23 NOVEMBER 2005

A mental health unit for adolescent patients is to be closed by the Healthcare Commission because of the concerns about the treatment of its patients. St Luke’s Hospital, in Attleborough, Norfolk, is the first facility to be closed by the watchdog.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 23 November 2005 page 8

Government admits new drinking hours could lead to increase in offences
A government admission that the new licensing laws may lead to an increase in alcohol-related offences plunged the measure into fresh controversy yesterday, just 24 hours before it comes into effect.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 23 November 2005 page 3

Don’t blame pubs for binge drinking
The boss of the Enterprise Inn chain of 8,600 pubs says his industry should not be blamed for binge drinking. He thinks the government should clamp down on supermarkets selling cheap drinks.
Source:-Daily Mirror, Wednesday 23 November 2005 page 10

Binge drinker clinic

An all-night clinic for binge drinkers too drunk to get home is to open this Friday in Newcastle. The idea is to reduce pressure on A&E. Similar centres are also opening in Swansea and Croydon.
Source:-Daily Mirror, Wednesday 23 November 2005 page 10

ChildLine saved by merger
The charity ChildLine, which provides help to children in distress and danger, has averted closure of its telephone helpline by merging with the NSPCC.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 23 November 2005 page 26

Poles top list for work applications in Britain after EU expansion
More than 290,000 eastern Europeans have applied to work in Britain since Poland, the Czech Republic and six other countries joined the EU last year.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 23 November 2005 page 5
 
New guidelines for obsessive disorder
Doctors were yesterday given a set of questions to help them identify patients who may have obsessive compulsive disorder, an illness of which people are so ashamed that they often try to keep their routines and rituals secret even from their families.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 23 November 2005 page 6
 
Two guilty of honour killing
Two men who stabbed and slashed a man 43 times in an “honour killing” in 1996 were convicted unanimously by a jury of his murder yesterday. The Old  Bailey took four days to find Waseem Afsar and Nisan Khan guilty of murdering Ahmed Bashir, a 21-year-old Afghan who had been in a relationship with Afsar’s younger sister Nighat.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 23 November 2005 page 7
 
CSA fails to hit five of seven targets
The Child Support Agency – already facing criticism for its huge backlog of 350,000 cases – has failed to meet five out of seven new performance targets set by ministers a year ago, according to official figures released by Frank Field, the former social security minister.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 23 November 2005 page 7
 
Middle class flight and poor design damaging cities, warns Rogers
The middle classes are abandoning inner London and other cities for the countryside in a drift that threatens to cause a “deepening racial and social” divide, an urban taskforce led by leading architect Lord Rogers of Riverside said.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 23 November 2005 page 11 and Society Guardian pages 1-2
 
At last, a cauldron convention
London’s first soup run forum will be held tonight to co-ordinate efforts across the capital.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 23 November 2005 page 2
 
The haunted turn hunters
Taking on the might of the multi-billion-pound paedophile internet industry, victims of sexual abuse have turned the tables and are determined to bring justice to those who prey on children.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 23 November 2005 page 3
 
Getting closer all the time
Great strides have been made in dealing with gender inequality, both at home and in the workplace. But now, the new chair of the Equal Opportunities Commission says the next big challenge lies in social care.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 23 November 2005 page 5
 
The profits of loss
London’s last remaining secure children’s home is facing privatisation, as are many others nationally. But campaigners fear that standards will slip.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 23 November 2005, page 7
 
Justice by postcode: the lottery revealed
Criminal suspects are up to eight times likely to go free in some parts of the country than others because of a postcode system of justice. Data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act found that almost 40 per cent of sexual offence prosecutions in London failed.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 23 November 2005 pages 1, 2, 6, 7
 
Asylum officers fail to hit target
Immigration officers have failed to reach a government target for the removal of failed asylum seekers, Tony McNulty, the Home Office immigration minister said yesterday.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 23 November 2005 page 2
 
Trench foot rife
A survey by St Mungo’s, a homeless charity, found that a third of the 1, 491 homeless people they questioned were suffering from bronchitis, pneumonia, frostbite or trench foot, an infection that was rife among soldiers in the First World War. A third of rough sleepers had mental health problems.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 23 November 2005 page 8
 
Victory for father in CSA support row
A father has won a first-round victory in a legal challenge that could force the Child Support Agency (CSA) to collect an estimated 1.2billion in unpaid maintenance from absent parents. The father, known only as Martin, from Chester, lodged judicial review proceedings over £50,000 worth of maintenance arrears that he claims his former wife owes him for the care of their two children.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 23 November 2005 page 24
 
 
Welsh news
 
Bullies force scared children to take drugs
Welsh children are being forced into taking drugs by bullies, according to new research. The study of casualty departments in Welsh cities found that in three cases of children who were suffering from the effect of drugs bullies had made them take them. The research was carried out by doctors at Swansea’s Morriston and Singleton hospitals.
Source:- Western Mail, Wednesday, 23 November

Concern grows for missing man
Police are investigating the disappearance of a 32-year-old man who has been missing for more than a week. Officers said that they were concerned for the welfare of Mark Griffths, of Glynneath, Neath.
Source:- Western Mail, Wednesday, 23 November

Scottish news

Home Office cack-handed briefing angers McConnell
A cross-border row over failed asylum seekers has broken out after a briefing by senior Home Office civil servants belittled Jack McConnell’s attempts to win better treatment for families.
Opposition politicians attacked the first minister for his apparent impotence in Whitehall – they believe Home Office officials are dragging their heels in responding to Scottish concerns, following dawn raids on families.
But a source close to McConnell described the officials and their briefing as “cack-handed”, and that Labour ministers in Edinburgh and London had made significant progress in involving social work and education staff in the removal of children.
Source:-The Herald, Wednesday 23 November

Holyrood budget warning for “child tsar”
The convener of Holyrood’s finance committee has warned Scotland’s children’s tsar that she cannot set her own budget.
Des McNulty’s remarks came after Professor Kathleen Marshall, the children’s commissioner, told the committee that she was spending her £1.3 million budget in accordance with the will of parliament.
McNulty told her: “It is not up to you to decide what your budget is. Ultimately it is for parliament to decide that. In that context, there is to me a worrying tone … that, in a sense, you decide what the parameters are.”
Source:-The Scotsman, Wednesday 23 November