Special hospital to close after accusations of abuse

Special hospital to close after accusations of abuse
A hospital for people with learning difficulties, at the centre of an investigation into patient abuse, will close. It is understood that 14 people with learning difficulties at Budock Hospital will be relocated by December. The Cornwall Partnership  Trust will also be handing over the care of nearly 170 people in 46 community homes.
Source:- The Times, Saturday 22 July 2006, page 30
Full story

Get army to knock young criminals into shape, says Reid
The army may be brought in to toughen the punishment and training of teenage criminals in a radical rethink of treating young offenders.
Source:- The Times, Saturday 22 July 2006, page 27

Child Support Agency to be axed
Ministers will announce on Monday that the CSA will be closed and replaced with a new pared-down system focusing on the most hardened cases of absent fathers who refuse to pay for their children.
Source:- The Times, Saturday 22 July 2006, page 13
Full story

Fears over drive to cut black teenage pregnancies
Government plans to target girls from black and ethnic minorities in an attempt to reduce teenage pregnancy rates needs to be pursued “sensitively”, the Commission for racial Equality said yesterday.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Saturday 22 July 2006, page 19
Full story

Bypass courts for quick justice
Hundreds of thousands of low-level offenders would be dealt with outside the courts under plans for speedier justice unveiled by the Lord Chancellor.
Source:- The Times, Saturday 22 July 2006, page 16

Down’s baby in EastEnders
EastEnders couple Honey and Billy are to have a Down’s syndrome baby girl, in episodes to be screened in early September.
Source:- The Sun, Saturday 22 July 2006, page 7
Full story

Nine years for boy who raped girl, 11, in supermarket
A teenager who raped an 11-year-old girl in in the lavatories at a busy supermarket was sentenced to nine years’ detention yesterday;
Source:- The Times, Saturday 22 July 2006, page 15

Rape scandal
How did social workers fail to spot that the boy in the Sainsbury’s rape case was a monster in the making? The head of the unit handling his case said the rape was “not predictable.” That’s not good enough.
Source:- The Sun, Saturday 22 July 2006, page 6
Full story

New drug therapy offers hope to multiple sclerosis patients
A new treatment could offer the chance of a normal life to victims of multiple sclerosis, new research at the Walton Centre for Neurology in Liverpool has found.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Saturday 22 July 2006, page 2

Billions of NHS cash ‘wasted on operations’
Billions of pounds of NHS money is being wasted every year because of unnecessary operations, the Chief Medical Officer said yesterday.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Saturday 22 July 2006, page 12
Full story

Muslim schools in state system will double
The number of Muslim state schools is about to double as five more independent schools are recommended for government funding. It will bring the number of maintained Muslim schools to 12.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Saturday 22 July 2006, page 24

Give three-year-olds lessons on gay families, says teachers’ union
Children as young as three should be taught about same-sex relationships to stamp out homophobia in schools, the National Union of Teachers said yesterday.
Source:- Daily Mail, Saturday 22 July 2006, page 11

Man questioned over missing girl
A man is being questioned on suspicion of child abduction, following the disappearance of a schoolgirl, 15-year-old Hannah Rodrigues from St Albans, it is believed he met on the internet.
Source:- Independent, Saturday 22 July 2006, page 9

NHS failing children on mental health
A letter sent from the Department of Health to senior NHS officials shows that the government will fail to meet its three key targets for children and young people’s access to psychiatric care by its deadline of December. The biggest setback is that for one quarter of the country there is no emergency help for teenagers suffering a ‘psychotic crisis’ or severe depression.
Source:- The Observer, Sunday 23 July 2006, page 2
Full story

Senior asylum official quits ‘farcical’ appeal system
The immigration system is a farce which fails to expel rejected asylum seekers and lets down deserving cases, according to a senior figure who has quit in despair from the body governing appeals against deportation.
Source:- The Observer, Sunday 23 July 2006, page 3
Full story

Paedophile was set free to rape young children in their homes
Police and church authorities are facing serious questions over how a married priest suspected of being a paedophile was set free to carry out a horrific series of sexual assaults involving hundreds of children across the country. Simon Thomas, a minister at the United Reform church in Hythe, Hampshire will be sentenced on Friday at Southampton crown court.
Source:- Observer, Sunday 23 July 2006, page 7
Full story

Anti-heroin project transforms towns
A remarkable project has transformed one of the regions worst affected by heroin addiction, Bassetlaw in Nottinghamshire.
Source:- Observer, Sunday 23 July 2006, page 12
Full story

Major report on British childhood
A wide-raning inquiry into the true state of childhood is to be launched this week by the Children’s Society under the leadership of Lord Layard.
Source:- Independent on Sunday, 23 July 2006, page 5
Full story

Johnson challenges private schools
The government is to launch a controversial broadside against ‘elitist’ private schools, saying that many do not justify their charitable status.
Source:- The Observer, Sunday 23 July 2006, page 6
Full story

Corruption rife among officials at immigration
A select committee report has uncovered hundreds of allegations of corruption among Immigraiton and Nationality Directorate staff. The home affairs select committee report, which revealed over 700 allegations were made in 2004-5, comes ahead of a government shake-up of immigration this week.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph, Sunday 23 July 2006, page 1
Full story

Public spending watchdog’s verdict on Gordon Brown
The country’s most senior public spending watchdog has launched an attack on chancellor Gordon Brown’s tax and pension credit policies. Auditor General Sir John Bourn, who heads the National Audit Office, said the systemic overpayment of tax credits failed to recognise that demanding repayment from poorer people would cause anguish, while the means-testing involved in pension credit had been costly.
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph, Sunday 23 July 2006, page 5
Full story

Girls more likely to be hit by mum
Almost 18,000 children called ChildLine with reports of physical abuse in 2004-5, an NSPCC report today reveals. It said that girls were more likely to be hit by their mothers and boys by their fathers.
Source:- Daily Mirror, Monday 24 July 2006, page 4
Full story

One-a-day pill to cure Alzheimer’s
Scientists in Australia have developed a drug that may prevent Alzheimer’s disease or delay its onset.
Source:- Daily Mirror, Monday 24 July 2006, page 25
Full story

Abduction charge
Police investigating the disappearance of a 15-year-old girl have charged a man with child abduction and sexual grooming over the internet.
Source:- The Times, Monday 24 July 2006, page 2      
Full story

Despair as forced marriages stay legal
A police chief accuses the government of abandoning young women to a life of violence
Source:- The Times, Monday 24 July 2006, page 26
Full story

Children arrested for playing in a tree
Three 12-year-olds from Halesowen, West Midlands, were arrested and had DNA samples taken at a police station after they climbed a tree and broke some loose branches. The parents of the children accused West Midlands police of treating their children like hardened criminals.
Source:- The Daily Mail, Monday 24 July 2006, page 25
Full story

Postcode lottery ‘denies free care to 3 in 4 elderly’
Tens of thousands of pensioners are wrongly being forced to fun their own care due to a postcode lottery, campaigners claimed yesterday.
Source:- The Daily Mail, Monday 24 July 2006, page 24
Full story

Plan for UK ‘Megan’s Law’ to be abandoned
Labour is preparing to dump headline-grabbing plans to give parents the right to know if paedophiles are living nearby. Home Office minister Gerry Sutcliffe, visiting America, said it may not be possible to replicate ‘Megan’s Law’ here because of the threat of vigilante action.
Source:- The Daily Mail, Monday 24 July 2006, page 29

Scottish news

Stay out of jail card for sex crimes
Sex offenders should be allowed to avoid jail and attend rehabilitation programmes in the community, an executive adviser on criminal justice has claimed.
In a controversial bid to stop reoffending, Bill Whyte said that courts should consider “taking risks” by offering radical alternatives to prison.
Whyte, the director of the Scottish executive-funded Criminal Justice Social Work Development Centre for Scotland, made the comments amid growing concerns that prison is failing to stop offending.
Source:- Scotland on Sunday, 23 July 2006
Full story

Internet courses will alert pupils to dangers
Pupils from the age of 12 are to be taught about the dangers of the internet as part of a new qualification in Scotland.
From the start of next term, secondary pupils at a number of pilot schools will be able to take a course on internet safety, which teaches them about the dangers of grooming and cyber bullying and how to protect themselves against identity theft.
The Scottish Qualifications Authority developed the qualification after a survey of 550 teachers and college lecturers earlier this year which found the vast majority was concerned about pupil safety.
Source:- The Herald, Monday 24 July 2006
Full story
 
Welsh news

Sex pest hostel protest
A protest over fears that sex offenders are being resettled in a hostel near Wrexham took place yesterday.
Around 50 people took part in the demonstration on the Plas Madoc estate.
The Home Office said that none of the people staying at the bail hostel were a serious risk to the local community.
Source:- Wales on Sunday, 23 July 2006
Full story

‘Make sure pupils are safe’
Education minister Jane Davidson has written to education heads at every Welsh council telling them to tighten up internet safety.
The letter warns that they must have strict polices set up or risk having their IT funding removed.
Source:- Wales on Sunday, 23 July 2006
Full story