Reid wins role of security chief in Home Office split

By Mithran Samuel, Amy Taylor and Derren Hayes

Reid wins role of security chief in Home Office split

Plans to split the Home Office into a security ministry and a ministry of justice look set to go ahead.

Under the plans, being pushed forward by home secretary John Reid, the security ministry would control policy on policing, terrorism and immigration, whereas the ministry of justice, including the current Department for Constitutional Affairs, would have powers over criminal justice, prisons and probation.

Source:- The Times, Tuesday 27 February 2007, page 2

A report today finds the number of people with dementia is likely to more than double over the next four decades heralding a huge increase in costs over current levels of £17 billion.

The study, commissioned by the Alzheimer’s Society, also found current provision for people with dementia was inadequate.

Source:- The Times, Tuesday 27 February 2007, page 32

An Age Concern report has found a huge discrepancy between areas in the numbers of older people who receive NHS-funded continuing care.

It said rates varied from 0.5 people per 10,000 in Rotherham to 47.2 people per 10,000 in Portsmouth, and estimated that 75,000 people who should be receiving continuing care are not.

Source:- The Daily Mail, Tuesday 27 February 2007, page 12

Childline has reported an “alarming decline” in young people’s mental health, particularly among girls, saying it received more than 1,000 calls from girls who were contemplating suicide from April 2006 to March 2006.

The charity, which had 6,000 calls on mental health grounds during this period, said it revealed a lack of therapeutic services for children and urged government action on the issue.

Source:- The Daily Mail, Tuesday 27 February 2007, page 21

Woman was hounded out for exposing paedophile at work

A woman has been awarded £20,000 in compensation after blowing the whistle on a co-worker at a Muslim children’s centre in Liverpool who was a convicted sex offender and then getting hounded out of her job.

Roqaya Hartel said Ahmed Saif, director of the Al Ghazali Centre in Liverpool, refused to sack computer administrator Peter Houry after she informed him that Houry had been convicted for indecent assault on a 10-year-old, and then began victimising her and accused her of being a “bad Muslim”.

Source:- The Daily Mail, Tuesday 27 February 2007, page 25

The education secretary will call for fathers to do more for their children in a speech today, citing evidence that their lack of involvement is a strong factor in boys’ underperformance in schools.

Johnson will suggest there should be fathers-only parent evenings in a speech designed to combat Conservative claims that the decline in the traditional family has caused a form of social breakdown in Britain.

Source:- The Guardian, Tuesday 27 February 2007, page 1

Home Office ministers have moved to stave off a humiliating defeat tomorrow over its plans to increase contestability in the probation service through hiving off functions to the private and voluntary sectors.

Ahead of a debate on the Offender Management Bill, which would scrap local probation boards and enable regional managers to buy probation services from any sector, it has tabled amendments to increase local accountability and protect public sector probation functions.

Source:- The Guardian, Tuesday 27 February 2007, page 6

Scottish news
 
Care home tests for TB as worker falls ill

Residents at an Aberdeenshire nursing home are being screened for tuberculosis after a member of staff fell ill.

There are about 50 residents at the privately run Pitcairn Lodge in Kirkton of Skene and all have been offered chest X-rays or blood tests as a precaution.

The staff member is understood to have become unwell with suspected TB in the past fortnight. An NHS Grampian spokesperson said the testing at the nursing home was a precautionary measure and that the condition was “not particularly infectious”.

Source:- The Herald, Tuesday 27 February 
 
Scots facing wait of nearly two years for digital hearing aids

Some Scottish patients who need hearing aids are waiting almost two years to have them fitted.

Figures revealed by the Scottish Conservatives showed that patients in some parts of Scotland are waiting more than 90 weeks for the devices to be fitted. Patients in Borders waited on average 94 weeks from Gp referral to their hearing aid being fitted, while in Grampian the longest wait was 99 weeks.

But the Executive insisted waiting times were falling following a £19.3 million investment to modernise services.

Source:- The Scotsman, Tuesday 27 February

Welsh news

10, 000-strong border force vow by Cameron

David Cameron, the Conservative leader, made a pledge that the Tory government would tackle the problem of illegal immigrants last night.

The pledge comes after several anomalies with the way the group are officially dealt with in Wales have emerged. Over the past year one illegal immigrant was put in a taxi to the Welsh Refugee Council and another was told to go to Heathrow airport of their own accord.

Source:- Western Mail, Tuesday 27 February 2007

Mental health problems among welsh children are rising due to services to help them being inadequate, ChildLine warned yesterday.

Figures produced by ChildLine showed that it received nearly 200 calls last year from children thinking about committing suicide.

Jonathan Green, service manager for ChildLine Cymru, said the resources to help young people with mental health problems were not enough.

Source:- Western Mail, Tuesday, 27 February 2007