Council ordered to pay £27,000 for care fees charged in error

Council ordered to repay £27,000 for care fees charged in error
Wandsworth Council was ordered to reimburse a woman for £27,000 wrongly paid in nursing fees for her elderly mother. The council wrongly assessed the mother’s needs, according to the ombudsman.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Thursday 5 October 2006, page 6

Mind calls for more access to green spaces
Mental health patients are often denied access to fresh air as a punishment for bad behaviour, while over half surveyed found their hospital ward unpleasant, research by Mind has found.
It also released an employment survey showing over a quarter of people think conditions in the workplace have a negative effect on their mental health.
Source:- The Guardian, Thursday 5 October 2006, page 8

Police cells may be used to relieve prisons
The prison population looks set to reach capacity within days forcing the Prison Service to use police cells for hundreds of inmates.
Source:- The Financial Times, Thursday 5 October 2006, page 2

Brown’s tax tangle makes it better not to find a job
Gordon Brown’s complex tax system means than millions of people find it more attractive to stay at home rather than go to work, according to a study by the Institute of Fiscal Studies.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Thursday 5 October 2006, page 1

Gang leader smuggled 10, 000 people into this country by cramming them into metal ‘coffins’
The leader of one of Europe’s biggest people smuggling gangs was jailed for eight and a half years yesterday.
Ramazn Zorlu is thought to have smuggled up to 10, 000 illegal immigrants into the UK over the last decade.
Source:- Daily Mail, Thursday 5 October  2006

Scottish news
 

Auditors condemn Scottish council
A council faces the threat of takeover by a Scottish executive hit squad, after Audit Scotland delivered a damning assessment of poor management and political leadership.
West Dunbartonshire’s councillors and officials are heavily criticised by in a report saying there is a culture of bullying and poor staff morale. It attacks decisions made in secret, unstable management, and in-fighting between councillors and officials.
Auditors found staff allegations of fraud, which are being investigated, and concludes the local authority “urgently needs to address weaknesses in the way the council is run”.
Source:- The Herald, Thursday 5 October 2006

Tears, anger, threatened suicide – another dawn raid
It should have been another ordinary school day for Bektas Coban but instead he woke up to strangers rampaging through his home and his father threatening to throw himself to his certain death from the balcony of their 20th-storey flat in Glasgow.
This is the new reality faced by failed asylum seekers in Scotland as Home Office officials step up the controversial programme of dawn-raid removals.
Two other families have been snatched from their homes in Glasgow, including two seriously-ill children.
Source:- The Scotsman, Thursday 5 October 2006

Welsh news

No help for ‘neglected’ housing stock
There will be no Assembly government money for councils who have failed to look after their housing stock, the social justice minister said today.
Edwina Hart said council housing had been neglected by local government over the years.
Source:- icWales, Thursday 5 October 2006