A daily summary of social care stories from the main newspapers

Including headlines from Saturday and
Sunday.

By Clare Jerrom and Reg McKay.

Blunkett despair at £110m asylum
ruling

The government may be forced to pay asylum seekers £110
million in compensation following Friday’s ruling that a
reception centre is unlawful.

Home office lawyers began an immediate appeal against the
decision and the home secretary was said to be privately angry at
the “human rights lobby” seeking to undermine the Oakington
detention centre in Cambridgeshire.

A source close to David Blunkett said he thought it ironic that
the lobby was making it more difficult to deal with applications
speedily.

The ruling opens the way for 11,000 people who have been held at
Oakington to claim compensation. They could win up to £10,000
each.

The ruling was made in the high court by Mr Justice Collins when
he backed four Iraqi Kurds who claimed their human rights were
breached when they were locked up at the former RAF camp.

Source:- The Times Saturday 8 September page 1

Trial set over Sarah Payne killing

The man accused of the murder of schoolgirl Sarah Payne heard on
Friday that a date had been set for the trial.

Judge Richard Brown told Lewes Crown Court how the case was
progressing. Sarah’s parents Michael and Sara were
present.

Roy Whiting pleaded not guilty in May to kidnapping and
murdering the eight-year-old, who vanished from fields where she
was playing near her grandparents’ home last year.

As the date was set for the trial to commence on November 13, no
application for bail was made and Whiting will be remanded in
custody.

Source:- The Independent Saturday 8 September
page 7

Blair will praise public sector in attempt to head off
union revolt

Public sector workers are to be praised by the prime minister in
a bid to quell the rebellion by trade unions opposing the
government’s plans to inject private cash into public
services.

In a keynote speech at the TUC conference on Tuesday, Tony Blair
will insist his proposals do not amount to privatisation.

He will praise the sector and insist the reforms will be a
genuine partnership under which the public and private sectors can
learn from each other, and not a “take-over”.

Source:- The Independent Saturday 8 September
page 9

French to let bobbies police Calais

British police have France’s blessing to help control
access to the Channel Tunnel at Calais, in a bid to curb the
growing number of illegal immigrants trying to use the rail link to
get to Britain.

Daniel Vaillant, who is David Blunkett’s French
counterpart, will make the offer to the home secretary at a meeting
in Paris this week.

A small detachment of British immigration officers already run a
frontier control post at Calais. However inspection of lorries
falls to Eurotunnel’s security and French border police.

A French official said: “More checks are needed, particularly of
lorries, and we are asking for the participation of British police
and immigration officers.”

Source:- The Sunday Times 9 September page 1

Paedophile fear “exaggerated”

The risk of paedophiles preying on children over the Internet is
not as high as the government has made out, according to the
director of the police’s new internet crime unit.

Chief Supt Len Hynds reacted after research by the police at the
national high tech crime unit indicated the risk of a child being
approached by an adult for sex is as little as one in a
thousand.

A government report last year had claimed that as many as one in
five children were approached for sex online, and the home office
has set up a task force to tackle the problem.

Hynds said: “The problem is not as frightening as first
thought.”

Source:- The Observer Sunday 9 September page 5

Children’s drug is more potent than
cocaine

The children’s drug Ritalin has been found to be more
potent than cocaine, according to a study.

Scientists have found that in pill form the drug, taken by
thousands of British children, occupies more of the neural
transporters responsible for the ‘high’ experienced by
addicts than smoked or injected cocaine.

The research may alarm parents of children who have been
prescribed the drug to combat attention deficit hyperactive
disorder.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 9 September page 6

Blunkett: UK is ‘good place to seek
asylum’

Britain is particularly attractive to asylum seekers according
to the home secretary.

In an article published by a French newspaper yesterday,
Blunkett confirms the view that the UK has become a safe haven for
people seeking asylum around the world.

The comments were made at the beginning of a difficult week
where Blunkett is to meet his French counterpart Daniel Vaillant to
discuss how the two countries can stem the flow of illegal
immigrants entering Britain via the Channel Tunnel.

Source:- Independent on Sunday 9 September page 1

Four-year old girl held in drug jail

A four-year-old girl faces an uncertain future having been flown
home to Britain from South America, having spent four days in a
prison in Venezuela.

Nikita Welsh was placed inside Los Cocos detention centre on
Marguerita Island alongside her mother Nathalie, who had been
arrested on suspicion of smuggling cocaine.

Venezuelan social services took the girl into care after she
spent four days in the jail. Nikita is now being cared for by a
family friend while her mother is facing a 10-year sentence.

Source:- Independent on Sunday 9 September page 9

Separated dads frozen out from children

Separated and divorced dads are often frozen out of discussions
about their children’s welfare with social workers.

Two thirds of fathers who live apart from their children are
never even told when social workers are brought in to investigate
concerns about a child’s safety or well-being, government
funded research indicates.

Author of ‘Working With Fathers’ Mary Ryan said the
exclusion of caring fathers only led to children being deprived of
valuable support.

“Vulnerable children miss out on vital care from their dads and
their extended families. Professionals need to adopt best practice
which shows how fathers can be involved very usefully,” she
said.

Source:- The Times Monday 10 September page 7

Nine in ten youngsters in jail ‘are mentally
ill’

Nine out of 10 young people in jail are mentally ill and should
not be there, according to penal reformers.

A report by the Prison Reform Trust indicates that the
youngsters have personality disorders, psychosis or neurotic
disorders or all three.

They are also more likely to take drugs and 10 per cent have
severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia or manic depression
compared with 0.2 per cent of the general population.

Most young people in prison have been in local authority care or
played truant from school.

Report author Finola Farrant said: “There is clear evidence that
too many young people who have mental health problems end up in
prison and that the experience can further damage their mental
health. More constructive and effective community interventions
should be pursued.”

Source:- Daily Telegraph Monday 10 September page 5

Help young, Blair urged

A teenage girl has put her case to the prime minister for a
children’s commissioner, after she was bullied for nearly 10
years.

Joanne Geldart made public her diary of how she had suffered
verbal and physical assaults, in June.

After the meeting on Saturday morning, Joanne, who lives in Tony
Blair’s Sedgefield constituency, said: “We talked about
bullying and why I want a children’s commissioner. I told him
that England needed someone to stand up for children.”

Blair has promised to send Joanne some information.

Source:- Daily Telegraph Monday 9 September page 7

Unions urge end of asylum hostels

Union leaders are to endorse calls to end the asylum detention
system and condemn ministers for failing to abolish the voucher
system.

TGWU leader Bill Morris will use his opening address at the
conference today to denounce the government for reneging on the
abolition of non-cashable vouchers for refugees instead of giving
them cash benefits.

The TGWU has tabled an emergency motion welcoming last
week’s high court decision declaring the detention of asylum
seekers to be unlawful.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 9 September page 9

Kent police reject plea to patrol in France

Police will refuse to patrol the Channel Tunnel entrance in
Calais in a bid to curb the flow of illegal immigrants.

Kent Constabulary warned there was “no way” the force would
“stretch its boundaries across the Channel” without extra money.
The Association of Chief Police Officers said border security in
France should be dealt with by French police.

The offer to let British police work in France will be put to
David Blunkett this week when he meets his French counterpart
Daniel Vaillant.

Source:- The Independent Monday 9 September
page 4

Care-home closures to worsen the trolley
crisis

Winter pressures could worsen this year due to the closure of
private care homes, it emerged yesterday.

A damning report by Laing and Buisson has revealed that nearly
50,000 beds in older people’s homes have been lost in the
past five years.

The majority, 30,000 in total, have gone over the past two years
meaning hospital delayed discharge is increasingly routine.

A spokesperson for Age Concern said: “It is going to be an issue
this winter. We are very anxious about what will happen if there is
a flu outbreak.”

Source:- Daily Mail Monday 9 September page 35

Scottish newspapers

Quarriers probe new child abuse claims

The childcare organisation, Quarriers, is investigating four
separate allegations of staff abusing children in residential units
in the 1960s to early 1970s. The admission came after Samuel
McBrearty, a former care worker, was found guilty at Glasgow high
court of repeatedly raping and indecently assaulting two girls over
a seven year period. The charity is being sued for £150,000 by
each of his victims.

Source:- The Herald Saturday 8 September page 1

Race crime prosecutions double in one year

The number of racially-motivated crimes have almost doubled in
one year according to the latest report of the crown office and
procurator fiscal service.

In 2000–2001 compared with the previous year, the number
of racially-aggravated harassment and behaviour cases reported by
police to fiscals rose from 540 to 972 while the number of cases
prosecuted soared from 538 to 916.

Source:- The Herald Saturday 8 September page 2

Scots to get free care in England

Older Scots who move to care homes in England to be close to
relatives are to receive free care while English residents of the
same home will have to pay.

The apparent anomaly is believed to be included in detailed
proposals on the implementation of free personal care drawn up by
the Scottish executive’s care development group and now due for
publication next week.

Source:- The Sunday Herald 9 September page 1

Lukewarm response as Baillie gets asylum
job

Campaign groups have given a lukewarm response to the Scottish
executive’s announcement that Jackie Baillie, social justice
minister, is to take special responsibility for asylum seekers and
refugees in Scotland.

Mark Brown, secretary of the Glasgow Campaign to Welcome
Refugees, said the appointment was “like shifting the chairs on the
Titanic”. Mohammed Naveen Asif of the Glasgow Refugee Activists
Group said: “This will be a nominal post because Ms Baillie has no
power to change things for us because it is not a devolved
issue.”

Source:- The Herald Monday 10 September page 4

University investigates researcher’s links with
paedophiles

A PhD student at Glasgow University researching sex between boys
and men is being investigated following claims he was corresponding
with paedophile organisations over the internet.

Richard Yuill, based in the sociology department, has had his
e-mail and web access removed following revelations he had been in
correspondence with members of the former Paedophile Information
Exchange now known as the International Paedophile and Child
Emancipation group.

Source:- The Scotsman Monday 10 September page 5