Woman gets four years for allowing death of son

Woman gets four years for allowing death of son
A mother who let her partner physically abuse and kill her son became the first person convicted of the new charge of familial homicide yesterday. The charge means that the person has allowed the death of a child. Hayley Kenny received a four year jail sentence at Chelmsford crown court.
Source:- The Guardian, Tuesday January 16 2007, page 12

Most back-to-work schemes fall short
Government schemes to help disabled people back into work need to be streamlined and tougher controls imposed on providers, an MPs report has said.
The public accounts committee said there were big differences in value for money between schemes and some providers were selecting candidates who were easier to place in jobs.
Source:- The Financial Times, Tuesday 16 January 2007, page 3

Minister to tackle asylum seekers
Foreign office minister Lord Triesman has been appointed as the government’s special envoy to increase the rate of return of failed asylum seekers.
He will seek to significantly increase returns to countries that already accept people back and to encourage countries that currently do not take back asylum seekers to do so.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Tuesday 16 January 2007, page 2

Home Office figures not up to scratch
Almost one in five sets of Home Office statistics are not up to scratch, its top official told MPs yesterday.
Permanent secretary David Normington said the inadequate data sets had been revealed by an internal review and said they were currently being examined. He did not reveal which areas of policy had inadequate statistics.
Source:- The Times, Tuesday 16 January 2007, page 4

Civil servant ‘helped wife to fulfil her death wish’
A depressed mother who begged her family to help her commit suicide died after jumping from a viaduct after being driven there by her husband. Linda Stephenson’s husband David is standing trial at Doncaster crown court where he denies aiding and abetting his wife’s suicide.
Source:- Daily Mail, Tuesday 16 January 2007, page 5

Scottish news
 
‘National champion’ for children in care
Anna Fowlie, team leader for children and young people at the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities , is to be seconded to the Scottish executive to champion the education needs of children in care.
Ms Fowlie is expected to be in post next Monday, initially on a one-year secondment.
Ministers are to also receive regular reports on the progress in improving the education of children in care.
Source:- The Herald, Tuesday 16 January 2007

Minister backs down further over flagship child protection policy
Ministers moved yesterday to drop even more parts of flagship legislation on child protection in order to avoid the bill failing.
The bill would have resulted in one million people, a quarter of the adult population, being subjected to a police background check if their job or voluntary work brings them into contact with children or vulnerable adults.
However, facing widespread political dissent and following a damning report from the Holyrood education committee, Robert Brown, deputy education minister has now dropped the retrospective element of the vetting – a move which means only new staff will be checked until the legislation has bedded down.
Source:- The Herald, Tuesday 16 January 2007
 
Parents hail ‘enormous’ benefits of rugby training for autistic children
Children with autism should be encouraged to take part in sport, after a study showed big improvements in youngsters with the condition who played rugby.
A project in Glasgow enrolled 27 children between the ages of seven and 16 to take part in six rugby training sessions.
The researchers found that more than half the youngsters saw improvements in their relationships and social skills.
Source:- The Scotsman, Tuesday 16 January 2007

Welsh news

Police gain power to disperse youth
Police in Newport have been granted powers to disperse groups of young people who intimidate members of the public. The dispersal notice powers will enable the police to break up any group of two or more young people if they think their behaviour is distressing others.
Source:- Western Mail, Tuesday 16 January 2007