leaving jail without proper supervision.

A spokesperson for the Scottish prison service blamed Edinburgh
Council for the breakdown of talks and added: “It is exactly the
same contract that has been agreed with two other councils,
Clackmannanshire and Falkirk.”

Source:- The Herald Thursday 23 August page 5

Woman weeps as she tells court of sex abuse

A woman broke down yesterday as she told Glasgow high court how
she was sexually abused in a children’s home from the age of
eight years.

The 45-year-old woman was giving evidence in the trial of Samuel
McBrearty, who is charged with alleged sexual abuse offences
against girls in his care while working as a house parent in
Quarriers’ children’s home, Bridge of Weir,
Renfrewshire, in the 1960s. McBrearty denies the offences. The
trial before Lord Reed continues today.

Source:- The Scotsman Thursday 23 August page 4