A daily summary of social care stories from the main newspapers

    By Katie Leason, Reg McKay and Alex Dobson.

    Mind games “answer” to Alzheimer’s

    Research shows that simple self-help measures and treatment by
    doctors reduces or removes the risk of Alzheimer’s and other
    forms of dementia, according to a leading authority on the
    disease.

    These measures include physical exercise such as walking, taking
    fish oil, and brain stimulating activities like playing cards.

    Source:- The Guardian Thursday 6 June page 7

    School phobia “is just an excuse for missing
    lessons”

    School phobia is just an excuse for failing to attend, the
    general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers said
    yesterday.

    “It certainly is not a reason why a child should be kept off
    school,” said David Hart. “You have to get to the root of the
    pupils’ problem – it may be their relationship with
    teachers, bullying or just that they haven’t settled in.

    “Transferring the child to another school could be the solution.
    But school phobia is just an excuse for failure to attend.

    Source:- Daily Mail Thursday 6 June page 39

    The Booster Boy is locked away at last

    A young offender who has appeared in court 158 times was put
    behind bars yesterday, nearly a month after his twelfth
    birthday.

    He was remanded to a secure accommodation unit until next
    month.

    The boy is said to have stolen a car almost every day for two
    years, earning the nickname “Booster Boy” because he tears out the
    vehicles headrests to sit on to reach the pedals.

    He has been in trouble with the police since he was nine, with
    offences including burglary, theft and breaching curfew orders.

    Source:- Daily Mail Thursday 6 June 6 page 28

    Pushy parents “cause school phobia”

    Pushy parents and success obsessed schools could create a
    generation of “school-phobic” children, according to an expert on
    social policy and parenthood.

    Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer said many children felt that making
    errors was shameful and tried to avoid going to school at all.

    Source:- The Times Thursday 6 June page 4

    Scottish newspapers

    Child abuser’s sentence raised to 10
    years

    Joseph Millbank, a predatory paedophile who sexually abused
    children as young as three years, had his sentence increased from
    six to 10 years at the court of criminal appeal in Edinburgh
    yesterday.

    In January this year, Lord McCluskey had sentenced Millbank to
    six years plus 10 years extended sentence. With the additional time
    now ordered, Millbank will spend 20 years in prison. He had
    prompted Scotland’s largest nationwide paedophile inquiry
    because he had attacked children in various locations as he
    travelled around in his job.

    He had pleaded guilty to 16 charges committed mainly in Aberdeen
    and Dundee in 2000. In the search of his house, police found a
    digital camera on which he recorded the assaults, and a dress which
    he forced his victims to wear.

    Source:- The Herald Thursday 6 June page 9

    Sex offences will increase if prison closes

    Sex offences in Scotland will soar if the executive proceeds
    with its plans to close Peterhead prison according to Peter
    McKinlay, former chief executive of the Scottish Prison Service.
    McKinlay’s views had been sought by Aberdeenshire council
    where Peterhead is located.

    The executive plans to close Peterhead and move its world-wide
    renowned STOP programme of working with sex offenders to other
    prisons in the central belt. McKinlay warned that such a move will
    disrupt the programme for years, and will result in an increase in
    sex offending. Instead of closure McKinlay recommended that, in the
    grounds of Peterhead Prison, the executive build a new unit to
    accommodate Scotland’s total of 500 imprisoned male sex
    offenders rather than the 300 currently located there.

    Source:- The Herald Thursday 6 June page 6

    Peterhead closure report censored by prison
    chiefs

    An international expert on sex offenders claimed yesterday that
    he was forced to remove certain sections of his report by top
    prison service managers.

    Professor Bill Marshall from Queen’s University in Canada
    had been asked to submit a report to the Scottish prison service on
    the effects of plans to close Peterhead Prison and its world
    renowned STOP programme of working with sex offenders.

    Giving evidence to the Scottish parliament’s justice 1
    committee, Marshall claimed that Alec Spencer, director of
    rehabilitation and care for the SPS, had told him to remove a
    section on the damaging economic impact of the prison’s
    closure on north east communities.

    Marshall’s statements have fuelled opposition parties’
    claims that the executive failed to take all relevant matters into
    account in planning to shut Peterhead.

    Source:- The Scotsman Thursday 6 June page 2

    Welsh newspapers

    DNA helps police identify woman as Oliver’s
    mother

    A woman who came forward to claim a baby abandoned in south
    Wales five months ago, is the boy’s mother, the police can
    confirm.

    The baby named Oliver by the police, who found him was left in
    the front garden of a house in Newport in January, sparked a
    nationwide hunt.

    Police and Newport social services have been investigating the
    claim of the woman to be Oliver’s mother, and although no details
    can be released for legal reasons the DNA match has proved
    conclusive.

    Oliver has spent the last few months in the care of foster
    parents, and a high court judge will now decide his future.

    Source:- Western Mail Thursday 6 June page 1

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