Reliance on contracts puts charities at risk

Reliance on contracts puts charities at risk
A survey launched today has revealed charities’ reliance on public sector contracts, which are often poorly-funded and insecure.
The online poll, for the Charity Commission, found only 26 per cent of charities providing public services said they felt free to make decisions without pressure to conform to their funders’ wishes.
Just 12 per cent of charities running services were confident that the full costs of contracts were covered by public authorities.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 21 February 2007, page 5

Brown’s boost for Britain’s army of carers
Gordon Brown has launched a campaign to recognise Britain’s carers.
He is set to announce a review today which will put forward the idea of full pension rights for carers.
Source:- Daily Mail, Wednesday 21 February 2007, page 4

‘Tough safety rules sending children off the rails’
A conference today will hear claims that children are seeking increasingly dangerous thrills, including criminal ones, to overcome the “stifling” safety of schools.
Barnardo’s and Tim Gill, former director of Play England, will tell the event that the “compensation culture” has had counter-productive effects on children’s safety.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 21 February 2007, page 6

Southall files under review
Controversial paediatrician David Southall is to have 4,450 of his files examined to see if they include evidence that should have been disclosed in criminal proceedings in which he appeared as a prosecution witness, in an Attorney General-led investigation.
The records in question were not kept in children’s proper hospital files but in special case files compiled by Southall.
Southall came to prominence in 2004 when he accused Stephen Clark, wife of Sally Clark, who was convicted then later cleared of murdering her two sons, of committing the crime on the basis of a television documentary.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 21 February 2007, page 1

Plan to break up council estates
Housing charities have criticised a government-commissioned report on social housing for not focusing on increasing the number of social homes built.
Shelter chief executive Adam Sampson said that he was surprised that the report, by Professor John Hills, “makes no reference to the desperate need” to increase the number of homes.
Source:- The Independent, Wednesday 21 February 2007, page 13

Net hunt for paedophile
Police are hunting a convicted paedophile, who has been missing for seven years, and his wife, who is wanted for questioning over allegations of child cruelty, whom they believe may be on the run with their young children.
John Murrell, 38, was named on the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre site yesterday for failing to keep in touch with probation officers after finishing a jail term for indecently assaulting a nine-year-old.
Source:- The Daily Mirror, Wednesday 21 February 2007, page 15

Plans to remove GMC’s power to police doctors
The Genral Medical Counil is expected to be stripped of its power to judge whether doctors are fit to practise, under reforms announced by the government today.
The GMC is also likely to lose its medical majority, as part of a reform package deisgned to prevent a recurrence of the Shipman tragedy.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 21 February 2007, page 4

Scottish news

Focal point of Scottish poverty
In 1832, when a cholera epidemic swept Glasgow, the majority of its 3000 victims could be found in the poor communities living east of Glasgow Cross.
Nearly two centuries later, the major causes of illness have shifted but the city’s health inequalities remain stark: in 2002, the death toll from heart disease in this area was 56% above the Scottish average, while one-third of its residents suffered a long-term illness.
The perspective was offered by Professor Michael Pacione, chairman of geography at Strathclyde University, as an example of how stubbornly inequality and poverty in Scotland’s biggest city have persisted.
Source:- The Herald, Wednesday 21 February 2007

Welsh news

No social care news today.