TUESDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2006

Migration curbs to help young
New tougher immigration rules seek to protect foreign youngsters travelling to Britain. Tony McNulty, a Home Office minister, said that new measures would prevent child abuse and make it easier to trace children after their arrival. In addition to a visa, each child will have to show that there are “adequate arrangements” for their care in Britain and must identity a person in their home country who is responsible for them.
Source:- The Times, Tuesday 14 February 2006, page 2

£250m fund to boost private nursery wages
The children’s minister, Beverley Hughes, yesterday unveiled a £250m plan to subsidise wages in private and public sector nurseries as an incentive to increase the number of childminders with degrees.Source:- The Guardian, Tuesday 14 February 2006, page 7

Five shaken baby cases to be reopened
Fewer than five cases of shaken baby syndrome are to be reopened despite fears two years ago that many parents had been wrongly convicted of killing their children, the Attorney General will tell parliament today.
Source:- Financial Times, Tuesday 14 February 2006, page 14

Diary of a lonely pensioner
Research by Help the Aged shows that almost 820,000 people feel cut off from society. A pensioner reveals what it is like for so many elderly people as she records three normal days in her life.
Source:- The Daily Mirror, Tuesday 14 February 2006, page 20

Rising costs for care places
Elderly people will pay more for a nursing home place after the government put up its charges for registration and inspection by 15 per cent, the Liberal Democrats claimed.
Source:- Daily Mail, Tuesday 14 February 2006, page 33
 
Relatives charged
The father and grandmother of a six-month-old baby found dead in a culvert have been accused of perverting the course of justice. Sherwain Smith, 20, Theresa Simpson, 47, and a 17-year-old girl were remanded in custody by magistrates in Birmingham, charged with plotting to conceal Troy Simpson’s body.
Source:- The Times, Tuesday 14 February 2006, page 4

Damilola trial continues
A boy accused of being one of Damilola Taylor’s killers was being monitored  “24 hours a day” in a children’s home, the Old Bailey heard yesterday. Anna Parsons, a former manager of the Abbey Street unit in Bermondsey, south London, said the 12-year-old would be reported to police if staff noticed he was missing. But the prosecution claim he came and went as he pleased. The youth, now 17, and two others deny murder, manslaughter and assault with intent to rob. The trial continues.
Source:- The Daily Mirror, Tuesday 14 February 2006, page 15

Tale of Kenyan stowaways
Seven men fled Kenya last year as stowaways in search of a better life. After being discovered, they were forced down into the sea in the dead of night. Somehow five survived.
Source:- The Guardian, G2, Tuesday 14 February 2006, page 14-15

Help for housing where no one is at home
The government is trying to emphasise regeneration rather than demolition of unwanted homes in areas people do not want to live. In Sheffield fashionable developer Urban Splash is attempting to bring a notorious estate back to life rather than killing it off.
Source:- Financial Times, Tuesday 14 February 2006, page 3

Five-fold rise in exclusions as aggressive schoolgirls lose respect
A surge in classroom violence among schoolgirls is worrying teachers and educationalists. Cambridgeshire education authority reported yesterday that the number of girls suspended in its schools because of violent behaviour had risen more than five-fold in two years.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Tuesday 14 February 2006, page 11

Parents are offered £80 to switch from disposable nappies
Local authorities are paying parents up to £80 to swap disposable nappies for the environmentally friendly cloth reusables to cut the hundreds of thousands of pounds it costs each year to bury them in landfill sites.
Source:- The Independent, Tuesday 14 February 2006, page 11                               

£4,000 for your own NHS midwife
Mothers to be are being asked to pay £4,000 for a personal NHS midwife, with 24-hour access through pregnancy and birth. But critics say the scheme at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in west London is creating a two-tier system.
Source:- Daily Mail, Tuesday 14 February 2006, page 8

40pc leap in mental illness cases caused by cannabis
The number of patients admitted to hospital with mental illness caused by cannabis has rocketed since its criminal status was downgraded, according to health service figures.
Source:- Daily Mail, Tuesday 14 February 2006, page 17

Motorcycling, fishing, football…how young tearaways are being treated on the lottery
Millions of pounds are being lavished on treats for truants and young offenders by the controversial Big Lottery Fund.
Source:- Daily Mail, Tuesday 14 February 2006, page 29

Scottish news

Asylum seeker is young Scot of the year
Brzoom Kadirglam, a 29-year-old Iraqi Kurd, has won the the Arnold Kemp award for young Scot of the year. A trained lawyer, Mr Kadirglam has devoted the last five years to voluntary work, helping newly arrived asylum seekers in Gorbals, Glasgow. The Home Office has yet to decide whether he can stay in this country.
Source:- The Herald, Tuesday 14 February 2006

Record numbers of women abused in the home
Calls to a domestic abuse helpline have increased by a fifth in recent weeks compared with the same time last year.
The rise coincided with a television and radio campaign, which ran from Boxing Day until the end of January, to raise awareness of psychological abuse experienced over long periods.
Between December 26 and February 6, volunteers with the Scottish domestic abuse helpline took 3589 calls, an increase of 21 per cent from a similar six-week period a year before.
Source:- The Herald, Tuesday 14 February 2006

Scotland safer as crime falls by six per cent
Recorded crime fell 6 per cent in Scotland last year. Latest data from all of Scotland’s eight forces reveals that, between April and December last year, more than 756,000 crimes were reported – 45,000 fewer than in the same period in 2004.
Violent, non-sexual crimes fell even further – down 11 per cent, from 11,501 to 10,266. A similar drop is seen in sex crimes, which fell from 5,612 to 4,998.
Source:- The Scotsman, Tuesday 14 February 2006

Welsh news

Police to film aftermath of domestic violence
Police are to carry video cameras to film the aftermath of domestic violence in an attempt to tackle the increase in incidents on Valentine’s Day and on major sporting event days.
The scheme, the first of its kind in the UK, is being trialled by police in Cardiff and Rhondda Cynon Taf. They will use the video cameras to gather evidence to help boost the number of convictions.
Source:- Western Mail, Tuesday 14 February 2006

Schools not doing enough to stop bullying
An expert in bullying has warned Welsh schools that they are not doing enough to deal with the issue.
Eric Jones, a former deputy head, said that helplines and counselling were not enough to stop bullying and that on top of this schools had to try to get bullies to change their behaviour.
Source:- Western Mail, Tuesday 14 February 2006