Wednesday 19 November 2003

By Clare Jerrom and Alex Dobson.

Date for moving
A disabled woman who has slept in a wheelchair for 17 months after
nurses stopped lifting her in case they were injured, could soon be
able to sleep in her own bed again.
Arrangements for moving Lorraine Wolstenholme from Milton Keynes
should be made by 19 December, a high court judge ruled.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 19 November page 4
Health bill costs
The NHS Confederation said government plans to reform mental health
legislation are unworkable.
A draft bill would give wider rights to detained patients to
appeal, and the group claimed that this would mean a 50 per cent
increase in hearings and require at least an additional 1,000
staff.
Source:- The Times Wednesday 19 November page 4
Broadmoor damned by health inspectors
Broadmoor hospital has been criticised as “totally unfit for
purpose”, lacking in basic standards of dignity and
inappropriate for modern care, in a damning report by the
Commission for Health Improvement.
Health inspectors found patients were deprived of the minimum
entitlement to fresh air, and while measures to protect women
patients from sexual abuse by men had improved, it was at the
expense of excluding women from education and activities.
The report will back the case for comprehensive redevelopment of
Broadmoor as a psychiatric hospital for men, with the women moved
to other NHS facilities.
Broadmoor in Berkshire holds around 350 patients including violent
offenders, but also non-offenders whose behaviour is too
challenging for general mental health services.
Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 19 November page 7
Blunkett’s extra £442m for drive to
‘cure’ drug crime

The home secretary yesterday announced a £442 million
expansion of the government’s programme to identify hardcore
drug using criminals and get them into treatment.
The criminal justice intervention programme, which targets crack
cocaine and heroin users who commit crime to feed their habit, has
been running in 30 of the highest crime areas since April.
It is now to be extended to 36 police divisions across England over
the next three years.
Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 19 November page 11
Judge attacks asylum system
Britain’s asylum system was branded “chaotic”
yesterday by a judge who jailed a solicitor for helping Chinese
gangs to smuggle people into Britain.
Titus Miranda ran a “factory of falsehoods” by
concocting stories for hundreds of asylum seekers to tell the Home
Office.
Miranda and his girlfriend Jessica Jin were both jailed for two
years after they were convicted at Middlesex Guildhall crown court
of conspiring to defraud the Home Office between January 1999 and
March 2002.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Wednesday 19 November page 2
Teenagers in death fall had only just met
The two teenage girls who jumped from a tower block to their deaths
last week had only known each other for a few days, a friend said
yesterday.
Danielle Waddington and Lisa Utton were both from broken homes and
living in lodgings when they struck up a friendship on the streets
of Southend, Essex, last week. On Sunday they jumped out of an 11th
floor window of a block of flats.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Wednesday 19 November page 6
Blair faces defeat on foundation hospitals
Rebel Labour MPs and Opposition parties vowed to defeat Tony
Blair’s plans for foundation hospitals yesterday.
Labour whips mounted an arm-twisting campaign at Westminster
telling rebel Labour MPs that a defeat for the government in a vote
today would give the Tories a huge boost.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Wednesday 19 November page 6
Hodge should go despite apology, says abuse
victim

Margaret Hodge’s lawyers are set to apologise publicly for
the minister at the high court today for branding an abuse victim
as “extremely disturbed”.
The apology is part of a £20,000 settlement by Hodge who wrote
a private letter to Demetrious Panton to explain why she made the
comments.
The children’s minister salvaged her ministerial career by
agreeing to the courtroom apology, payment of Panton’s legal
costs and a substantial donation to Nacro – the charity of
Panton’s choice.
Panton yesterday accepted that Hodge had been “remarkably
honest”, but said there was still an inadequate explanation
for her comments. There was nothing to change his belief that she
should resign, he added.
Source:- Daily Telegraph Wednesday 19 November page 12
Support for national ID cards falls sharply
Public support for ID cards has fallen dramatically over the past
two years, according to a Mori survey released today.
When asked to name the best way to reduce crime, only 19 per cent
of people named ID cards compared to 29 per cent two years ago,
according to the poll carried out for Rethinking Crime and
Punishment.
The home secretary David Blunkett recently announced that he would
be pressing ahead with plans to introduce ID cards.
Source:- The Independent Wednesday 19 November page 8
Disability minister in plea to advertisers
The advertising industry was accused yesterday of ignoring disabled
people and treating them like “poor relations” by a
government minister yesterday.
Maria Eagle, the minister for disabled people, accused firms of
assuming that “disability doesn’t sell” and of
ignoring a potential market worth £45 billion.
She said it was “surprising that advertisers haven’t
yet woken up properly to the value of the disabled
pound”.
Source:- The Independent Wednesday 19 November page 10
Jacko in new child sex probe
Michael Jackson is at the centre of a new child sex inquiry after a
young boy has stepped forward and claimed he was molested.
Police raided the singer’s ‘Neverland’ ranch in
California along with forensic experts and federal agents
yesterday.
Jackson, who was not at the ranch at the time, was said to be
“visibly shocked” by the allegations and the
raid.
Source:- Daily Mail Wednesday 19 November page 1
Dawson fits the bill for new job
Labour MP Hilton Dawson is stepping down at the next general
election to return to social work and apply for the post he has
been lobbying the government to create.
Dawson, who spent 15 years as a social worker, wants to apply for
the role of children’s commissioner, which will be created
next year with an appointment expected in 2005.
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 19 November page 4
Winter of discontent
Youth workers to ballot over strike action on pay and
qualifications
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 19 November page 4
High profile
Drugs minister Caroline Flint is at the centre of a huge government
push to tackle drug abuse and improve treatment
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 19 November page 6
Maximum exposure
An exhibition highlighting Asian domestic violence where the
photographers are former victims.
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 19 November page 7
Desperate times, desperate measures
Proposed changes to the Mental Health Act threaten to increase
workload, exacerbate staff shortages and put people off from
seeking care
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 19 November page 10
What else can I do?
Russell, a finance director, has always worked in the private
sector but is mulling over a move to the public or voluntary
sectors.
Source:- Guardian Society Wednesday 19 November page 128
Scottish newspapers
Catholic Church appoints child expert to protect young from
abuse

A children’s tsar has been appointed by the Roman Catholic
Church in Scotland to protect its estimated 250,000 young people in
Scotland.
May Dunsmuir, children’s reporter from Prestwick, will take
up the new post of national child protection co-ordinator next
month becoming the “eyes and ears of bishops” across
the nation.
The post was created following a number of damaging sex abuse cases
involving the Catholic Church across the world.
Source:- The Herald Wednesday 19 November
Radical rethink to tackle city’s social work
shortage

Glasgow Council’s bid to end its chronic shortage of social
workers will cost around £4.5 million a year, it emerged
yesterday.
A radical restructuring is proposed to include returning senior
social workers to case work instead of managing colleagues.
David Comley, director of social work services, acknowledged that
he will be held accountable if the new initiative fails to resolve
the city’s recruitment and retention crisis.
Around 27 per cent of frontline posts are unfilled, and there are
34 per cent shortfalls in children and families services.
Source:- The Herald Wednesday 19 November
Woman crushed to death by hospital bed
A 95-year-old woman was crushed to death after falling out of a
hospital bed at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, police said last
night.
An investigation is underway into the circumstances surrounding the
woman’s death.
Source:- The Herald Wednesday 19 November
Tory donor puts £1m into scheme for children in
care

A Monaco based businessman announced yesterday he is to put £1
million into a foundation in his name at the same time that Jack
McConnell released £3 million of Scottish executive cash for
projects aimed at helping young people leaving care.
Laidlaw, a multi-millionaire Tory donor, who has no children of his
own, said he wanted to help vulnerable young people. Laidlaw Youth
project will ensure that the best services were available to help
people from disadvantaged backgrounds adjust successfully to
adulthood.
Source:- The Herald  Wednesday 19 November
Addicts say drug agencies are failing
Drug addicts have criticised drug agencies in Aberdeen for a series
of fundamental failures.
A report has found that addicts have deep concerns about
rehabilitation programmes that have done little or nothing to help
them kick their habits.
Addicts, forced to wait 18 months to access substance misuse
programmes, have been driven into crime and prostitution before
they have gained access to the methadone service.
Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 19 November page 6
Welsh newspapers
April D-Day for Kosovan teenager
A Kosovan teenager who fled to Wales in the back of a
lorry is to have his appeal for leave to stay in the UK heard next
April.
Edmund Pone has been living with foster parents in Ebbw Vale, but
faced having to return to his former homeland after a decision by
the Immigration Appellate Authority.
Now Pone who has gained the support of his local community,
politicians and the Archbishop of Canterbury, will get another
chance to argue that he should remain in the UK.
Source:- South Wales Argus Tuesday 18 November page 5
Big Issue Cymru critical of plans to move sellers
Swansea city and county council have been criticised by
Big Issue Cymru for a decision that will mean moving the
magazine’s sellers from large parts of the city centre.
New permits limiting salespeople and buskers to certain parts of
the city are believed to be illegal by Big Issue Cymru director Su
West.
She said that the plans were an insult and that the magazine had
been sold on the streets of Swansea since 1994.
Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 19 November page 2

More from Community Care

Comments are closed.