Wednesday 20 October 2004

By Clare Jerrom

Education reform will ‘favour the
consumer’

Reforms to schools will be driven through Parliament before the
next election in a bid to demonstrate Labour’s plans to
modernise public services. The Education Bill, to be announced next
month in the Queen’s Speech, will strip down the role of local
education authorities and give increased autonomy to schools.
Labour’s general election co-ordinator Alan Milburn is
understood to want the Bill to be a vehicle for maintaining the
government’s “modernising momentum”.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 20 October page 2

Judge berates CSA

The “sloppy drafting” in Child Support Agency rules that have
denied 50,000 mothers their rightful maintenance payments have been
slammed by senior family judge Lord Justice Ward. He highlighted a
case where a mother of three had received nothing from the absent
father for three years.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 20 October page 2

‘Vulnerable’ bank debtor’s
suicide

A deaf and ‘vulnerable’ man committed suicide after
running up debts of more than £15,000 on credit cards and
loans, a committee of MPs was told yesterday. Details of Scott
Smith’s case were outlined at a Commons Treasury select
committee hearing.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 20 October page 7

Ruling exposes immigration loophole

A large gap in Britain’s immigration laws was highlighted
yesterday when the European Court of Justice ruled that a Chinese
woman who travelled to Belfast to have her child has the right to
live in Britain because the child became an Irish citizen by birth
and therefore an EU national. The court ruled that four-year-old
Kunquian Catherine Zhu, who lives with her mother, Man Levette
Chen, in Cardiff is entitled under the EU Treaty to live in any
member state as long as she is covered by sickness insurance and
has enough resources not to rely on public funds. The Irish
government now plan to amend their law to block the loophole.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 20 October page 8

Football ban for boy, 15

Dean Bell, a 15-year-old from Pelton in County Durham, has been
banned from playing football in the street as part of a condition
of an antisocial behaviour order.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 20 October page 8

Climbie peer fights racism claim

The chair of the inquiry into the death of Victoria Climbie will
today ask an employment tribunal to rule out a racism claim made
against him by the black barrister who defended Carole Baptiste,
the social worker prosecuted for contempt of court for refusing to
give evidence to the inquiry. Barrister Peter Herbert has accused
the Bar Council of race discrimination and victimisation and Lord
Laming of harassment and helping the council to discriminate
against him.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 20 October page 9

Elderly patients ‘rushed from
hospital’

Many older patients are being rushed out of hospital and into
nursing homes to suit the system rather than their own needs,
according to a report by the Commission for Social Care Inspection.
Since January, new rules mean social services have just two days to
make arrangements for patients after they have been told they are
ready for release or they face fines.

Source:- Independent Wednesday 20 October page 19

Last orders

The case of a woman with a serious drink problem is raining
questions about the government’s key weapon in the war
against antisocial behaviour.

Source:- SocietyGuardian Wednesday 20 October page 2-3

Growing pains

For Phil Frampton, writing up his experiences as a
Barnardo’s boy was anything but therapeutic. Alison Benjamin
asks him about his mother, coping with abuse, and what he thinks of
care homes now.

Source:- SocietyGuardian Wednesday 20 October page
6-7

Breaking the genetic code

The two parent family is becoming a thing of the past and the
Child Support Agency, set up to reassert it, is failing. Sally
Sheldon on why society rather than fathers must take responsibility
for funding childcare.

Source:- SocietyGuardian Wednesday 20 October page
10

What else can I do?

Lily, who works in London as a children and families social
worker, wants to step up to a management role. Debbie Andalo
outlines some choices to fit the bill.

Source:- SocietyGuardian Wednesday 20 October page
84

Scottish news

Community angered after it emerges boy’s murderer
was a known sex offender

A system that allows “high risk” convicted sex offenders to live
alongside vulnerable children has been slammed by parents in a
Glasgow community. Families in the Royston area expressed anger and
disbelief after it emerged that Stuart Leggate, a known sex
offender, lived in their midst and killed eight-year-old Mark
Cummings.

Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 20 October

‘Cattle truck’ train trip fury of a
wheelchair bound Scots MP

An MP who uses a wheelchair told yesterday how she had to travel
in the guard’s van of a train which was “little better than a
cattle truck”. MP for Aberdeen South Anne Begg told MPs during
Commons questions that the “barbaric practice” occurred last week
when she caught a Southern train from London Bridge.

Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 20 October

Council faces legal challenge to its alcohol pricing
policy

Aberdeen Council was yesterday forced to put on hold plans to
impose a minimum price on alcohol sold in the city. The new pricing
regime was meant to come into force today in a bid to combat
drink-fuelled violence. But a council spokesperson said the plans
would be put on hold because two pub operators based in England are
to take the council’s licensing authority to the Court of
Session.

Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 19 October

Tagging to replace prison for those awaiting
trial

People accused of violent offences including rape and murder
will be tagged pending trial under a pilot scheme in Glasgow and
Stirling. Those refused bail will be included in the scheme, which
is designed to prevent an alternative to placing people on remand
in prisons and curb overcrowding in jails.

Source:- The Herald Wednesday 20 October