Families told elderly care crisis looming

Families told elderly care crisis looming
Families face a growing burden of care for elderly and disabled relatives and most people will have to pay for their own support services in old age as the state’s role shrinks, the government’s care watchdog will warn today.
A fundamental shift in responsibility is taking place as councils respond to spiralling demand by concentrating resources on fewer people with greater needs, the Commission for Social Care Inspection will say in a report.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 1

Pensioner in human rights fight
The exclusion of private sector care providers from Human Rights liability will be challenged at the court of appeal tomorrow.
The case is being brought by a woman with Alzheimer’s placed in a home run by Southern Cross Health Care, which now wants her to leave.
Source:- Daily Mail, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 19

Lottery projects may lose cash as Olympic bill soars
The Treasury is poised to raid a multimillion-pound lottery fund supporting thousands of community projects to help pay for the soaring costs of the Olympics, the chairman of the body warns today. Sir Clive Booth, of the Big Lottery Fund, fears “dark forces in Whitehall” are planning to plunder the cash pot to help plug the £900m Olympic funding shortfall.
He says this would have a “chronic and damaging effect” on the fund’s mission to help the neediest groups in Britain.
Those at risk of being hit if the Big Lottery Fund budget is cut included disabled children, homeless young people and users of community sports facilities and village halls.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 7

Shake-up for social housebuilding and regeneration
Social housebuilding and regeneration programmes face the biggest shake-up in at least two decades with the launch next week of a new government agency designed to streamline delivery.
Likely to be named Communities England, the organisation will be formed partly by the merger of two quangos – the national regeneration agency English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation, which funds and regulates social housing. Because it is also likely to embrace functions handled by the Department for Communities and Local Government such as neighbourhood renewal schemes, insiders say the body should be seen as a completely new agency, with a mission to address the hot issues of “community building” and “place-making”.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 2

Tenants in Asbo move
Tenant management associations have been given the power to apply for antisocial behaviour orders, the government announced yesterday.
Under the measure, the power could be extended to other groups, such as neighbourhood watches.
Source:- Daily Mirror, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 8

Ban on bail hostels
A bail hostel accused in a television documentary of failing to monitor sex offenders will no longer house the group.
The Brigstocke Road hostel in Bristol is among three hostels that will on longer take sex offenders following a Home Office review, alongside Seafield Lodge, North London, and Welford House, Birmingham.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 4

Supervision of sex offenders ‘is failing’
The NSPCC has called on the government to overhaul its sex offender management system, saying it is currently inconsistent and under-resourced.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 9

Cartoon teaches emotion to autistic children
A Cambridge University study has found that a cartoon featuring human faces grafted on to animated trains has helped autistic children understand emotions.
The government-funded project found that high-functioning autistic children who had watched the cartoon developed the same ability to identify and describe emotions as other children.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 13

Teachers says they cannot cope with dyslexic children
The majority of state school teachers lack confidence education dyslexic children, a survey for the National Union of Teachers has found.
The NUT blamed the government following the survey, which found that just 9 per cent felt “very confident” in teaching a dyslexic child, saying it had failed to invest in adequate training and support.
Source:- The Independent, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 6

Ruth Kelly’s husband governor of school son left
Ruth Kelly’s husband, Derek Gadd, is vice-chairman of governors at the state school her dyslexic son has been removed from, it emerged last night. The couple’s three other children still go to the school in Tower Hamlets, east London.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 6

Stannah refused worker a stairlift
A disabled worker at the Stannah Stairlift company told an employment tribunal that the firm refused to put in a stairlift for him at their offices in Andover, Hants because “everyone would want to ride on it and no work would get done.”
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 2

Pay deal set to give NHS staff above-inflation rises
NHS staff look set to receive above-inflation pay increases due to incremental salary rises earned through its Agenda for Change programme.
At a time when the government is cracking down on public sector pay, NHS employers admitted that non-medical staff would receive average incremental rises of 2.5 to 3 per cent on top of their annual headline increase.
Source:- Financial Times, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 3

Diet and exercise ‘transformed our children’
The behaviour of children with special needs improves “significantly” with a good diet and regular exercise, a study at a special schoo in Merton, south London has found.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 4

Coroner rules 91-year-old did not starve in hospital
A coroner ruled that a 91-year-old whose family claimed she had been starved to death in hospital died from natural causes.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 8

Gay-friendly employers
Police forces and financial institutions are surprise stars on the latest list of gay-friendly employers in the UK. But is homophobia really on the way out?
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 1

Charity brand value measures up
Consultancy Intangible Business has published its latest survey of the UK’s most valuable charity brands, Cancer Research UK retains the top slot. Its brand value is put at £209m in 2006 – a £7m increase on the previous year, while the National Trust is still in second place despite a £4m reduction in brand value to £192m.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 2

Indeterminate life terms futile, says parole board chief
An explosion in the use by the courts of a new indeterminate “life” sentence has been sharply criticised by the head of the parole board as a “futile exercise” which will only increase prison overcrowding.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 10

No record kept of criminals convicted abroad
Hundreds of serious criminals convicted abroad – including killers and rapists – were left off the police national computer because their details were never passed on by the Home Office, MPs were told yesterday.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 2

Peers back gay rights laws despite protest
Peers crushed attempts last night to block new homosexual rights laws. The House of Lords voted by 199 to 68 to back new regulations banning businesses from discriminating against gays in the provision of goods and services.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 10 January 2007, page 10

Campaign urging residents to ‘shop’ drug dealers extended
The Scottish executive’s campaign which urges local residents to “shop” dealers in their area through the Crimestoppers scheme is to be extended to the north-east of Scotland, it emerged yesterday.
The Drug Dealers Don’t Care campaign, which has already been operating successfully in six local authority areas in central Scotland, is to be extended to Dundee and Aberdeen.
Source:- The Scotsman,  Wednesday 10 January 2007

Scotland faces ‘global disgrace’ for executive failure to ban smacking
The Scottish executive is likely to be criticised for failing to outlaw smacking of children by a powerful UN watchdog.
The Scotsman has learned that ministers will face a damning submission from the UN committee on the rights of the child over its refusal to ban smacking despite pressure from more than 60 UK organisations.
The committee urged the executive to act swiftly on the issue five years ago.
Source:- The Scotsman,  Wednesday 10 January 2007

Welsh news

Pensioner wins battle for Chinese wife to move in
A pensioner has won his fight with his local council to move his 44-year-old chinese wife into the older people’s complex where he lives. Neath Port Talbot Council had previously told 69 year-old Ken Miller that his wife was unable to move in due to the complex having a strict over-60s policy.
Source:- Western Mail, Wednesday 10 January 2007