Advice on cot death ignored

Advice on cot death ignored
A fifth of mothers are putting their babies at risk of cot death by failing to ensure that they sleep on their backs. The proportion of parents ignoring official advice on cot death has doubled in six years and may be because of increased publicity about “flat head syndrome” where babies’ skulls can deform because they sleep in one position.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 10 May 2006, page 12

Police gave rapist ticket to freedom
A convicted rapist who fled London using a ticket paid for by the police and then raped a pensioner in Cambridge has been jailed.  Cambridge crown court was told that there had been a catalogue of errors in the case of David Livingstone, 45. The London probation service, which was supposed to be monitoring his behaviour after his release from prison two months earlier, did not know that he had left London.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 10 May 2006, page 23

Doctors reject assisted death bill
The Royal College of Physicians yesterday came out against a proposed law that would allow them to help the terminally ill to die, after a big majority of members consulted said there was no need for a change in legislation.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 10 May 2006, page 12

Recipe for success
As another Jamie Oliver restaurant staffed by disadvantaged youngsters prepares to open, the man spreading the Fifteen ethos says there’s much more on the menu.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 10 May 2006, page 1

Pain but no gain
The NHS cash crisis is beginning to bite in social services and the voluntary sector as the Department of Health looks at ways to alleviate its budgetary overspend.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 10 May 2006, page 3

Voice of the people
Interview with French novelist Faiza Guene. “Cold shouldered’” by the literary establishment, her debut novel on race and the sexes has been embraced by youngsters who, like her, are living and growing up on sprawling suburban housing estates.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 10 May 2006, page 5

Monday blues
A new lottery gives cash to selected familiar charities rather than “contentious” causes. Should voluntary groups be worried?
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 10 May 2006, page 6

Leap of faith
South Asian offenders and probation services are being helped to better understand cultural issues on both sides.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 10 May 2006, page 7

Boys allegedly ‘abused by gay foster pair’
A gay foster carer couple allegedly abused boys placed in their case by Wakefield Council in West Yorkshire, Leeds crown court heard. Ian Wathey, 40, and Craig Faunch, 32, denied the charges. The trial continues.
Source:- Daily Mirror, Wednesday 10 May 2006, page 18

Man arrested after girl of 11 gives birth
A man aged 37 has been arrested after an 11-year-old girl gave birth to a baby boy, a source at Hillingdon hospital, Uxbridge, west London said. The man and girl are thought to be visitors to the UK from South Africa. The girl was taken into the care of Hillingdon Council.
Source:- Daily Mirror, Wednesday 10 May 2006, page 4

Kelly declares war on middle-class Nimbies over more homes
Ruth Kelly declared war yesterday on middle-class families resisting government plans to build hundreds of thousands of new homes. The new communities and local government secretary said she wanted to root out the nimby tendency that was standing in the way of her plans for more affordable housing.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 10 May 2006, page 1

Is homosexuality a sin? Minister for equality refuses to rule it out
The newly appointed government minister responsible for equality is facing controversy after she refused to say whether she believed homosexuality was a sin.
Source:- The Independent, Wednesday 10 May 2006, page 1

Ordeal of the children snatched by the state
Thousands of parents have their children taken away from them because social workers have judged them to be intellectually slow, according to a report by Bristol University academics.
Source:- The Daily Mail, Wednesday 10 May 2006, page 10

Scottish news

Residential school for troubled boys shut to new pupils
 A school for some of Scotland’s most troubled boys has been closed to new pupils.
A watchdog has suspended all admissions at a church-run residential centre in Ayrshire which caters for, among others, underage sex offenders.
The Care Commission yesterday said no boys would be sent to Geilsland School, which is in Beith, until it increases security and child protection procedures.
Source:- The Herald, Wednesday 10 May 2006

OAPs losing out on £118 million a year
Half of poor pensioners in Scotland are missing out on council tax benefits worth more than £100 million a year. Some 218,429 Scottish OAPs failed to claim the £10.40-a-week they were entitled to in 2003-4. This means that in total over £118 million is going unclaimed. John Swinney, of the SNP, blamed the overly complicated system.
Source:- The Scotsman, Wednesday 10 May 2006

Welsh news

NHS ‘moving rapidly’ towards job cuts
The Tories have warned that doctors and nurses in Wales could lose their jobs due to the NHS funding crisis.
So far no doctors and nurses have been made redundant in Wales unlike in England.
But Tory health spokesperson Jonathan Morgan said that health officials had told him that they were on the verge of having to let people go.
Source:- icWales, Wednesday 10 May 2006

Two more cases added to patient death probe
The deaths of a further two patients of GP Howard Martin, who was cleared of murdering three seriously ill men, are being looked into by the police.
The two cases bring the number deaths of Martin’s patients under investigation by police and a coroner to 32.
In December Martin, who now lives in Gwynedd, North Wales, was found not guilty of killing three of his patients by injecting them with high levels of morphine.
Source:- Western Mail, Wednesday 9 May 2006