A daily summary of social care stories from the main newspapers

By Clare Jerrom, Reg McKay and Alex Dobson.

Blunkett boost on community police

The home secretary’s proposals to put police community
officers on the streets, was backed by MPs yesterday.

Using patrol men in central London and other high crime areas
was “worth trying”, according to the home affairs select
committee.

Following the backing, the first of the new 500 community
support officers could go on duty later this year.

The officers will be able to detain suspects for half an hour,
demand names and addresses, confiscate alcohol and tobacco and
issue fixed penalty notices.

Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 7 May page 2

Child credit fiasco hands Brown £1bn tax
windfall

Thousands of families have failed to claim the flagship tax
credit for children, resulting in £1 billion being saved.

The Chancellor announced the measure would help five million
families, when it was unveiled three years ago.

But only 3.3 million families claimed it during its first year
– just two thirds of those eligible, according to
ministers.

The credit is worth up to £520 per year and is
Labour’s key initiative to help families with children.

The Tories claim the low take up is due to the system being too
complicated.

Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 7 May page 16

Gay father wins case over baby of lesbian

A gay man has won joint parental rights over his child, which
was born by artificial insemination to a lesbian woman, in the
first case of its kind in England and Wales.

The man went to court to seek a joint parental responsibility
order after the woman denied him access to his son, now aged
two.

The order is usually made when couples are unmarried and will
give him equal rights of contact and a say in decisions about the
child’s upbringing.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 7 May page 4

Migration record raises population by 183,000 a
year

The population of Britain has increased by half a million in
three years as a result of immigration, according to government
figures.

The difference between the number of people leaving the country
and the number of those arriving with intentions to stay longer
than a year rose to 183,000 in 2000.

In 2000, it is estimated that around 480,000 people arrived and
about 297,000 people left, according to the figure from the Office
for National Statistics.

Home secretary David Blunkett is planning to allow skilled or
unskilled migrants to enter Britain to work. The scheme is expected
to be focused in particular sectors of the economy, such as
construction and catering.

Source:- The Times Tuesday 7 May page 8

Scottish newspapers

Asylum seeker family spared deportation

A family of asylum seekers, who have a 21-month-old brain
damaged baby, have been reprieved from deportation at the eleventh
hour due to the intervention of a judge.

The Gazas had been resident in Dungavel Detention Centre in
Scotland when a group of MSPs had requested to meet them on a
planned visit. The family, along with other high profile asylum
seekers, were moved south the day before the proposed visit, and
MSPs accused the home office of doing so deliberately to avoid
controversy.

Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 7 May page 5

Most back free school lunches

Almost 70 per cent of organisations in Scotland support the
proposal to introduce universal free school meals in Scotland
according to Tommy Sheridan MSP, leader of the Scottish Socialists.
Sheridan was speaking out after the Convention of Scottish Local
Authorities had announced that it did not support the proposal
being considered by the health committee of the Scottish
parliament. Cosla’s opposition is said to be on cost
grounds.

Sheridan said that of the organisations consulted by the health
committee – including health groups, anti-poverty campaigners
and parents’ groups – 68 per cent had indicated a clear
support of the proposal. Edinburgh, Highland, and Aberdeen councils
and other local authorities are said to be in favour while Glasgow
council are known to be opposed to the proposal which is estimated
to cost £174 million per annum.

Source:- The Herald Tuesday 7 May page 9

Welsh newspapers

Schools are sent ‘safe sex’
packs

Schools throughout Wales are being sent information packs aimed
at encouraging young people to practise safe sex.

Wales has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe and by
the age of 15 some 40 per cent of boys and 35 per cent of girls are
sexually active. The new campaign has been organised by condom
manufacturer, Durex, and is being championed by Lembit Opik, MP,
leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats at Westminster.

He said that the safe sex message was an important one, and that
experience has shown that sensible education and honesty does more
to cut pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections than
pretending that there was no problem.

During the ‘safe sex’ campaign educational displays
and events will also take place in GP surgeries and pharmacies to
inform teenagers about the risks of unprotected sex.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 7 May page 2

Miner’s wife cash
‘insult’

The widow of an ex-miner has hit out at the £233.15
compensation finally awarded to her husband, 10 years after his
death.

Former collier, William Llewellyn James spent his final years
coughing up coal dust and needed oxygen cylinders to help him
breathe. Marion Howells, his former wife who has since remarried,
described the payment from the government compensation scheme as an
insult.

James began working in Risca colliery in south Wales in 1940
aged 14, and left after 19 years of work at the coalface. He was
found to be suffering from lung problems after a routine check-up,
but under the Statute of Limitations 1954 he was unable to apply
for compensation for damages for the period 1940 to 1954. The
reduced payment therefore only covers five years. Mrs Howells the
award was “an insult”.

Source:- South Wales Argus Monday May 6 pages 1 and
4