Pensioners are denied home help as councils plead poverty

Pensioners are denied home help as councils plead poverty

Most frail older people who need help with washing, cleaning and shopping are no longer getting it, inspectors said yesterday.
Two-thirds of councils are no longer providing home help to older people a report from the Commission for Social Care Inspection said yesterday.

Source:- Daily Mail, Friday 1 December 2006, page 28

HIV treatment plea for asylum rejects

Rejected asylum seekers should not be required to pay for HIV treatment nor be sent back to countries that cannot offer access to medicines, the international development committee is due to say today.

The report on HIV among marginalised groups is designed to coincide with World Aids Day.

Source:- Financial Times, Friday 1 December 2006, page 4

Hundreds of foreign inmates still awaiting deportation months after end of jail terms

A fire broke out at Lindholme immigration removal centre, south Yorkshire, yesterday morning, the day after riots and disturbances began at the Harmondsworth centre in west London.

No facilities were lost at Lindholme, while at Harmondsworth, responses to the disturbances were “ongoing”, home secretary John Reid told MPs.

Source:- The Independent, Friday 1 December 2006, page 40-41

Cot deaths ‘expert’ Sir Roy may not have been wrong

Findings of a cot death study that helped discredit paediatrician Sir Roy Meadow where challenged in the British Medical Journal yesterday.

The BMJ report challenged methods in the 2005 report in rival journal the Lancet that almost 90 per cent of second sudden infant deaths in families were natural.

The Lancet study was published during a government review into sudden infant deaths sparked by controversial evidence given by Meadow that there was a one in 73 million chance that a mother could have two successive cot deaths.

Source:- The Independent, Friday 1 December 2006, page 42

Public to be sold shares in new prisons

The public may be offered the chance to buy shares in new prisons to overcome Treasury resistance to funding them, it has emerged.

The Home Office is considering the scheme, in which investors would get a regular dividend from the prisons.

Source:- The Guardian, Friday 1 December 2006, page 1

Welsh news

The first Welsh woman to be convicted of familial homicide yesterday admitted attacking a witness in an attempt to get a more favourable outcome in the case against her it.

Rebecca Lewis, 21, of Townhill, Swansea, pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice at Swansea Crown Court yesterday. She said she had assaulted Wayne Lewis in order to try to get him to change his statement. The statement was used in the familial homicide case against her where she was found guilty of failing to protect her son Aaron from her partner Andrew Lloyd.

Source:- Western Mail, Friday 1 December 2006

Scottish news

Asbos: twice as many but more are breached

Councils and landlords are making much greater use of antisocial behaviour orders but there are also more Asbos being breached, according to new figures.

Scottish executive research shows a 24 per cent rise in applications to the courts for civil Asbos last year, and a doubling in their use over the last two years.

However, there was also an increase in the rate at which the orders were breached – up from 26 per cent in 2004-05 to 31 per cent in 2005-06.

Source:- The Herald, Friday 1 December 2006

Professor attacks McConnell over children’s funding

Local government finance expert Professor Arthur Midwinter has hit out at the First Minister after he questioned the accuracy of research into the funding of children’s social work services.

In a report he prepared for the Association of Directors of Social Work (ADSW), Mr Midwinter said the area faced a funding shortfall of £161m.

That was denied by Mr McConnell during First Minister’s Questions last month, but Prof Midwinter hit back claiming his comments were “grossly misleading and inaccurate”.

Source:- The Herald, Friday 1 December 2006

Just £3, 000 debt

Debt recovery orders which could see people losing their homes over £3,000 have been approved by the Scottish Parliament.

MSPs gave the green light to land attachment orders yesterday – despite a last-ditch bid by opposition parties to block the measures they claim are “draconian”.

Under the Bankruptcy and Diligence Etc (Scotland) Bill, creditors can apply for an order against those with more than £3,000 of debt. If the debt is not repaid within six months, debtors’ home and land can be sold.

Source:- The Record, Friday 1 December