Child protection training for nurses found wanting

Child protection training for nurses found wanting
Most hospital services do not provide adequate training for staff in child protection, ignoring procedures put in place after the death of Victoria Climbié seven years ago, a Healthcare Commission report has found.
Many nurses had not had the half-hour training required to help them report child protection concerns, while the study also found deficiencies in how staff communicated with children.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 28 February 2007, page 4

Blair’s tough line on problem families
The solution for dealing with problem families is “tough” intervention in which state benefits are conditional on acceptable behaviour, Tony Blair said yesterday.
The Prime Minister admitted that about 2.5 per cent of the population is in “deep and persistent exclusion”, but dismissed claims that the root cause was a decline in marriage.
“The debate is about how you target measures specifically on those families, some of whom will be lone parents but some of whom will be couples,” Mr Blair said at his monthly press conference.
David Cameron, the Tory leader, blamed a breakdown in society and said that the answer was more support for marriage. He called for a tax break for married couples. The Tories are also considering extended marriage counselling.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 28 February 2007, page 8

Care hearing lets obese boy stay with family
A child protection conference in North Tyneside into an eight-year-old child who weighs over 14 stone resulted in a formal agreement with his family on how to reduce his weight.
A statement issued by North Tyneside safeguarding children’s board about Connor McCreaddie, who was featured in ITV’s Tonight programme this week, said the intention was for him to remain with his family.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 28 February 2007, page 5

Review backs below-inflation pay rises in public sector
Doctors, nurses and other public sector workers face real terms pay cuts afther the review bodies that recommend their annual salary increases backed sub-inflationary rises.
The bodies backed rises for most staff below the current retail price index inflation figure of 4.2 per cent and the narrower consumer price index rate of 2.7 per cent, in response to government calls for restraint.
However, the recommended rises are expected to be above the government’s recommendation of 2 per cent for most categories and 1.5 per cent for the NHS.
Source:- Financial Times, Wednesday 28 February 2007, page 1

GPs urged to check pregnant women’s mental health
GPs and midwives should ask pregnant women about their mental health as routinely as they do about physical health issues to stem the tide of ante and post natal depression that hits one in seven mothers, government health advisers say today.
The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence guidelines said practitioners should ask three questions: during the last month have you often been bothered by feeling down or depressed, or by having little interest or pleasure in doing things, and is this something you feel you want help with?Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 28 February 2007, page 11

Jobless Poles swell rise in migrants from the east but asylum seeker numbers fall
The Refugee Council has said the 9 per cent fall in asylum applications last year, announced yesterday by the government, reveals the UK is reneging on its asylum responsibilities and letting poorer countries take the burden.
Chief executive Anna Reisenberger said Britain considered 950 applications from Iraqis in 2006 while Jordan and Syria are hosting more than 1.5m Iraqi refugees, after immigration minister Liam Byrne had described the fall in applications as “impressive”.
Source:- The Guardian, Wednesday 28 February 2007, page 12

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Palliative social work praised
The debate over euthanasia has ignored the positive impact palliative care social work can have on people with terminal illnesses, according to Peter Beresford, professor of social work at Brunel University and head of service user body Shaping Our Lives.
Beresford argues specialist palliative care is not an option for most people and there are concerns it is becoming medically-led, and cited the value of palliative social work identified by a study he conducted at Brunel.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 28 February 2007, page 6

Care leavers become inspectors
Ten care leavers are attending a training session this week to become inspectors of local authority services for looked-after children, in a scheme that will be piloted in West Sussex and York.
The Lilac (Lifelong Improvement for Looked-After Children) project was initiated by care leavers’ charity A National Voice and has the backing of the Commission for Social Care Inspection, and it will look at how well councils involve looked-after children in their own care.
Source:- Society Guardian, Wednesday 28 February 2007, page 7

Court test for hoody ‘beyond the law’
A “sadistic” tearaway with psychopathic tendencies who is regarded as above the law became the focus of a test High Court challenge yesterday over tackling the “hoody culture” that is terrorising communities.
The 13-year-old, named as W for legal reasons, from Co Durham, had charges against him of car crime and assault dropped at Bishop Auckland magistrates’ court last year after he refused to “engage in the legal process”.
But in a challenge to that decision, the crown is seeking from Lady Justice Smith and Mr Justice Gross guidance to courts on how to deal with the problem of feral teenagers.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 28 February 2007, page 21

Asylum seeker to be released
An Algerian asylum-seeker involved in a multimillion-pound fraud is to be released from prison after the Home Secretary admitted that he cannot be deported.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 28 February 2007, page 22

Obese mothers blamed for baby deaths
More newborn babies die in Britain than anywhere else in Western Europe, with maternal obesity a significant factor, according to research.
Source:- The Times, Wednesday 28 February 2007, page 31

Immigrants should do community work
Immigrants should be made to work in the community as part of the qualification process for passports the chancellor said yesterday.
The plan would add to the current requirement for people to have a good level of English.
Source:- Daily Mirror, Wednesday, 28 February 2007, page 4

£55m state benefits paid to the dead
Dead people received more than £55million of state benefits, figures released in a parliamentary answer show.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 28 February 2007, page 2

Free morning after pills for 13-year-olds
Schoolgirls as young as 13 are to be offered the morning after pill free. Pharmacies in Portsmouth will hand out the pills.
Source:- Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 28 February 2007, page 8

Scottish news
 
Public bodies failing over disability law
One in six public-sector organisations in Scotland is facing the threat of legal action amid claims they have failed to comply with a new duty to promote equality for disabled people.
A total of 45 public bodies have not yet produced a disability equality scheme, according to a survey by the Disability Rights Commission.
The deadline for production of a scheme was in December, but the DRC warned that many bodies, including Aberdeenshire Council, have not yet come up with a scheme.
Source:- The Herald, Wednesday 28 February 2007

Councils should lose £5bn schools and care budget, says thinktank
Schools and community care should be run from Holyrood, taking £5bn out of council budgets, according to a blueprint drawn up by a prominent thinktank.
The report, published by the David Hume institute at Glasgow University, says that government has failed to resolve the tensions between central and local government..
It seeks to move on the “middling, muddling way” that it says has afflicted local government for the past 30 years, when the UK-wide Layfield review said councils should raise most of the money they spend, with less dependence on government grants.
Source:- The Herald, Wednesday 28 February 2007

Care watchdog upholds complaints against homes for elderly
Homes for the elderly account for most of the complaints upheld by the care sector watchdog, it has been revealed.
The Care Commission investigated 792 complaints against old people’s residential homes between 2005 and 2006 and upheld 76 per cent of them in whole or in part.
And care homes for the elderly accounted for 57% of all the complaints upheld by the commission that year, it said. 37% of privately-run elderly care home services had a complaint against them upheld.
Source:- The Herald, Wednesday 28 February 2007

Who cares for our most vulnerable?
Privacy is essential for dignity, and as such should be a basic right for all elderly people living in care homes. That is the position of Scottish ministers, the Care Commission, and just about every right-thinking person in the country.
Yet more than 6000 people living in residential homes for the elderly in Scotland are still sharing a room, it was revealed yesterday.
Source:- The Herald, Wednesday 28 February 2007

Homeless may be given houses rented from private landlords
Up to 200 properties may be leased from private landlords to counter a “chronic shortage” of temporary council accommodation for homeless people in Perth and Kinross.
Members of the local authority’s housing and community care committee are also expected to back radical plans to spend up to £1.2 million buying ten privately owned homes to help ease the crisis.
A report has revealed that a lack of suitable accommodation for homeless people left the council’s general fund budget with a deficit of almost £350,000 last year.
Source:- The Scotsman, Wednesday 28 February 2007

Welsh news

Personalised care revolution for social services
Health minister Dr Brian Gibbons launched a 10-year strategy to improve social services in Wales today.
Fulfilled Lives, Supportive Communities outlines the future of social services between 2008 to 2018.
Source:- Western Mail, Wednesday, 28 February 2007