Single mothers to be offered paedophile check on partners

Single mothers to be offered paedophile check on partners
Single mothers will be able to ask the police to check the background of a new partner to find out whether he is a sex offender under moves being considered by the Home Office.
Meanwhile some of Britain’s most wanted child sex offenders will be identified publicly today on a new website dedicated to tracking them down. It is thought to be the first time that details of convicted paedophiles have been published nationwide by Britain’s law enforcement agencies.
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre has set up the site, to appeal for information about child sex offenders who have disappeared off the radar.
Source:- The Guardian, Friday 17 November 2006, page 1

Health trust’s failures led to random killing in park
An independent inquiry into Finnegan’s death found that serious failures by a mental health trust had resulted in John Barrett, who had a history of extreme violence, being allowed to walk out of a secure unit.
But mental health groups expressed anger last night after the government used the random killing of Denis Finnegan by a paranoid schizophrenic patient to justify its third attempt to overhaul the law to introduce compulsory community treatment of people with mental illness.
The Mental Health Alliance, representing almost 80 organisations opposed to the law reform, said the report into the killing in Richmond Park in south-west London, made no case for the changes.
Source:- The Guardian, Friday 17 November 2006, page 5

Blacklist of ‘risky’ workers falls foul of human rights law
Older people’s groups have reacted angrily to a ruling yesterday which found elements of the Protection of Vulnerable Adults scheme were incompatible with human rights law.
A judge found in favour of four nurses who said their human rights had been ignored by provisional PoVA bans which had prevented them from working.
The decision means the government must revise the scheme.
Source:- The Daily Mail, Friday 17 October 2006, page 28

Yob fines cost taxpayers £91
Tony Blair’s on-the-spot fines for yobs cost taxpayers £91 for every £45 collected, it was revealed yesterday.
Source:- The Sun, Friday 17 November 2006, page 6

Parents ‘bullying’ GPs to get Prozac for children
Doctors are prescribing children anti-depressants at alarming rates because of increasing pressure from parents, a report has revealed.
Source:- The Times, Friday 17 November 2006, page 10

Drugs advisory body faces legal challenge
Two drugs companies have launched a legal challenge against a government advisory body’s decision to stop the NHS prescribing three drugs to treat the early stages of the disease.
Pfizer and Eisai will mount a judicial review against the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence’s decision, which has been strongly opposed by Alzheimer’s and older people’s groups.
Source:- Financial Times, Friday 17 November 2006, page 2

Older workers show the spirit of adventure
Figures out yesterday show a 1.7m rise, to 7.64m, in the number of working people over 50 since 1997, with 400,000 of these being over pensionable age.
Source:- Financial Times, Friday 17 November 2006, page 4

Rising level of young drinkers being sent to hospitals
The number of children admitted to hospital after excessive alcohol consumption has risen by a fifth in five years, NHS figures have shown.
The findings, which showed that 20 youngsters a day were being diagnosed with conditions including alcohol poisoning and behavioural disorders, prompted experts to question the effectiveness of the government’s alcohol harm reduction strategy.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Friday 17 October 2006, page 9

Top state schools urged to seek out disadvantaged children
Leading state schools should seek out children from deprived backgrounds to help end the stubborn problem of underachievement and low expectations, the education secretary, Alan Johnson, said yesterday.
Source:- The Guardian, Friday 17 November 2006, page 12

One in three babies is unplanned
One in three babies is conceived by mistake, the result of missed pills and split condoms, according to a large-scale study which questions whether women have the control over their lives that modern contraception promised them.
Source:- The Guardian, Friday 17 November 2006, page 9

Reid accused of misleading public on probation lapses
John Reid is accused today of undermining the probation service by presenting a distorted picture of its record in supervising criminals.
Source:- The Times, Friday 17 November 2006, page 8

Scottish news

Young offender cases double in 10 years
The number of young people referred to the children’s reporter has more than doubled in the last 10 years.
Overall, referrals to the reporter increased by 9 per cent last year, with the total reaching an all time high of 97,607.
Source:- The Herald, Friday 17 November 2006

Care children left behind
Children in care are still being left behind in the education stakes.
Although an improvement on last year, the figures show half of those leaving care did not have a single qualification equivalent to a foundation level standard grade.
The other half had at least one qualification but only 34 per cent had passes in both maths and English – compared with 91 per cent of all Scottish pupils who gain this or better by the end of their fourth year.
Source:- The Record, Friday 17 November 2006

Welsh news

Asbos not used often enough, says Hain
Controversial antisocial behaviour orders are not being used often enough, Welsh Secretary Peter Hain said yesterday.
Source:- icWales, Friday 17 November 2006

Working parents ’cause Asbo society’
Working parents who put their children into nursery to continue their careers are fuelling the Asbo generation, a senior church figure claimed yesterday.
The Right Rev Carl Cooper, whose addresses often hit the headlines, stressed his attack was not on parents themselves but on government failure to support the traditional family unit.
Source:- icWales, Friday 17 November 2006

‘Back us on child poverty ‘
Senior Labour AM Huw Lewis yesterday challenged other parties to endorse the party’s target of wiping out child poverty by 2012.
Source:- icWales, Friday 17 November 2006