Crisis over prisons and probation revealed

By Maria Ahmed, Simeon Brody, Maria Ahmed and Derren Hayes

Crisis over prisons and probation exposed
Sex offender treatment courses are being cut back and preparations are being made to reopen a disused army barracks near Dover in Kent to cope with the growing cash and overcrowding crisis in the prison and probation services.
Source:- The Guardian, Tuesday 19 September 2006, page 1
 
Pressures making teenage life a misery, warns charity
Britain’s teenagers are afflicted by an epidemic of depression and self-harm, according to preliminary results of a survey by The Children’s Society.
Source:- The Guardian, Tuesday 19 September 2006, page 6
 
Alarm over pupils facing a 50-hour school week
Teachers and campaigners clashed yesterday over government plans for schools to offer “wraparound” childcare that would have pupils spending 50 hours a week in school.
Source:- The Times, Tuesday 19 September 2006, page 1

Patients happier than public with NHS
Patients repeatedly report much higher levels of satisfaction with services than the public as a whole, the NHS Confederation said yesterday.
Source:- Financial Times, Tuesday 19 September 2006, page 2
 
The social workers were meant to be helping me, but all they did was make my life worse
Second part of report into “shambolic system for children in care” revealing human cost of fostering policy governed by short-term penny pinching.
Source:- Daily Mail, Tuesday 19 September 2006, page 32

Scottish news

Union warning on equal pay changes
GMB Scotland has claimed that Falkirk Council’s move to “impose” its changed contract on staff will be fought and could lead to a legal battle or a ballot for industrial action.
It said the SNP-run council is the first to impose pay and terms and conditions on employees, which means that some workers will lose out on previous bonuses, in order to bring others up to the standard conditions.
Alex McLuckie, GMB Scotland’s senior organiser, portrayed the decision to impose a new contract as effective dismissal of 5000 workers and said it is “shocking”.
Source:- The Herald, Tuesday 19 September

Care worker found guilty of bullying pensioners
A care worker has been convicted of bullying residents in a nursing home dementia unit.
Ken Bowie pushed elderly residents, pulled an old woman’s hair, and swore aggressively at confused dementia patients.
The incidents happened at the Barleystone Nursing Home in Westquarter, Falkirk, between 7 March, 2005 – when Bowie joined the staff – and 31 May the same year, when he was sacked.
Source: The Scotsman, Tuesday 19 September

Welsh news

Care home to be rebuilt on a new site
A Welsh care home, which was threatened with closure, is set to be rebuilt in a new location after residents campaigned to save it.
A new site has been found for the Annedd home at Llanybydder, Camarthenshire after residents and the community mounted a protest against its closure.
Source:- Western Mail, Tuesday September 19 2006