Thursday 4 September 2003

By Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson.
£75m programme to tackle school bullies

Minister for schools Ivan Lewis unveiled a £75 million
programme to tackle bullying and behavioural problems in schools
yesterday.
Lewis said it was important to nip bad behaviour in the bud and
tackle the “yob culture”.
Senior teachers will be trained to spot poor behaviour and
attendance, and devise strategies to tackle the problem.
Source:- Financial Times Thursday 4 September page 4
Nearly 6m families get child tax credit
Almost 6 million families are now receiving the new child tax
credit despite the teething problems that surrounded its
introduction in April, Dawn Primarolo, paymaster general will claim
today.
Over 5.8 million families are now receiving the payments against
the 6 million target that the Treasury set for those receiving them
by the end of the first full year.
Source:- Financial Times Thursday 4 September page 4
Immigrants may be offered free English
lessons

The government is considering plans to offer free language lessons
to immigrants seeking British citizenship.
The move was recommended yesterday by the United Kingdom Advisory
Panel which was commissioned by ministers to flesh out the new
citizenship test pledged in the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum
Act.
Source:- Financial Times Thursday 4 September page 6
Social divide getting wider
Attempts by Tony Blair to increase equality have failed as
Britain’s social classes become ever more divided, the Royal
Geographical Society was told by experts from the University of
Leeds yesterday.
The poorest people in society are increasingly left living in
“ghettos” as those with money move to more affluent
areas, according to the first in-depth studies of the 2001
census.
Source:- The Times Thursday 4 September page 11
I’ll fight to defend our family courts, vows Lady
Woolf

The wife of the Lord Chief Justice is calling for an end to plans
to scrap family courts, which she claims will put abused women and
children at risk.
Several hundred magistrates could walk out if the plans to scrap
local family courts across south London go ahead.
Lady Woolf and four other of the most senior JPs condemn the plans
as “ill thought-out, misconceived and based on a spurious
interpretation of statistics which are themselves
suspect”.
Source:- The Times Thursday 4 September page 12
Abduction charge
A grandfather accused of running off with a 14-year-old girl was
remanded in custody until next week by Medway magistrates
court.
David Milner is charged with abduction and unlawful sexual
intercourse.
Source:- The Times Thursday 4 September page 12
Child actors ‘are chimney sweeps of 21st
century’

Child actors and models have become ‘the chimney sweeps of
the 21st century’ according to research that claims parents
are sending their children to work in increasing numbers.
More than one in four parents admit he or she has earned income
from a child’s modelling or acting work, according to
Father’s Quarterly magazine.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Thursday 4 September page 10
Government puts NHS reforms ‘in jeopardy’ by
piloting scheme in foundation hospitals
A multi-billion pound plan for change in the NHS could be
derailed by No 10’s insistence on new working practices at
foundation hospitals.
The reforms intended for the whole system were in jeopardy because
of the determination by ministers to introduce them without
agreement at the new independent NHS trusts, according to Brendan
Barber, the new general secretary of the Trades Union
Congress.
Barber said the government was breaking an agreement by insisting
the new flexible approach was adopted for foundation
hospitals.
Source:- The Independent Thursday 4 September page 2
Scottish newspapers
A hug a fag but no tears

The boyfriend of murdered schoolgirl Jodi Jones left a floral
tribute at her grave yesterday, only for it to be removed by her
mother shortly afterwards.
Luke Mitchell was asked to stay away from the 14-year-old’s
funeral yesterday. He did not attend the funeral, but went to the
cemetery later on in the day to place a bouquet of flowers on her
grave.
Just half an hour later Jodi’s mother, Judy drove to the
cemetery at Gorebridge, Midlothian, and removed Mitchell’s
floral tribute.
The 15-year-old boy has been questioned three times in connection
with Jodi’s murder.
Source:- Daily Record Thursday 4 September page 2 and 3
I did not kill Jodi
The boyfriend of Jodi Jones spoke out on the day of her funeral
yesterday by insisting he did not kill the 14-year-old.
Luke Mitchell said in an interview with Sky TV that he did not kill
Jodi and “wouldn’t even think of it”.
Source:- Daily Record Thursday 4 September page 4-5
Evil had its day
More than 400 mourners attended Jodi Jones’ funeral at
Gorebridge parish church yesterday.
Around 900 children from St David’s High, where Jodi was a
pupil, lined the streets as the hearse bearing her coffin arrived
at the church.
Source:- Daily Record Thursday 4 September page 6 and 7
Rape of justice
Scotland’s justice system was criticised last night
after a paedophile was jailed for just five years.
James Taylor, who photographed himself raping a baby girl, could
serve just two years of the sentence given by high court judge Lord
Reed.
Child protection groups and politicians branded the sentence
“incomprehensible”.
Police had found 2,880 hard-porn pictures of children on his
computer, and the welder had also taken pornographic pictures of a
six-year-old as she slept in bed.
Source:- Daily Record Thursday 3 September page 9
Hunt after girl, 15, is raped by text chat sex
fiend

A 15-year-old girt was raped after her first meeting with a man she
contacted by texting on her mobile phone.
The teenager began the texting relationship with the man after a
friend met him through an internet-based chat service.
After the pair met he subjected her to a “horrendous
attack”.
Yesterday, police pleaded for witnesses to come forward and warned
teenagers of the dangers of meeting people who they have only
contacted by the phone or internet.
Source:- Daily Record Thursday 3 September page 13
Kids go hungry in refugee HQ
A human rights lawyer said yesterday that mothers were finding it
difficult to feed their children at Dungavel immigration centre in
Strathaven.
Aamer Anwar spoke out after one mother was fined her weekly
allowance of £3.50 for sneaking food to her bedroom to feed
her children.
He said he believed none of the children at the centre were eating
properly.
Source:- Daily Record Thursday 3 September page 13
We’ll beat ned culture
Tackling antisocial behaviour and crime is a top priority for the
Scottish executive for the new session of parliament.
A bill next month will spell out ways of cracking down on drug
dealers, vandals, antisocial neighbours and young
‘neds’.
Proposals include electronic tagging of offenders under 16 years
and extending antisocial behaviour orders to children.
Source:- Daily Record Thursday 4 September page 20-21
Child protection pioneer killed in holiday car
crash

One of the pioneers of child protection services in north-east
Scotland, Sharon Pressage, has been killed in a car crash while on
holiday in America.
Pressage was appointed in 1993 as the first multi-agency training
co-ordinator for the North East of Scotland Child Protection
Committee and had been widely regarded as a leading innovator in
the field.
Source:- The Scotsman Thursday 4 September page 4
Pay offer puts nursery nurses’ strike on
hold

A planned strike by nursery nurses for next week has been cancelled
as local authorities are set to put forward a revised pay
offer.
A Cosla spokesperson said local authorities think they have come up
with a pay offer that will satisfy Scotland’s nursery
nurses.
Plans to hold another week of strike action beginning on Monday
were put on hold while negotiations over pay and conditions
continue.
Source:- The Scotsman Thursday 4 September page 8
Welsh newspapers
Improvement for children’s services in the Vale
Children’s services in the Vale of Glamorgan have
improved, but the prospects for further improvement are uncertain,
according to a report from the Social Services Inspectorate for
Wales.
Welsh assembly, health and social services minister Jane Hutt,
welcomed the progress that has been made so far, but says that
there is still much work to be done.
Source:- Western Mail Thursday 4 September page 5
Dirty ambulances put patients’ health at
risk

Ambulances infested with harmful bacteria have been used to carry
Welsh patients to hospital, according to a new report.
The report that comes from researchers at Swansea University found
that even after the ambulances had been cleaned, they were still
home to “unacceptable” levels of bacteria.
The research was carried out three years ago and the Welsh
Ambulance Services NHS Trust, said that once the findings were
relayed to the ambulance service, immediate action was taken to
tackle the problem.
Source:- Western Mail Thursday 4 September page 1

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