Carers’ rights worry business

Carers’ rights worry business
Business leaders expressed concern that government plans to give 2.65m carers the right to request flexible working hours could create staffing problems and increase red tape.
Employers are worried that categories of carers eligible for flexible working, announced yesterday by the Department of Trade and Industry, are too broad and could disrupt small businesses in particular.
Source:- Financial Times, Friday 10 November 2006, page 4

Waste costs ‘will hit other council services’
Town halls will have to cut services for children and the elderly or impose big council tax rises to cover the soaring costs of waste disposal, the Local Government Association says. It says many councils are withdrawing home care services by changing eligibility criteria.
Source:- The Times, Friday 10 November 2006, page 7

Internet sex abuse
An internet paedophile was jailed for ten years by Inner London Crown Court for blackmailing schoolgirls into sending him indecent photos of themselves by taking control of their computers.
Source:- The Times, Friday 10 November 2006, page 2

Home Office deports seven year old girl as her mother remains in UK
A refugee support group condemned the Home Office yesterday for returning a seven-year-old girl to Kenya while her mother remains in Scotland.
Source:- The Independent, Friday 10 November 2006, page 22

Sick killer pleaded for care
A mental health patient stabbed a neighbour to death after being refused secure psychiatric care, a court heard yesterday.
Andrew Howlett, 35, a paranoid schizophrenic, killed Michael Gallagher, in West Norwood, south London months after being discharged from South London and Maudsley hospital.
Source:- The Sun, Friday 10 November 2006, page 7

Man hid under girl’s bed for 3 months
A man on the run from police seduced a 12-year-old girl and then hid under her bed for three months before eventually running away with her. A judge in Manchester jailed Scott Jennings, of Ashton-under-Lyne, Tameside, for two years and three months after he pleaded guilty to two counts of rape and one of sexual assault.
Source:- The Times, Friday 10 November 2006, page 13

Islamophobic bullying fears
A crackdown on Islamophobic bullying in schools has been ordered by the Government because of increasing “fear and suspicion” of Muslim students in the classroom.
Source:- The Times, Friday 10 November 2006, page 2

Cost of raising a child hits £180,000
The cost of bringing up a child is rising faster than property prices and is almost as expensive as buying a house outright, according to a survey.
Source:- The Times, Friday 10 November 2006, page 16

All children may have to stay on at school until 18
Children will be compelled to stay in full-time education or training until they reach 18 under proposals being considered by ministers for one of the biggest shake-ups in education for decades.
Source:- The Times, Friday 10 November 2006, page 26

Doctor who ran clinic for drug addicts is struck off
The founder of a clinic that pioneered innovative treatments for heroin addicts was struck off yesterday for potentially lethal medical errors. The General Medical Council ruled that Colin Brewer, the medical director of the Stapleford Centre, was guilty of serious misconduct.
Source:- The Times, Friday 10 November 2006, page 34

Two thirds of criminals sent back to jail within two years
More criminals are returning to a life of crime within months of serving sentences than when Labour came to power, according to official figures published yesterday.
Source:- The Times, Friday 10 November 2006, page 2

Judges to get more power to tackle violent offenders
Judges in England and Wales are to be given powers to add extra years to the sentences of violent and sexual offenders under government plans announced yesterday.
Source:- The Times, Friday 10 November 2006, page 2

Keep drug and drink criminals out of jail, says Reid
Thousands more drug addicts, alcoholics and wife beaters should escape jail, John Reid ordered yesterday.
Source:- Daily Mail, Friday 10 November 2006, page 6

Scottish news
 
Parliament throws equal pay ball back into councils’ court
Scottish ministers have insisted the executive won’t step in over the single status pay agreement and that councils will have to pick up the bill for implementing it.
George Lyon, deputy finance minister, insisted: “It would be wrong for ministers to interfere in discussions between local authorities, their staff and the unions.”
Unions have claimed it could cost more than £500m, but Lyon said that, of the £1bn that they hold in their reserves, about £250m is not allocated for a set purpose.
Source:- The Herald, Friday 10 November 2006

Campaign to raise £1m for new veterans’ care home
A campaign to raise £1m has been launched to help fund a new home to care for ex-servicemen and women.
The Erskine Glasgow home is due to open in Anniesland next summer, the first time the charity has had a facility in the city.
Erskine plans to open a three-storey home with 46 en-suite bedrooms for residents to receive residential social care and long term nursing. The project has a budget of £5.6m and Glasgow’s Lord Provost Liz Cameron urged the city to help raise the £1m target.
Source:- The Herald, Friday 10 November 2006
 
Teenager who made 28,000 cries for help is ordered to behave
A teenage girl plagued the Samaritans with thousands of nuisance calls once claiming there was a bomb in one of their buildings.
At an Aberdeen Sheriff Court hearing Jade Heanan admitted telephoning the charity helpline 28,000 times in five months after becoming depressed.
Sentence on Heanan was deferred until next April in order for her to be of good behaviour and for the preparation of reports.
Source:- The Scotsman, Friday 10 November 2006

The people who have Asbos to thank for improving life
Scottish ministers have once again appealed for antisocial behaviour orders to be used more frequently to improve people’s quality of life.
Two years after the Scottish executive extended the range and scope of ASBOs only six have been given to the under-16s and 65 Asbos have been awarded alongside convictions. This compares to the 200 ordinary Asbos handed out in 2004-5 alone.
The act also introduced new measures for councils and the police, including police dispersal orders, fixed penalty notices for litter and antisocial behaviour and closure orders for domestic premises.
Hugh Henry, the minister for antisocial behaviour, said: “We want the areas that are not using these powers, to use them. If it can work in one part of the country it can work in another.”
Source:- The Scotsman, Friday 10 November 2006

Concerns over planned powers to protect elderly
Fundamental changes are needed to legislation designed to protect Scotland’s elderly and vulnerable adults, MSPs have claimed.
In a report out today, Holyrood’s health committee express concern over powers which potentially allow people to be removed from their homes against their will if abuse is suspected.
The committee said it supported the overall principles of the Adult Support and Protection Bill, which includes greater powers for officials to investigate suspected abuse, but said “substantial amendments” must be made to the draft bill.
Source:- The Scotsman, Friday 10 November 2006

Asylum seeker flees Dungavel in laundry van
A failed asylum seeker has escaped from Dungavel detention centre in the back of a laundry van.
The alarm was raised after the man, originally from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, could not be located by staff.
His mobile phone was later found in the village of Muirkirk, Ayrshire, less than 10 miles south of Dungavel. He had been in Dungavel for less than two months
Source:- The Record, Friday 10 November 2006

Welsh news

No social care stories today.