Monday 23 May 2005

By Maria Ahmed, Clare Jerrom, Mithran Samuel, Derren
Hayes and Amy Taylor

Punishment is no answer to unruly pupils, says adviser

The leader of a new task force charged with taming unruly pupils
warned the government yesterday against “demonising”
children.

Sir Alan Steer was appointed yesterday by Ruth Kelly, the education
secretary, to chair a committee of heads and teachers with proven
records in tackling poor behaviour.

Steer said he saw no simple solution to the issue and did not
recognise “zero tolerance”.

Source:- The Times Saturday 21 May 2005 page 11

Teenagers deny Damilola murder

Three teenagers denied murdering Damilola Taylor, 10, at a short
Old Bailey hearing yesterday. The three are due to stand trial next
January.

Source:- The Independent Saturday 21 May 2005 page
19

Champion of the chain gang

In the week when a Labour minister provoked fury by saying young
offenders should be made to wear uniforms, a report on the U.S.
sheriff who makes his convicts do hard labour in pink underpants.
And guess what? Even the prisoners say his tough justice
works.

Source:- The Daily Mail Saturday 21 May 2005 page 27

The trials of living with the ‘feral youths’ of
Salford

In a week when yob culture has come to the fore, a reporter visits
a fear-ridden community where gang violence seems out of
control

Source:- The Guardian Saturday 21 May 2005 page 8-9

Child rape teachers weds her victim

A schoolteacher who spent seven years in prison for raping a
12-year-old boy has married the former pupils she seduced.

Mary Kay Letourneau 43 married Vili Fualaau now 22 on Friday.

Source:- The Sunday Times  Sunday 22 May page 3

Brown hands out subsidised mortgages to first time
buyers

First time buyers will be given public funds to get cheap
mortgages, under a scheme to be announced by Gordon Brown this
week.

The chancellor has struck a deal with mortgage lenders which would
see monthly payments slashed.

Source:- The Sunday Times  Sunday 22 May page 5

Crime czar: stop calling children
‘yobs’

Politicians and the media should stop referring to children as
yobs, according to the government’s chief adviser on youth
crime.

The chair of the Youth Justice Board Professor Rod Morgan said the
country was throwing out mixed messages about its attitudes to
children.

While on one hand children represented the country’s
aspirations for the future, on the other they were being condemned
as thugs in hooded tops.

Source:- The Observer  Sunday 22 May page 2

Public to vote on how Lottery cash is spent

Culture secretary Tessa Jowell will this week publish a bill
designed to restore public confidence in The Lottery.

Viewers of television game shows will be asked to vote on the most
deserving causes for Lottery money to be spent on.

Source:- The Observer  Sunday 22 May page 3

Children with autism the target of asbos

Mental health experts and criminal justice professionals have
warned that children with autism are being given antisocial
behaviour orders.

In one case, a 15-year-old boy with Asperger’s syndrome was
given an asbo which banned him from staring and if he breached it,
he could face a custodial sentence.

Source:- The Observer  Sunday 22 May page 7

Six falsehoods in 100 seconds: how the Home Secretary
misled public over ‘yob crackdown’

The tough measures the government is allegedly imposing on young
offenders is a sham, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.

Clarke was caught out after claiming last week to have watched
young offenders dressed in chain-gang style boiler suits
undertaking manual labour.

But organisers of the scheme said the home secretary did nothing
more than witness a group a middle aged men on probation wearing
disposable blue overalls to protect their clothes from paint.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph  Sunday 22 May page 1

Yob ‘hell’ claim

The prime minister has been urged to head a government into
juvenile crime by Lord Stevens, the former Metropolitan Police
Commissioner.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph  Sunday 22 May page 2

Meals on wheels? Sorry, but you’ll have to cook them
yourself

Older people who receive meals on wheels are to be supplied with
microwaves and frozen food and told to cook their own.

Thousands of older people, including those who are wheelchair
bound, are being asked to take up to two weeks’ worth of
frozen meals rather than receive the hot daily delivery.

Source:- The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 22 May page 11

Working with the men on the chain gang

A report on pilot community service scheme in Enfield, north
London.

Source:- The Independent on Sunday Sunday 22 May 2005 page
19

60,000 rogue papers in GMB ballot

The enormous scale of alleged ballot rigging at the GMB union has
shocked senior figures in the labour movement.

In the most recent election of the union’s leaders, up to
60,000 ballots were issued to people who had either left the union,
retired or died, according to claims that will be heard by an
internal inquiry. 

Source:- The Independent Monday 23 May 2005 page 5

Cannabis smokers ‘at risk of brittle bone
disease’

Excessive use of cannabis may lead to brittle bones, new research
by the University of Aberdeen suggests.

Source:- The Independent Monday 23 May 2005 page 6

Stevens warns of youth crime

John Stevens, former chief of the Metropolitan Police, has called
for a radical review of the law to lower the age of criminal
responsibility to crack down on teenage criminals.

Writing in the News of the World, he also called for a new level of
law to toughen sanctions against young people from 14 to 18, and
said offenders wearing a “hoodie” or recording an
assault on a mobile phone in so-called “happy-slap”
attacks should have extra legal punishment.

Source:- The Independent Monday 23 May 2005 page 16

Private prisons plan put on hold

The home secretary, Charles Clarke, has halted plans to privatise
the first cluster of three state-run prisons, Elmley, Standford
Hill and Swaleside, after reaching a new agreement with the unions
to drive up standards throughout the prison system estate in
England and Wales.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 23 May 2005 page 5

Sisters pregnant at 12, 14, and 16, So what does their mother do?
She blames the school

Three sisters from Derby have each had children while still at
school, the youngest at the age of 12.

Their mother holds the education system responsible for their
plight.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Monday 23 May 2005 page
3

First-time buyers will be offered cheap loans to get foot
on ladder

Shelter has criticised government plans to subsidise first-time
home buyers for not targeting support at the poorest.

Director Adam Sampson said those helped by the shared equity scheme
would typically have adequate housing already.

Source:- The Times Monday 23 May page 4

Medical charity offers aid to East End as Orkney hunts for
doctors

An international medical charity is planning to open three clinics
to provide basic primary care to asylum seekers, refugees, homeless
people and sex workers.

Médecins du Monde claims these and other poor groups are not
receiving adequate care from the NHS.

Source:- The Times Monday 23 May page 6

Patients may get credit for their own treatment

The prime minister’s top health adviser has suggested
extending direct payments to the NHS to help treat long-term
conditions.

Julian Le Grand said patients could be able to buy packages of care
from the NHS or private providers and take greater responsibility
for treating their conditions.

Source:- The Times Monday 23 May page 7

£700,000 lottery money goes to asylum groups

Two asylum and refugee projects have received more than
£700,000 between them from the Big Lottery Fund in its latest
grant awards.

Student Action for Refugees received almost £430,000 to
support student campaigns to tackle intolerance against asylum
seekers, and the Children’s Society was awarded almost
£290,000 to help young asylum seekers develop citizenship
skills.

Source:- The Times Monday 23 May page 28

Blunkett to rule out graduates working until 70

The government has scotched rumours it is planning to impose a
higher retirement age for graduates than non-graduates.

It denied suggestions that graduates would have to work until they
were 70 before they received the state pension, while those without
degrees could claim at 65.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 23 May page 1

Scottish news

SNP want Scottish ‘Megan’s law’ to identify
paedophiles in community

Parents would have the right to know if paedophiles were living
in their area, under new proposals being developed by the Scottish
National Party.

Kenny MacAskill, the SNP’s justice spokesperson, said a
Scottish equivalent of “Megan’s Law” – the
US law which provides parents with a right of access to information
on convicted paedophiles living locally – should be introduced as
part of a package of measures to protect children from sex
offenders.

Source:- Sunday Herald Sunday 22 May

Half of prisoners back in jail within two
years

Cathy Jamieson, justice minister, says the numbers of prisoners
returning to jail is unacceptably high.

She is to release figures which show that of the prisoners released
in 2001, 50% were returned to jail within two years.

She is calling for improved education and rehabilitation programmes
in prisons to ensure those sent there are given better chances when
they are returned to the community.

Source:- The Herald Monday 23 May

Scots teenage girls Europe’s worst for inflicting
self-harm

Nearly one in three secondary schoolgirls in Edinburgh has
admitted harming themlseves, the highest rate in Europe.

Cutting or stabbing with knives, pulling out hair, bruising,
pinching, burning skin or overdosing on pills are some of the most
common forms of self harm.

Source:- The Scotsman Monday 23 May

Welsh news

Teachers’ deal ‘threat to care’

A new pay and conditions agreement for teachers will make grades
more important than children’s welfare it has been
warned.

The National Union of Teachers Cymru says that the new
arrangements, which will be introduced in January, mean that
teachers will only be credited for carrying out their
‘teaching and learning responsibilities’ and not for
dealing with any other issues children may have.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 23 May

Care manager ‘was told to adapt bed’

A care manager accused of incorrectly adapting a bed in which a man
with cerebral palsy later died had been told to carry out the
adaptation by someone else a court has heard.

Deborah Waters, 51, of Llantwit Fardre, is on trial for wilful
neglect two years after 23-year-old Adam Morris died while being
cared for at Clwyd Wen home in Pontyclun.

It is alleged that Morris was put into an incorrectly adapted bed
which allowed him to become wedged between the headboard and the
rails.

Source:- Western Mail Monday 23 May