Wednesday 28 July 2004

By Shirley Kumar and Lauren
Revans               

Child criminals tested to fight cash-for-drugs
link

Children aged between 14 and 17 will be tested for hard drug use
if charged with crimes such as burglary and mugging under new Home
Office plans.

The pilot scheme extends a three-year drug testing programme for
adults.

Source:- The Telegraph, Wednesday 28 July, page 2

Self harm victims poorly treated by casualty
staff

Care and treatment of around 170,000 people who harm themselves,
mainly teenagers and young adults, is often unsympathetic, reveals
the first formal survey of patients treated at accident and
emergency departments.

But the total number of those who harm themselves is greater as
many never seek medical help, claims the National Institute for
Clinical Excellence report.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 28 July, page
8

People smugglers made £1.4m from
‘students’

Three illegal immigrants who managed to avoid deportation made
at least £250,000 by smuggling more people into Britain, a
court was told.

The men charged £3,000 to provide immigrants with a new
identity and places on bogus language courses.

Source:- The Times, Wednesday 28 July, page 7

NHS hospital projects win £4bn

Health secretary John Reid has approved 15 new NHS hospital
development projects worth a total of £4bn.

The new projects bring the total number of hospitals approved by
Labour since 1997 to 132.

Source:- The Times, Wednesday 28 July, page 8

Banning the cane ‘ruined discipline’

The end of corporal punishment, such as the cane or a clip
around the ear, has led to a decline in discipline within schools,
the chair of the Professional Association of Teachers Union has
said.

Barry Matthews told delegates at the union’s annual conference
that parents were contributing to the problem by allowing children
to stay out late, drink too much and watch too much television.

Source:- The Daily Mail, Wednesday 28 July, page 15

Hunter Disease cruelly robs children of health and hope.
Now a man has been charged with the murder of his son, a sufferer.
A father whose boys have the illness too tells his heartbreaking
story.

Source: The Daily Mail, Wednesday 28 July, page
30-31

Nine councils to gain more control over
funds

Nine councils are to embark on a pilot scheme which will give
them greater control over how they spend central government funds
from next April.

The government’s 10-year vision for local government was
welcomed by the Local Government Association.

Source:- The Financial Times, Wednesday 28 July, page
2

Boy killer unmasked as a bully obsessed with
knives

A school bully who stabbed 14-year-old Luke Walmsley in the
heart with a knife in a school corridor was jailed for life
yesterday.

Alan Pennell, 16, was an obsessive collector of knives.

Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 28 July, page 3

Patients wait six weeks to visit sex disease
clinics

People with sexually transmitted diseases have to wait up to six
weeks for an appointment at a specialist clinic.

Campaigners accused ministers of failing to make the crisis a
priority and are calling for improved clinics, extra funding and
better sex education for young people and gay men.

Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 28 July, page 4

Father charged with son’s murder

An ex-soldier was charged with the murder of his terminally ill
10-year-old son at Chichester Magistrates Court yesterday.

Andrew Wragg, was arrested with his wife on Saturday, at their
home in Worthing, West Sussex, after they made a 999 call to say
their son, who suffered from Hunter syndrome, had stopped
breathing.

Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 28 July, page 6

Boy gets £1.5m damages

A 12-year-old boy was awarded £1.5 million in damages after
a general anaesthetic during dental treatment left him brain
damaged.

Jay Ali, who was three at the time, will never be able to live
independently.

Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 28 July, page 6

Fast-track asylum idea for refugees

Asylum seekers who clearly qualify as refugees could be put on a
fast-track recognition scheme, according to a paper by refugee and
human rights campaign groups.

The paper also argues that the Home Office should be replaced by
an independent body in deciding asylum applications.

Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 28 July, page 7

Cross purposes

Challenging pay discrimination has brought lawyer Stefan Cross
into conflict with both councils and unions. But it is a fight that
he relishes.

Source: Society Guardian, Wednesday 28 July, page 6

Why work anywhere else?

An innovative approach to recruiting social workers gives Essex
Council a strong case for consideration in the Guardian Public
Service Awards.

Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 28 July, page
7

Filling in the gaps

From next April, social workers must be registered in order to
practise. So why are many in the profession holding back from
returning their application forms?

Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 28 July, page
10

Everyone’s a winner?

A Conservative-run council wants to use freedoms created by a
Labour government to privatise itself.

Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 28 July, page
14

Scottish Papers

Call for housing review after man found dead in
flat

An Aberdeen councillor has called for an urgent review of the
council’s procedures for dealing with apparently abandoned
properties after a tenant’s body lay undiscovered in his flat for
up to six months.

A neighbour had reported that George Elphinstone had not been
seen for some time on 31 May, and the council served abandonment
notice on 24 June. This could not be enforced until 28 days later,
when council officers entered the property and found the tenant
dead.

Source:- The Scotsman, Wednesday 28 July

Rural GPs ‘aghast’ at out-of-hours reforms

Thirty rural GPs from Dumfries and Galloway have written to the
prime minister Tony Blair, first minister Jack McConnell, and
Scottish health minister Malcolm Chisholm to express their concerns
about new arrangements for out-of-hours calls.

Under the new GP contract, introduced earlier this year, GPs can
opt out of out-of-hours calls, which then become the responsibility
of local health boards.

But the GPs claim the reforms are reducing out-of-hours services
in rural areas to a skeletal level.

Source:- The Scotsman, Wednesday 28 July

Consultants clamp down on NHS 24 helpline

Nurse advisers working for NHS 24 have been told they need to
double-check with consultants at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee
before sending patients there for treatment, amid suggestions that
the helpline is increasing rather than cutting the number of people
turning up at hospital casualty departments.

Source:- The Herald, Wednesday 28 July

Head tilt test could reveal Asperger’s

Scientists at Florida University have found that tilting the
head of six-month-old babies could determine whether they are
likely to have a form of autism. The findings claim that babies
with Asperger’s syndrome kept their head straight when their body
was tilted.

Source:- The Herald, Wednesday 28 July

Experts’ workloads delays cot deaths review

A pilot scheme looking for patterns to explain sudden infant
death syndrome has halved the number of cases under investigation
and is a year behind schedule because experts conducting the
research cannot find the time to do the work.

Source:- The Herald, Wednesday 28 July

Addicts offered help as alternative to jail

The Association of Chief Police Officers in Scotland is planning
to tackle Scotland’s hard-core drugs misuse with a rehabilitation
scheme as an alternative to custody.

Instead of arresting and imprisoning drug users, the project
will provide rehabilitation services, including help with arranging
doctor and dental appointments, education, housing and advice.

Source:- The Herald, Wednesday 28 July

Mum loses fight over school ban

A Glasgow mum has lost her fight to restrict the ability of
headteachers to exclude disruptive children from schools.

Diana Fox-Flynn took went to court after her severely disabled
son was suspended from a Glasgow special needs school.

But a sheriff ruled the school’s decision was “justified and
reasonable”.

Source:- Evening Times, Tuesday 27 July

Staff suspended from care facility

Twelve members of staff at a Glasgow Council-run residential
school for troubled teenagers have been suspended amid claims of
excessive restraint of children.

Seven other staff at Kerelaw School in Stevenson, Ayrshire, have
been redeployed following the allegations.

The school was criticised by inspectors earlier this year for
failing to improve the education it provided over the previous two
years.

Source:- Evening Times, Tuesday 27 July

Welsh Papers

Pair criticised by Clywch demand apology

Two senior education officials criticised by the Children’s
Commissioner for Wales in his report into sexual abuse at a south
Wales school are demanding a public apology.

Eddie Roberts, former director of education at Mid Glamorgan
Council, and Graham Dunn, who at the time of the alleged abuse
worked as a personnel officer, want the Welsh assembly to launch an
investigation into the conduct of the inquiry.

Source:- Western Mail, Wednesday 28 July, page 1

Mother fights for son’s life in court

A mother says that hospital bosses are playing God with the life
of her seriously ill baby after they applied to the High Court for
permission to withdraw his treatment.

Six-month old Luke Winston-Jones was given only days to live
following a diagnosis of a rare genetic condition. He has been
cared for at Ysbyty Gwynedd, in Bangor. His mother claimed the
hospital had given up on her son.

Source:- Western Mail, Wednesday 28 July, page 6

Sex health help criticised as infections
soar

A crisis in sexual health services in Wales is contributing to
the growing number of people infected with a sexually transmitted
disease, according to experts in the field.

They claim that lack of funding and support for services is
contributing to the rise.

Source:- Western Mail, Wednesday 28 July, page 9