A daily summary of social care stories from the main newspapers

By
Clare Jerrom, Reg McKay and Alex Dobson.

Governors
plead for cut in jail sentences

Offenders
convicted of crimes that warrant a sentence of six months or less should no
longer be jailed, prison governors urged last night, as the prison population increased
to 70,578.

Home
office ministers will announce plans today for an emergency building programme
of an extra 2,000 prison places in a bid to avert the crisis.

Prisoners
are already being sent hundreds of miles around the country to find them prison
places.

The
expanded home detention home curfew scheme was introduced on Monday, under
which hundreds more less serious offenders will be released early under
electronic tagging.

But
penal reformers said last night that no government could just build its way out
of the crisis.

The
Prison Governors Association yesterday published the call for scrapping
sentences of less than six months and to remove from magistrates the power to
jail offenders in a new “manifesto for effective correctional policy”.

The
manifesto was welcomed by the prisons minister Beverley Hughes and she hinted
that the government would adopt the proposal. She said more appropriate use of
custody would be a theme of the government’s forthcoming white paper on
sentencing.

Source:-
The Guardian  Wednesday 1 May page 7

Darling
backs bill to curb benefits

The
government confirmed yesterday that it was trying to introduce plans to
withhold housing benefit from anti-social neighbours and stop payments to
landlords who neglected their properties or failed to protect tenants.

Work
and pensions secretary Alistair Darling said he strongly supported the
principle behind the move, which was put forward by Labour MP Frank Field in a
private member’s bill.

It
proposes stopping housing benefits payments to a household for up to one year
when a court finds its members guilty of anti-social behaviour twice in three
years.

Darling
said: “We strongly endorse the objective of the bill, which is to crack down on
anti-social behaviour that causes misery to neighbours.

“We
are working hard to see if the bill can be made workable,” he added.

Source:-
The Times  Wednesday 1 May page 14

One
in two theft suspects tests positive for drugs

More
than half of all crime suspects arrested for theft and robbery test positive for
heroin or drug use, ministers revealed yesterday.

The
revelation shows the huge role addiction plays in crime across Britain.

The
findings emerged from pilot schemes in which all adults arrested for property
crime had compulsory saliva tests for hard drugs.

Previous
estimates based on voluntary tests put the level of drug use at around 29 per
cent.

The
latest figures will urge home secretary David Blunkett to take firm action to
break the link between drug addiction and crime.

Source:-
Daily Mail  Wednesday 1 May page 15

Asylum
seekers shot

Two
asylum seekers have been shot at the Sangatte camp in France following a war
with local people.

Three
white youths fired at the Iraqi Kurds near the gates of the camp. One was hit
in the foot, and the other in the back, and both are now in hospital.

Police
said the motive could be revenge after previous confrontations between
villagers and immigrants.

A
police spokesperson said: “We are treating this as a very serious escalation in
tension between French people and asylum seekers.”

Source:-
Daily Mail  Wednesday 1 May page 33

A
cautionary toon

Animation
advert launch in campaign against child poverty

Source:-
Guardian Society  Wednesday 1 May page 4

Flip
side

Fresh
attempts to stop criminals re-offending are the biggest reforms in the 100-year
history of the probation service. But will they work?

Source:-
Guardian Society  Wednesday 1 May page 10

Pain
response

The
role of the internet in helping people with learning difficulties who have been
sexually abused

Source:-
Guardian Society  Wednesday 1 May page 128-127

Ways
out of the ward

How
older people are being rehabilitated after hospital

Source:-
Guardian Society  Wednesday 1 May page 127

Scottish
and Welsh papers

Asylum service falls apart

The
consortium set up by local authorities to receive asylum seekers has carried
out its threat to pull out of the Home Office national dispersal scheme.

The
relationship between the consortium, which represents 21 Welsh authorities, and
the Home Office has been difficult for some time. The consortium was concerned
that it was running up bills of £13,000 a month with no formal contract.

"The
consortium board agreed that if Nass had not confirmed they wanted to go ahead
by 30 April, the offer of contract would be withdrawn," said a consortium
spokesperson. The Welsh councils have signalled that they will now fight to
recover £175,000 from the Home Office.

Source:-
Western Mail Wednesday 1 May page 1

Police inquiry in old people’s homes

A
police inquiry has been launched into a number of South Wales older people’s
home in Cardiff, Bridgend and the valleys.

Police
have refused to give details of the nature of the inquiry, codenamed Operation
Rosehip, or the number of homes involved. It is working on the inquiry with the
National Assembly’s Care Standards Inspectorate for Wales. "These inquires
are taking place as a result of information gained during established review
procedures implemented by the controlling organisations," said a police
spokesperson.

Source:-
South Wales Echo Tuesday April 30
page 14

Move for Rampton patients

Four
patients from one of the country’s highest security mental hospitals could be
coming to live in a Gwent village.

Independent
Community Living plan to turn buildings in Langstone near Newport into a
nursing home and have identified the four elderly men from the high security
unit at Rampton as the first people to move in.

The
new home will have two metre high fences and air locks. Opponents say it is too
close to schools, but ICL says the patients are elderly – one is in his 80s,
another uses a Zimmer frame and a third uses a wheelchair – and are only at
Rampton because of hospital mergers.

Source:-
South Wales Argus Tuesday 30 April
page 1 and 5

Social workers warn Holyrood

The
Scottish executive is to blame for the crisis in the social work profession
according to Jim Dickie, president of the Association of Directors of Social
Work, speaking before his organisation’s annual conference. 

Dickie
said that the executive had introduced “an enormous range of initiatives” which
has “created enormous pressure on social work departments right across
Scotland”.

Social
work needed coherent leadership but, according to Dickie, the executive had
failed to provide that. While a social work training initiative introduced by
Cathy Jamieson, minister for education and young people, was welcomed, Dickie
said: “Pity it has taken so long to secure.”

Source:-  The
Herald Wednesday 1 May page 2