Monday 12 July 2004

By Amy Taylor, Shirley Kumar, Clare Jerrom and Alex
Dobson

Education department to reduce staff by 1,460

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) is to cut its staff
by 1,460 during the next three years.

Education secretary Charles Clark said the move was in line with
plans to devolve more power to schools, colleges and
universities.

Source:- Financial Times July 10/11 page 2

GP’s nurse gives little boy MMR jab against his
mother’s wishes

A nurse gave a three-year-old boy the MMR jab by mistake despite
his mother having already paid for three separate injections.

Sheila Webster was concerned over the triple jab and is planning to
sue the Kidsgrove Medical Centre in Staffordshire.

Source:- The Daily Mail Saturday 10 July page 5

The 13st girl aged nine who could be taken into care unless
she diets

A nine-year-old girl weighing 13 stone could be taken into care
unless she is put on a crash diet.

Samantha Collier, who is 4ft 6in tall, is classed as clinically
obese.

Her primary school nurse alerted social services after becoming
concerned that she was being overfed.

Source:- The Daily Mail Saturday 10 July page 19

Row over BNP councillor’s race equality
appointment

A West Yorkshire council’s race equality committee is facing
collapse after Conservative leaders appointed a BNP member.

Labour and Liberal Democrat councillors in Calderdale are
threatening to resign unless the appointment of Adrian Marsden is
overturned.

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 10 July page 2

Billie-Jo expert ‘grossly misled’ murder
trial

Paediatrician David Southall has come under further criticism for
giving grossly misleading evidence which helped to convict Sion
Jenkins of child murder, the Court of Appeal has been told.

The documents lodged with the court contest crucial evidence at the
trial of Jenkins for the murder of his foster daughter
Billie-Jo.

Southall already faces disciplinary action after accusing Stephen
Clark of killing his two sons based on a television
programme.

Source:- The Times Saturday 10 July page 7

Life term for worst stalker in Britain

Scientist Richard Jan has been jailed for life after stalking 200
victims for seven years including health officials, solicitors and
others he believed were part of a plan to section him under the
Mental Health Act.

Judge Henry Blacksell said one of his victim’s social worker
Shauna Bailey was taken to hospital twice after late-night attacks
at her home and a councillor was lucky to escape with her
life.

He was sentenced at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court.

Source:- The Times Saturday 10 July page 7

Youths sue over ‘breach of privacy’

Three teenage gang members responsible for an epidemic of
antisocial behaviour have protested in the High Court that their
right to privacy under the European Convention of Human Rights was
breached when their identity was publicised.

Police and Brent Council distributed leaflets of the youths urging
the public to contact them if they witnessed a breach of
orders.

Source:- The Times Saturday 10 July page 14

Girl given hope

Eleven-year-old Ashleigh Montgomery of Exeter, who was disabled by
Hurler syndrome, won a battle to receive £160,000-a-year-drugs
that will give her a better quality of life.

Source: – The Times Saturday 10 July page 14

New fathers could get six months off

Fathers could get six months off for paternity leave under
government plans to encourage both parents to become involved in
the first year of a child’s life.

Education secretary Charles Clark said he supported the idea of
extending paid statutory parental leave to a year, but allowing the
second six months to be taken by either the mother or the
father.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 10 July page 1

Burglar, 13, who terrorised city, is named in court

A 13-year-old boy has been named in court in an attempt to stop his
persistent offending.

Luke Menzies was named after the police and Bradford Council issued
him with an anti-social behaviour order.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 10 July page 2

Boy’s face was ‘spattered with blood’
during school stabbing

A school boy told a court his face was spattered with blood when a
fellow pupil was stabbed to death outside a classroom

Several witnesses said they saw the boy stab the 14-year-old Luke
Walmsley in the chest at Birbeck School in North Somercotes,
Lincolnshire.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Saturday 10 July page 6

Illegal refugees targeted on tube

Immigration officers are targeting London Underground stations in a
crackdown on illegal immigrants.

The officers are accompanying British Transport Police stationed at
ticket barriers at tube stations and challenging passengers who
come through the gate without the correct ticket.

The Home Office said that it had been one of the Immigration
Service’s most successful operations.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 11 July page 7

Classroom CCTV ‘would curb false abuse
claims’

MPs have called for CCTV cameras to be put in to classrooms to help
teachers accused of abuse prove their innocence.

The all-party group for abuse investigations have made the
recommendation as the number of allegations has increased and the
number of convictions has gone down.

Source:- The Observer Sunday 11 July page 12

New devices may put children in danger

A mobile phone feature designed to help parents keep track their
children could endanger youngsters, children’s charities have
claimed.

Parents can now subscribe to mobile phone tracking systems that can
tell them the location of a child’s phone.

Children’s charities are concerned that paedophiles could
used the service to track children they want to groom.

Source:- The Times Monday 12 July page 5

Cannabis ‘is a trigger for mental
problems’

The claim that cannabis can trigger mental health problems has been
backed in a new study.

The research, by the Yale University of Medicine, found the drug
caused schizophrenia-like symptoms, such as paranoia and memory
problems.

Source:- The Daily Mail Monday 12 July page 35

Shoulder to shoulder on spending pledge

Brown Chancellor taunts Tories with £1bn extra for
housing

An extra £1 billion a year is set to be spent on housing the
chancellor, Gordon Brown, will announce today in the spending
review.

£400 million of the sum is for social housing and £400
million is to regenerate districts in the North and the
Midlands.

Extra money for health and education has already been
announced.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 12 July page 1

Plans to give parents childcare deposits

Parents who are unable to afford deposits required to secure
nursery places for their children are expected to be helped in
today’s comprehensive spending review.

Gordon Brown is expected to provide money to give to parents help
tackle the problem.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 12 July page 5

Former pit towns say no to drug addiction

A locally driven action programme is starting to make
headway against one of the most damaging legacies of the
miners’ strike.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 12 July page 10

Scottish newspapers

Mental illness cases wait 16 months for aid

People with mental health problems in the Lothians are being forced
to wait more than 16 months to see clinical psychologists, it has
emerged.

NHS chiefs blamed the massive waiting time on a national shortage
of qualified professionals.
Campaigners have called for radical reforms to end the waiting
times, which is affecting people suffering from depression and
eating disorders.

Source:- Evening News  Saturday 10 July

Sex beast suing over slopping out jailed for 7 years

A sex offender, who is suing prison authorities for forcing him to
slop-out for the five months he has spent in prison, has been given
a seven year term.

Lord Wheatley heard how Nigel Mackenzie kept his past as a sex
offender from his victim’s mother in order to take advantage
of the child. He told the mother he had been in prison for
burglary.

In court Mackenzie admitted he had repeatedly abused the youngster
over a five and a half year period. He was remanded in custody in
February to await a possible trial and shared a cell without a
toilet at Edinburgh’s Saughton jail.

He is now claiming damages for £12,000 for being forced to
slop-out.

Source:- Evening News  Saturday 10 July

Reliance: police ‘let prisoners escape’

The chief of Reliance security firm last night claimed police
deliberately allowed prisoners to escape custody when it suited
them.

Campbell O’Connell, the firm’s Scottish operations
director, alleged police let people walk free even though they were
aware of outstanding arrest warrants.

He also claimed the inefficiency of the Scottish justice system had
hampered the work of Reliance, which has been criticised for a
number of prisoner escapes since it took over the prisoners escort
duties in Glasgow.

Source:- Scotland on Sunday  Sunday 11 July

Kane roughs it for homeless charity

Rosie Kane yesterday camped out in a makeshift street bedroom
yesterday to raise money for homeless people.

The Socialist MSP was joined by a number of supporters to raise
money for Scotland’s Homeless World Cup Team, which will be
taking part in the challenge later this month.

Source:- Scotland on Sunday  Sunday 11 July

Orkney expert slams Lewis ‘sex abuse’
fiasco

The expert who helped discredit claims of satanic abuse in Orkney
has branded the failed investigation into similar allegations on
Lewis an even bigger disgrace.

Dr Bill Thompson said police and social workers had failed to learn
lessons from the 1991 Orkney case in which nine children were taken
into care amid allegations of ritual abuse which were later thrown
out of court.

Under the Lewis investigation, which cost more than £100,000,
eight people were charged with sexual offences against children in
October 2003. The charges were dropped this month.

Source:- Sunday Herald  Sunday 12 July

PPP blamed for classroom violence

The General Teaching Council has blamed the increased violence in
classrooms on public-private partnership schemes.

Chair of the GTC Douglas Weir said many PPP school building
programmes were leading to larger schools which could have the
unexpected effect of exacerbating problems.

In January, government figures revealed there were nearly 7,000
violent incidents against school staff in the preceding year.

Source:- Sunday Herald  Sunday 12 July

Rural GPs fight contracts amid fears for lives

The new contracts for general practitioners could be putting lives
at risk, according to two GPs.

A campaign to save rural health services was launched by two GPs
yesterday who are calling on the Scottish executive to put more
funding  into strained rural health budgets.

Dr John Macdonald and Dr Susan Bowie warned the new system would
“undoubtedly cost lives” as there would be fewer
doctors on call in remote areas at evenings and weekends.

Source:- Sunday Herald  Sunday 11 July

Curran backs tough love to beat the yobs

Children in gangs are not bad people and need “tough
love” according to a Scottish executive minister.

Communities minister Margaret Curran hit back at critics who
accused the executive of losing its way in tackling social
deprivation and poverty.

She conceded that the executive’s focus on issues such as
antisocial behaviour had given the impression that social inclusion
had slipped down the agenda in favour of more punitive
responses.

Curran was speaking ahead of the re-launch of the executive’s
community regeneration strategy.

Source:- Sunday Herald  Sunday 11 July

Care homes accused of nurse slavery

Foreign nurses are being trafficked from the Philippines, India and
China to work as bonded labour in Scottish nursing homes.

Highly qualified staff are being lured to the UK by agencies
promising lucrative contracts in NHS hospitals. Many pay the
agencies thousands of pounds but on arrival, find they have been
give student visas which ban them from working more than 20 hours a
week.

They also fine their jobs are as care assistants in private
nursing homes.

Source:- Sunday Herald  Sunday 11 July

School chiefs ‘could help cut youth
crime’

Education officials are not doing enough to prevent unruly pupils
from embarking on a life of crime, according to a senior prisons
chief last night.

Scotland’s deputy director of prisons said schools should do
more to help troubled youngsters by making the curriculum more
responsive to their needs and use exclusions as a last resort
measure.

Gunn accused education officials of not taking any interest in
responsibility for youth crime and urged attitudes to change.

Source:- The Scotsman  Monday 12 July

Text message scheme to beat truancy could cover all
Scotland

A pilot text message service that asks parents why their children
are not in school could be rolled out across Scotland to beat
truancy.

The scheme, which alerts parents as soon as their child is missing
from class, has been hailed a huge success in Glasgow, Fife,
Edinburgh and the Higlands.

Source:- The Scotsman  Monday 12 July

Re-offending fear as most sex case prisoners denied
help

Up to two thirds of sex offenders are being denied rehabilitation
and re-education programmes because they receive a sentence of less
than four years.

Social workers and prison experts have warned that these are the
people most in need of intervention to prevent re-offending, but a
lack of resources means they are not offered sentences.

There is also growing concern that there is no compulsory
supervision for those sentenced to less than four years once they
are released into the community.

Source:- The Herald  Monday 12 July

Welsh newspapers

Experts evaluate death

Police investigating the death of a 75-year-old woman found dead
in her bath are to meet with a Home Office pathologist and forensic
experts to try to determine whether she was murdered.

Vera Fleet was found with slight bruising at her home in
Rhos-on-Sea in north Wales and police also found evidence that her
flat had been burgled.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 12 July page 5

Schools find recipes for health

Children must be involved in key decisions about school meals if
the message about health eating is to be successful.

Experts believe that children and their parents must be educated
about the importance of healthy eating if Wales is to improve the
nation’s long-term health and combat the obesity
epidemic.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 12 July page 8