Halving child poverty by 2010 will cost billions more

Halving child poverty by 2010 will cost billions more
At least an extra £4 billion a year will have to be spent on benefits by Gordon Brown if the government is to meet its ambitious goal of halving child poverty by 2010, according to a Joseph Rowntree Foundation study.
Source:- Financial Times, Thursday 6 July 2006, page 2
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Special needs pupils ‘lottery’
Many of the 1.5 million children with special needs are being failed by an education system in urgent need of reform, MPs told ministers yesterday.
Source:- The Times, Thursday 6 July 2006, page 13

Judge annuls girl’s forced marriage
A high court judge denounced forced marriage yesterday as an “abomination” as he annulled the wedding of an English-born teenager to her Pakistani cousin.
Source:- The Times, Thursday 6 July 2006, page 25
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Kelly pledges to return more power to councils
Ruth Kelly admitted yesterday that councils had been tied up in endless targets and red tape and had to start giving power back to town halls.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Thursday 6 July 2006, page 6
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Means-testing at its highest since the 1930s, says Field
Nine years of welfare reform by Labour has led to the largest number of households dependent on means-tested benefit since the 1930s slump, according to former minister Frank Field.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Thursday 6 July 2006, page 10
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One NHS patient in 10 is harmed in hospital
Nearly a million patient safety incidents or “near misses” in a single year were recorded in NHS trusts, MPs say in a report which questions the effectiveness of the national patient safety agency.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Thursday 6 July 2006, page 2
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 Cannabis can lead to harder drugs
The long-running debate over the dangers of cannabis will be reignited by a study that challenges the idea that experimenting with the drug is harmless and does not lead to further drug use.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Thursday 6 July 2006, page 9
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 Shot dead, girl social workers sent to her drug-dealing dad
A seven-year-old was shot after social workers allowed let her stay with a drug-dealer believed to be her father, a court heard yesterday.
Toni-Ann Byfield was shot by Joel Smith after she witnessed him murdering Betram Byfield, a man believed at that stage to be her father.
Source:- Daily Mail, Thursday 6 July 2006,
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Scottish news
No social care stories today.

Welsh news
Call for handling of £131 million anti-poverty drive to be investigated
Plaid Cymru called for a Welsh Assembly government’s £131 million anti-poverty initiative to be investigated yesterday.
The call came after a report evaluating the Communities First scheme, found there were question marks over the programme’s effectiveness six years after it had began.
Plaid Cymru said that the auditor general needed to investigate the programme.
Source:- Western Mail, Thursday 6 July 2006
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