Tuesday 1 November 2005

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

Minister moves to boost care for older people
Health and social care leaders are to shape plans to treat older people with greater dignity. The community health minister Liam Byrne will today announce a project group, to be led jointly by England’s chief nursing officer, Christine Beasley, and the older people’s Tsar Ian Philp, to advise on ways to improve care services for the elderly.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 1 November 2005 page 8

Testing passport to UK citizenship
Migrants seeking a passport will have to demonstrate knowledge of the UK by answering questions, but teachers who will prepare them say quiz is too hard
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 1 November 2005 page 3

11-year-old boys fall further behind girls in the three Rs
Boys have fallen behind girls in reading, writing and mathematics at primary school, according to the government’s latest test results for 11-year-olds.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 1 November 2005 page 5

Pirate stations face inquiry over race riots
Pirate radio stations accused of spreading the rape allegations that sparked race riots in Birmingham are being investigated by police under incitement to racial hatred laws.
Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 1 November 2005 page 7

Alco tot
A child of 10 hooked on potent alcopops is believed to be the youngest person in Britain to be
treated for alcohol addiction.
Source:- The Daily Mirror Tuesday 1 November 2005 page 4-5

Detention “harms mental health”
Detainees held without trial under the Anti-Terrorism Act have suffered serious damage to their mental health, including post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a Psychiatric Bulletin study.
Source:- The Independent Tuesday 1 November 2005 page 8

Jenkins back in court for retrial
Sion Jenkins, 48, appeared at the Old Bailey yesterday to face trial for the third time for the alleged murder of his foster daughter Billie-Jo, 13, at their home in East Sussex in 1997.
Source:- The Independent Tuesday 1 November 2005 page 8

Ex-CRE chief accuses Phillips of ignoring “hard-edged” issues
Trevor Phillips came under fire from former CRE chairman Lord Ouseley for concentrating too much on “soft cultural questions” and not enough on poverty and discrimination.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 1 November 2005 page 4

Charities “strangled” by red tape checks on volunteers
Charities are being “strangled” by red tape that requires even grandmothers to get criminal records checks to work in church crèches, says a report.
The Better Regulation Task Force says care homes are having to build rooms to a certain size even though autistic adults prefer smaller spaces.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph Tuesday 1 November 2005 page 8

Mandarins’ pay tied to minorities
Top civil servants are to have their pay and bonuses linked to the achievement of increased targets on the number of women, ethnic minorities and disabled people in the senior civil
service. The move is part of a 10-point diversity plan to be unveiled today.
Source:- Financial Times Tuesday 1 November 2005 page 1

Scottish news

More pupils to have free school meals
Plans by the Scottish executive to expand its Hungry for Success healthy eating drive could lead to a rise in the number of families eligible for free meals as well as an increase in their availability, such as during school holidays.
The Scottish Executive is also planning to consult on legislation that would strengthen its powers to ban fizzy drinks in schools as well as foods with high levels of fat and salt.
Peter Peacock, education minister, is understood to want further improvements after a study highlighted the positive impact of providing free fruit to primary pupils.
Source:- The Herald Tuesday 1 November

Kirk backs allowing same sex couples to adopt
The Church of Scotland is supporting proposals to allow unmarried and same-sex couples to adopt.
In its formal response to the executive’s consultation on the issue, the church says the child’s best interests are paramount and insists that marriage provides the most stable environment. However, it admits the system is not meeting the needs of children, and that, on balance, it backs law change.
Source:- The Herald Tuesday 1 November

Care homes under fire for criticising rise in payments
Care home owners have been warned to “come to their senses” after they claimed that a 10 per cent increase in the fees local authorities pay to them was not enough.
Joe Campbell, the chair of the Scottish Care group, which represents most of the homes providers, said the deal – which will take fees paid to nursing homes to £470.95 per week in 2006-7 and to £406.28 for residential homes – was inadequate.
Source:- The Scotsman Tuesday 1 November

Immigrant help appeal
The executive is not doing enough to help immigrants settle into life in Scotland, a report has said.
The Commission for Racial Equality said Jack McConnell’s flagship Fresh Talent scheme was too “narrow” to assist all those who come here. They called on ministers to help ordinary workers from overseas as well as the high-fliers targeted by the scheme.
Source:- Daily Record Tuesday 1 November

We used councils email to sell drugs
Two social work admin staff used internal emails to deal cannabis to colleagues, a court has heard.
Thomas McCann and Caroline Stewart, who no longer work for West Dunbartonshire Council, were arrested last November, and yesterday at Dumbarton Sheriff Court, admitted a number of drug offences.
Both admitted supplying cannabis over a 10-month period last year at the social work and housing office in Clydebank.
Source:- Daily Record Tuesday 1 November

Welsh news

More than one in10 complaints about family health services last year were concerned with the new out-of-hours GPs services.
The figure is a result of high numbers of patients waiting hours for a doctor to call them back after contacting the recently privatised services.
Complaints about family health services increased by 35 per cent over all.
Source:- Western Mail Tuesday 1 November

Jenkins at old Bailey for third trial
Sion Jenkins arrived at the Old Bailey yesterday to face his third trial accused of murdering his foster daughter.
The former deputy head was jailed for life in 1998 after being found guilty of murdering 13-year-old Billie-Jo but he was freed on bail last year after the Appeal Court ruled that he should be tried again due to the defence challenging scientific evidence.
The second trial collapsed in July of this year as the jury was unable to reach a verdict.
Source:- icWales Tuesday 1 November