500 children face forcible repatriation

500 children face forcible repatriation
The government plans to reverse its policy of allowing unaccompanied asylum-seeking children to remain in Britain until they are 18, by forcibly deporting up to 500 to Vietnam.
The Home Office admitted it was working on a plan to remove asylum-seeking children, after the Guardian obtained documents revealing the proposal, which could apply even in cases where deportation was against the child’s best interests.
Source:- The Guardian, Friday 18 August 2006, page 1

Incapacity benefit claims due to substance misuse rising
The number of people claiming incapacity benefit because of alcohol or drug problems has more than doubled in a decade.
Source:- Daily Mirror, Friday 18 August 2006, page 9

Nine years for mother who fed child drugs
A mother who started giving her son heroin when he was nine was jailed for nine years yesterday.
Emma Kelly, 31, had turned her son into an addict by the time he was 11, even delivering heroin to him at the gates of his primary school.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Friday 18 August 2006, page 12

Tories to convert council rent into mortgage
Every social housing tenant will be given the opportunity to own his or her home a Conservative government, David Cameron announced yesterday
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Friday 18 August 2006, page 1
 
Police use private firm to control released prisoners with Asbos
A mother and son team have been hired by police to get antisocial behaviour orders imposed on hardened criminals in a final attempt to make them change their ways.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Friday 18 August 2006, page 10

Public sector row over Brown’s two per cent pay limit
Pay review bodies for public sector workers look set to ignore chancellor Gordon Brown’s call for them to limit pay rises to around 2 per cent next year, amid rising household bills.
And unions have warned that pay rises of around 2 per cent would trigger mass strikes across the public sector.
Source:- The Guardian, Friday 18 August 2006, page 5

Charity to offer destitute Poles chance to go home
So many Poles are living in squalor and poverty on the streets of Britain that a Polish charity is sending staff to London to persuade them to return home.
The Barka Foundation, a non-governmental organisation based in Poznan, western Poland, was alerted by British charities. They fear that many of the Poles are turning to drugs, prostitution and crime.
The charity for the homeless plans to visit Britain in the next two weeks. It has already approached the Polish government for funds to set up a London office.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Friday 18 August 2006, page 14
 
Employer groups urge limits on workers from new EU states
Business leaders have called for immigration from Romania and Bulgaria to be restricted when the two join the European Union next year because of the potential strains on public services and community cohesion.
Such a move would end the so-called open door policy operated by the UK government for immigrants from accession states.
Source:- The Financial Times, Friday 18 August 2006, page 1

Pension income ‘threatened by low-cost scheme’
Millions of people would see their retirement incomes fall as a result of the government’s planned national pensions savings scheme, research suggests.
A survey of employers found that some companies may cut back on more generous occupational pension schemes if the plan, under which employers pay a levy for every employee enrolled, comes into force.
Source:- The Financial Times, Friday 18 August 2006, page 3

Probation services ‘need competition’
The Home Office has called for probation services to face greater competition from the private and voluntary sectors.
A report called on them to double the proportion of services they contract out this year and next, meaning by 2007-8 10 per cent will have been outsourced.
Source:- The Financial Times, Friday 18 August 2006, page 3

Ministers ‘turning blind eye’ to illegal migrant labour
The Home Office was accused last night of ignoring tip-offs about illegal migrants working in the black economy.
Employment agencies said they had told the Immigration Service of people with false papers but it took no action.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Friday 18 August 2006, page 12

Scottish news
 
Youth crime tagging branded a costly failure
A key plank of the Scottish executive’s flagship programme to curb youth offending has been branded an expensive failure.
The pilot programme to introduce electronic tagging for persistent troublemakers was expected to involve 90-100 young people at any one time. But 17 months into the scheme, only eight individuals are currently subject to the orders.
In total, 43 young people have been tagged under the pilot, but some have lasted only a few days before being rearrested and sent to secure accommodation. Most have breached their order.
Source:- The Herald, Friday 18 August 2006

Sex ‘groomer’ walks from court
A paedophile who believed he was grooming a 13-year-old girl for sex on a chatroom has escaped jail.
William Forsyth thought he was seducing a teenage girl in a typed conversation with an undercover policeman from Scotland’s national hi-tech crime unit.
He was sentenced to three years probation with the condition he attends a community sex offenders programme, and carries out 250 hours of community service. He was also placed on the sex offender register for three years
Source:- The Scotsman, Friday 18 August 2006

Welsh news

No social care news today.