Wednesday 23 March 2005

By Maria Ahmed, Simeon Brody, Amy Taylor and Derren
Hayes

Superbug kills day-old baby

A 36-hour old baby became the youngest known victim of the hospital
superbug MRSA.
A post-mortem examination at Great Ormond Street children’s
hospital revealed Luke Day died from septicaemia caused by MRSA
which is thought to have entered his bloodstream through his
umbilical cord.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 23 March 2005 page 3

Killer gets life

A man with paranoid schizophrenia who killed a former banker with a
knife in Richmond Park after walking out of a psychiatric hospital
the previous night was jailed for life at the Old Bailey.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 23 March 2005 page 4

Binge childminder jailed over death of boy in bath

A registered childminder who allowed an 18-month-old boy to drown
in a bath while she was drunk was jailed for three years yesterday
at Preston Crown Court.

Wendy Barlow, of Sabden Lancashire, had drunk more than two bottles
of wine when she lost her grip on the child after taking him into
her bath.

Barlow had previously admitted a binge-drinking problem to a health
visitor but was registered as a childminder in June 2003.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 23 March 2005 page 6

Cancer centre

Britain’s first breast cancer prevention centre will be built
at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester at a cost of £14
million.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 23 March 2005 page 7

Alzheimer’s drug guide

The government has put searching questions to the National
Institute for Clinical Excellence to stem a growing dispute over
Alzheimer’s drugs.

It has asked the institute to reassess the drugs taking into
account their effects on the patients and the people who look after
them.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 23 March 2005 page 11

Sword-wielding charity worker shot dead by police after
chase

A charity worker was shot dead by armed police on the outskirts of
Hull after he threatened to attack passing motorists with a
sword.

Police initially tried to incapacitate Simon Murden, 26, a driver
at the And Albert charity, with plastic bullets but he continued to
approach officers.

Source:- The Times Wednesday 23 March 2005 page 15

Teachers’ union votes for end of flagship academies
programme

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers has voted to halt the
government’s controversial academies scheme, describing the
business-sponsored schools as a “Trojan horse” designed
to destroy state education.

Source:- Financial Times Wednesday 23 March 2005 page
4

Death by gossip

A 40-year-old man from North Manchester was beaten to death in his
flat by a gang who wrongly believed he was a paedophile.

Paul Cooper, who walked with a stick following a motorcycle
accident, was attacked by several young men in a “brutal and
prolonged” attack, detectives say.

Source:- The Independent Wednesday 23 March 2005 page
1

Nearly half of all teachers have suffered from stress

Nearly half of the country’s secondary school teachers have
suffered mental health problems due to worsening pupil behaviour, a
survey by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers has
revealed.

The study found 46 per cent of respondents took antidepressants or
long lay-offs from school through stress.

Source:- The Independent Wednesday 23 March 2005 page
17

Blair: Single mothers “piling up problems” in
Britain’s inner cities

Single mothers are piling up problems for the future and need role
models at school and in the community, Tony Blair told a meeting of
faith groups yesterday.

Source:- The Independent Wednesday 23 March 2005 page
18

Teachers consider quitting over rising pupil violence

Teachers are facing increasing violence and abuse in the classroom,
driving almost three-quarters of them to consider leaving the
profession, according to a survey published today by the
Association of Teachers and Lecturers.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 23 March 2005 page 4

Treatment draft bill criticised

Government plans for mental health reform appeared doomed last
night after a committee of MPs and peers said the measures would
erode civil liberties. They decided that the draft mental health
bill put too much emphasis on protecting the public from a small
minority of dangerous people, the pre-legislative committee
said.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 23 March 2005 page 8

Legal aid rules unjust say MPs

MPs are urging the government to reconsider unprecedented legal aid
rules for asylum seekers. Under the rules, coming into effect on
April 4, lawyers who act in asylum and immigration appeals will not
know until after a case ends if they are to be paid by legal aid.
If a case, in retrospect, is thought not to have merited aid, no
payments will be made. The Commons constitutional affairs committee
says in a report today that asylum seeker risking death or torture
on deportation might not find lawyers to take their case.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 23 March 2005 page 8

Prison bid contest opened to US firm

American private prison operators will be among the companies
invited to bid against the public sector to run a cluster of three
prisons as part of the government’s first
“contestability” competition. The three prisons
involved – Elmley, Standford Hill and Swaleside –
occupy a 240 hectare (600 acre) site on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent
and hold 2,000 prisoners, using 1,132 staff.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 23 March 2005 page 8

The books of life

Tracy Beaker is not only the most famous child in care since Oliver
Twist, says ex-Barnardo’s boy Phil Frampton, but a positive
role model. He talks to creator Jaqueline Wilson about the
phenomenon.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 23 March 2005 page
2

Compact gets a makeover

The voluntary sector is to get a Compact Plus, designed to prevent
public bodies cutting off voluntary groups’ funding at short
notice, or refusing to pay the full costs of delivering a service
– aims that the Compact agreement signed by government and
the voluntary sector in 1998 hoped to achieve. Under Compact Plus,
a Compact champion will act as an independent adjudicator to
investigate any breaches, and depending on the responses to a
three-month consultation, the champion may be able to impose
financial penalties. Fiona McTaggart announced the Plus proposals
yesterday.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 23 March 2005, page
4

Stood up, stood down

Ministers apparent U-turn over public involvement in health policy
has left one key play, Sharon Grant, baffled and bruised.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 23 March 2005, page
6

Broken bars

Birmingham jail has gone from a ‘hell hole’ to a model
of good race relations in four years

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 23 March 2005 page
7

The adult social care green paper reflects service user
views – up to a point, says Peter Beresford

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 23 March 2005, page
8

Relegation battle

Social care inspection faces yet another painful upheaval –
this time resulting in a merger with the health and schools
regulators. There are fears the sector will be sidelined.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 23 March 2005 page
10

Adoptions fall despite pledge

Adoptions have fallen by more than a fifth in the past 10 years,
suggesting that official initiatives to encourage more people have
failed.
Adoptions dropped by 21 per cent – to 5,354 children –
in 2003 for the first time since 1998, said the Office of National
Statistics.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 23 March 2005 page
10

Britain drops down the asylum table

France has replaced Britain as the most popular destination in the
industrialised world for asylum seekers, the Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said yesterday.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 23 March 2005 page
10

Gipsy application for human rights test case rejected

Gipsies have failed in a move to take a test case over their human
rights and an attempt to stay on land without authorisation to the
highest court in the land. The House of Lords has thrown out a
challenge by the gipsies who claim that earlier court rulings about
their use of a site at Iver, Bucks, infringe their human rights.
Four gipsies said to be “Romany and Irish travellers”
had sought permission to appeal to the law lords against earlier
court rulings backing South Bucks District Council’s
application for a court order that they quit the site.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 23 March 2005 page
11

Hodge in a pickle

Labour was forced into an embarrassing climbdown yesterday over
bogus claims it had been involved in a long-term partnership with
Jamie Oliver to improve school dinners. Children’s minister
Margaret Hodge had said the government had been working alongside
the TV chef ‘for more than a year’ on the issue. But
yesterday that production company behind his campaigning Channel 4
series Jamie’s School Dinners made clear that contact had
been ‘sporadic’ at best.

Source:- The Daily Mail Wednesday 23 March 2005 page
5

Threatened with ruin, the GP accused of punching a
three-year-old patient

A family doctor punched a three-year-old girl as he was trying to
examine her, a disciplinary hearing was told yesterday. Dr Martin
Wolfson struck Lana Fahmi as she was struggling in her
mother’s arms. The doctor admitted smacking the girl but
claimed it was a reflex action after she kicked in him the
groin.

Source:- The Daily Mail Wednesday 23 March 2005 page
13

A sign of the times

The landlord of a pub named The Porking Yard was given an
antisocial behaviour order after Muslims from the local mosque said
the sign was offensive to their religion.

Source:- The Daily Mail Wednesday 23 March 2005 page
29

Scottish news

Duchess tells of Beatrice’s struggle with dyslexia

The Duchess of York has revealed that her 16-year-old daughter,
Beatrice, suffers from dyslexia and is needing extra reading and
writing tuition as she prepares to take her GCSEs.

Sarah Ferguson, who is the patron of the charity Springboard For
Children, which assists dyslexic pupils at over-stretched
inner-city schools, said that Beatrice was very “proud” that
everyone should know about her literacy problem – which was
discovered when she was seven-years-old.

Source:- The Herald Wednesday 23 March

Blair warns against teenage motherhood

Tony Blair yesterday warned that single teenage mothers were
creating problems for the future.

Addressing a network of religious and community organisations in
London, the prime minister said: “In the inner city areas, some of
our young girls, our young women, start families very, very young.
We are piling up problems for the future when that
happens.”

He said it was a miserable life being a single mother aged 17 and
that young women needed role models in school and the
community.

Source:- The Herald Wednesday 23 March

Councils’ workforce rises 5,000 in a year

Scotland’s local authority workforce has increased by more
than 5,000 in the past year, according to figures released by the
Scottish Executive and the Convention of Scottish Local
Authorities.

The country’s 32 councils employ just under 257,000 people, a
rise of 5,441. The two organisations said much of the increase was
due to the recruitment of frontline staff “and those who directly
support them”.

Source:-The Scotsman Wednesday 23 March

Welsh news

Baby’s remains found in a suitcase in the attic

The skeleton of a baby has been found in a suitcase in the attic by
a family who were clearing out their new home in Penyfan View,
Merthyr Tydfill.

The family called the police after making the discovery.

Police were making inquiries across the Gurnos Estate next door to
the house to try to find out who the baby was.

Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 23 March page 2

‘Limited powers’ for pensioners’
champion

The proposed commissioner for older people in Wales post only
offers limited powers, Plaid Cymru has warned.

The draft bill to establish a commissioner for older people in
Wales was published yesterday.

Plaid Cymru said that the commissioner will only have powers on
devolved policy areas.

Source:- Western Mail Wednesday 23 March page 5