Tuesday 4 February 2003

By Amy Taylor, Nicola Barry and Alex
Dobson.

Welfare to work scheme a failure

A government welfare to work scheme that has been used as the
basis on which to reorganise the Jobcentre network has been shown
to be failure by research by the work and pensions department.

The research showed that ‘ONE’, a scheme designed to
help unemployed people, single parents and disabled disabled people
find work, had not increased the chances of any of those taking
part of finding a job.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 4 February page
4

Parents on run after snatching youngsters

Four children were snatched from the care of social services by
their parents on Saturday.

The incident took place during a weekly supervised meeting at
social services offices in Wem, Shropshire. Sharon Richards and
Steven Hayward took their four children, who had been in care for
some time, after persuading officials to allow a 10-minute reunion.
They then fled in a white car and are now being pursued by
police.

An internal investigation is set to take place at Shropshire
council into how the children could be snatched so easily.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 4 February page 7

Met chief says police station need creches

Scotland Yard has called for every main London police station to
have a creche to attract more women into the service.

The first creche is to be opened at Hendon training college,
north London, within six months announced Sir John Stevens, the
Metropolitan police commissioner.

Currently only around 17 per cent of the Met’s 27,750 officers
are women.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 4 February page 3

Fury at MP’s remarks on race and crime

Shahid Malik, the only ethnic minority member of Labour’s
national executive committee and a former Commission for Racial
Equality commissioner, has criticised comments made by the MP for
Oldham, Phil Woolas, yesterday and said they would be used by the
BNP.

Woolas warned that racist attacks on white people by black or
Asian people were being ignored after two weeks of crimes against
whites in the area.

Source:- The Independent Tuesday 4 February page 4

Tragic mother who drowned baby she couldn’t cope
with

A mother, who was refused a place in a psychiatric hospital,
admitted the manslaughter of her baby boy yesterday.

Mirlene Stewart drowned Jordan in the sea in Saundersfoot in
Pembrokeshire, West Wales. She took him out down to the beach in
his buggy and then out into the sea and left him there. His body
was found in a rock pool by two members of the public the next
morning.

Stewart had told mental health staff in Birmingham, where she
lived, that she felt unable to cope with her baby alone, but they
were unable find her a spare place in a psychiatric hospital.

Source:- Daily Mail Tuesday 4 February page 33

Scottish newspapers

Children suffer as foster cash falls short

Fostered children are living in poverty because local councils
are failing to pay carers the going rate, a survey has
revealed.

Authors of the survey say some of Scotland’s most
vulnerable children face a “postcode lottery” over their living
standards.

The study of more than half of Scotland’s local
authorities found that 94 per cent pay less than the minimum weekly
allowance, calculated by the charity, the Fostering Network.

Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 4 February page 9

Oil of hope

At six-years-old, Hope Lewis was profoundly autistic and very
withdrawn, and doctors could do nothing.

Her mother Kate was at her wit’s end when a friend told
her about fish oil. Hope started a daily dose of fish oil and,
within 10 weeks, there were some remarkable changes.

Source:- The Scotsman (S2) Tuesday 4th February pages 4
and 5

Welsh newspapers

Selfish businesswoman dumped baby who spoiled her lifestyle

A mother was told by a judge yesterday that she was selfish and
spiteful as he sentenced her to six months in prison for abandoning
her baby.

The 30-year-old businesswoman had abandoned her baby son in a
garden in Newport in January of last year.

The court heard that the mother had deliberately tried to remove
the baby from contact with his natural father, and that she had
told a probation officer that she had abandoned her son because he
was getting in the way of her work.

Police launched a major investigation when the baby was
discovered, but his mother did not come forward to claim him until
May.

The child is now 16-months-old and is being looked after by
members of his family.

Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 4 February page 1