Friday 3 December 2004

By Shirley Kumar, Craig Kenny, Derren Hayes and Amy
Taylor

Spending on elderly ‘will be more than forecast’

The Treasury has accepted that the long-term cost of public
expenditure programmes will be higher than previously
forecast.

The cost of pensions, health, long-term care and education would
rise from 19 per cent today to 24 per cent of gross domestic
product in 2053, according to an economic trends report published
along side the pre-Budget report.

Source:- The Financial Times Friday 3 December 2004 page
4
 
Maternity leave extended to nine months

The Treasury announced a 10-year strategy that includes extending
maternity leave from six months to nine months from April
2007.

The strategy also includes making maternity leave transferable to
fathers, increase in free nursery care for three and four-year-olds
to 15 hours a week for 38 weeks of the year.

Source:- The Financial Times Friday 3 December 2004 page
5
 
Consultation on child trust fund-top up payment
welcomed

The Government is to seek views on the value of the top-up payment
for Child Trust Fund – a move welcomed by child poverty
campaigners.

From January, children born on or after September 2002 and who have
child benefit claimed for them will receive their first Child Trust
Fund endowment of £250 rising to £500 for poorer
families. The government had not disclosed the value of the second
payment until yesterday.

Source:- Financial Times Friday 3 December 2004 page
6
 
Public sector jobs likely to increase by 50,000 a year
despite wide cuts

Jobs in the public sector are due for a net increase of 50,000 a
year, despite the axing of 70,000 civil service posts.

A further 250,000 public service staff are set to be employed by
2008 in front line services including 143,000 more health workers,
55,000 more working in preschool and childcare and a rise of 33,000
staff in the criminal justice system.

Source:- The Financial Times Friday 3 December 2004 page
7
 
Brown’s windfall for council coffers

Local authorities have been given a funding boost of almost
£1 billion to peg Council Tax rises below five per cent in an
election year.

The Treasury, health and education budgets were squeezed to
finance the move, made in Chancellor Gordon Brown’s
pre-budget statement yesterday.

Source:- Financial Times Friday December 3 page 7

“Carrot and stick” scheme to cut incapacity
benefit claims

Employment Office staff are to be posted in GP surgeries in a
bid to crackdown on abuse of incapacity benefit. But claimants who
return to work will be given £40 extra in benefits on top of
their pay, said Chancellor Gordon Brown yesterday.

The scheme will cover more than one third of the country, mostly
in the former industrial areas of northern England, Scotland and
Wales, where up to one in four men claim incapacity benefit.

The TUC was relieved that the scheme – designed to reduce the
£7.7 billion incapacity benefit bill – was “more carrot
than stick.”

Source:- Daily Mail Friday December 3 page 13

A&E departments not meeting children’s needs,
says study

Many hospital Accident and Emergency departments are still not
meeting the minimum standards for treating children, says a new
study in the British Medical Journal.

Thirty two essential recommendations, made by the royal colleges
five years ago, have not been implemented in all 139 A&E
departments, it says.

A quarter do not triage children separately and of those that
did, almost one in four did not have a nurse trained to triage
children. A third of A&E consultants do not have child
training, while almost half the nurses were not trained in child
life support.

Source:- The Guardian Friday December 3 page 8

Cold risk to elderly Britons worse than
Scandanavia

Older people in Britain and Ireland are more likely to die from
cold than the elderly in other northern European nations, says Age
Concern.

22,000 people over 65 are expected to die from cold-related
illnesses this winter, 18 per cent more than other seasons. By
contrast, the winter death rate in Finland is only 10 per cent
above other seasons.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Friday December 3
page10

Paedophile sentence reviewed

The Court of Appeal is due to decided today whether a 12-month
sentence for  convicted paedophile Timothy Pickup was “unduly
lenient”.

Pickup was found guilty of possessing and distributing indecent
images of children, but investigators believe he used software to
erase large amounts of similar material from his computer.

Source:- The Times Friday December 3 page 16

Scottish newspapers

Jamieson grabs control of prisons

Justice minister Cathy Jamieson is to announce a raft of reforms
to the Scottish Prison Service.

She wants to bring in new regulations that will force prisons
and local authorities to work together when a prisoner is
released.

Source:- Daily Record Friday 3 December

Winter deaths scandal of OAPs

Age Concern has warned that more than 2,500 older people could
die this year from the cold.

Between December and January last year 2516 OAPs died mainly
through having problems heating their homes.

Source:- Daily Record Friday 3 December

Child sex academic hits back

The researcher who claimed not all sex between adults and
under-16s is abusive has defended his work.

Richard Yuill’s PHD thesis was criticised as it could be
used to legitimise paedophiles.

But he said his research showed the people he interviewed had a
range of experiences on the issue and that all were over 18 when
spoken to.

Source:- Daily Record Friday 3 December

Jamieson acts to cut number of reoffenders

Reforms of the Scottish prison service will focus on tackling
reoffending.

Cathy Jamieson, the justice minister, will announce on Monday
the executive will take control of the Reliance prison escort
service and private jails.

It is believed the plans have been drawn up to try and reduce
the cost of prison and break the cycle of reoffending through
better community support services when prisoners are released.

Source:- The Herald Friday 3 December

Treating the needs of abused runaway
children

High levels of sexual exploitation of runaway children in the
west of Scotland has got so bad that police and social services
have set up a warning system to alert them of risks.

Research by Glasgow Council has revealed that 23 children aged
between 10 and 16 were found over a six-month period in the city
centre after running away and being exposed to drugs and forced
into prostitution.

Source:- The Herald Friday 3 December

Welsh newspapers

Widow of Khan’s victim speaks out over
errors

The widow of man killed by a schizophrenic has called for
disciplinary action against the mentally ill man’s
carers.

The carers did not notify the police until three days after Paul
Khan had gone missing in March 2003.

Enid Dodd’s calls come after a report from the National
Assembly into her husband’s death stated that the carers were
meant to contact police if Khan went missing for more than 12
hours.

Source:- Western Mail Friday 3 December page 5

Comic Relief stars tackle serious subject- abuse of
elderly patients

A film to head up next year’s Comic Relief campaign on abuse
of older people is shot in Cardiff this week.

Richard Briers and Kevin Whately star in ‘Dad’ which is Comic
Relief’s first film production.

Source:- Western Mail Friday 3 December page 15

Psychiatrist warns of ‘cyber suicide’
pacts

Suicide pacts arranged over the internet could become more common,
an expert warns today.

Consultant psychiatrist Sundararajan Rajagopal makes the warning in
the British Medical Journal.

Two girls in South Wales who met in an internet chatroom made an
apparent suicide pact in September. Laura Rhodes, 13, from Neath
died from an overdose while Rebbecca Ling, 14, from Birmingham
survived.

Source:- Western Mail Friday 3 December page 6