WEDNESDAY 26 APRIL 2006

Sick note culture in probation service
The probation service is suffering from a sick note culture which costs the taxpayer more than £30 million a year, the National Audit Office claimed yesterday. It worked out 12.3 working days were lost for each staff member in 2004-5.
Source:- The Independent, Wednesday 26 April 2006, page 12

Children self-harm aged nine, warn nurses
Children as young as nine are deliberately self-harming and attempting suicide, the Royal College of Nurses annual conference was told. Despite the problem, funds for child and adolescent mental health services are being cut and there is a severe shortage of inpatient psychiatric beds for youngsters.
Source:- The Independent, Wednesday 26 April 2006, page 20

Down’s girl is refused account by Barclays
A bank has apologised after refusing to open an account for a teenager because she had Down’s syndrome. Barclays in Ipswich told Wendy Rusher, 61, that her 18-year-old daughter was disqualified from opening a joint account with her because she was “mentally incompetent”.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 26 April 2006, page 3

Parents advised to detect drug abuse by learning lingo
Parents of children as young as 11 are being told by the government to familiarise themselves with slang words for cocaine after one in 50 children aged 11-15 said they had taken the drug. Drugs information website Talk to Frank launched a parents’ drug test today to help parents detect drug abuse.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 26 April 2006, page 8

Patients tied up
A nurse who let residents at a home be bound to their chairs for up to 12 hours has been struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council in London. Bernadette Searle, 48, admitted to using restraint and medication without consent at Wentworth Croft home, in Peterborough, but denied professional misconduct.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 26 April 2006, page 4

Back catalogue
A unique musical collaboration that documents the extraordinary recovered memories of a group of older people could help change care home attitudes towards dementia.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 26 April 2006, page 3

Change for the better
After nine years of pushing the government to face up to the shifting reality of homelessness, the charismatic head of Crisis talks exclusively about why she feels the time is right for her to move on
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 26 April 2006, page 5

Extreme makeover
From health to housing, social innovation is the key to making public services smarter and more efficient. It’s time to take it more seriously.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 26 April 2006, page 7

YHA sounds rural retreat
Critics say the charity is betraying its founding principles by selling off 32 countryside hostels
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 26 April 2006, page 7

Brought to book
Library earns top award for its groundbreaking work with antisocial teenagers.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 26 April 2006, page 7

Blair urged to reshuffle Cabinet after NHS row
Senior ministers are privately urging Tony Blair to carry out a reshuffle to repair the damage caused by the row over nursing job cuts which as left health secretary Patricia Hewitt looking vulnerable.
Source:- The Independent, Wednesday 26 April 2006, page 18

Shocking lapses freed foreign inmates
Shocking lapses lead to more than 1,000 foreign prisoners who should have been considered for deportation being freed, Charles Clarke said yesterday.
Source:- Financial Times, Wednesday 26 April 2006, page 2

Travellers leave £50,000 bill
Epping Forest Council is to spend £50,000 clearing rubbish left when travellers abandoned an illegal camp.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 26 April 2006, page 6

Strike threats over court job cuts
Justice will “grind to a halt” in some parts of England and Wales as a result of compulsory redundancies in the Courts Service, the Public and Commercial Services union warned. It has not ruled out a strike ballot after learning 1,000 jobs would go in the courts and 300 in the Department for Constitutional Affairs.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 26 April 2006, page 6

10,000 new nurses can’t find a job in cash-strapped NHS
Up to 10,000 student nurses face unemployment when they graduate because of ballooning deficits in the NHS, the Royal College of Nurses conference heard yesterday.
Source:- The Daily Mail, Wednesday 26 April 2006, page 2

Stabbing was racist attack, say police
Christopher Alaneme, 18, a black teenager, was stabbed to death in Sheerness Kent on Friday a racially motivated attack, detectives said yesterday.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 26 April 2006, page 23

Land of make-believe
Critics may love the dull, tasteless rural pastiche of new housing developments. But the public loves them.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 26 April 2006, page 1

Scottish news

Families in middle-class areas shun MMR vaccine
A study by Health Protection Scotland shows that 25 postcode districts in Scotland have more than 20 per cent of nursery school children at risk of catching measles because they have not had the MMR jab. This is up from just three postcode areas in 1998, when controversial research linked the MMR vaccine to autism, causing parents to abandon the jab.
Health Protection Scotland is looking at whether the falling uptake is chiefly due to affluent parents declining the jab, or if rates are falling across all social groups.
Source:- The Scotsman, Wednesday 26 April 2006

Front page led fight against neds
Justice minister Cathy Jamieson has admitted a Daily Record front page was the inspiration in her battle against antisocial behaviour. The page included a photo, taken during a ministerial tour round Auchinleck, Ayrshire, of a ned gesturing behind her back accompanied by the headline “If you see a ned, let me know”. Jamieson admitted it was a joke at her expense but had helped get the message on antisocial behaviour across.
Source:- The Scotsman, Wednesday 26 April 2006

Welsh news

Girls’ attacker is jailed 30 years on
A paedophile was jailed yesterday for attacks he committed 30 years ago.
John Ohehir, now 48, attacked three girls who were aged between seven and ten years old at the time. The victims came forward to give evidence in court three decades later.
Ohehir denied five charges of indecently assaulting the girls but was found guilty at Cardiff crown court.
Source:- Western Mail, Wednesday, 26 April 2006

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