Ministers rethinking plan to open family courts to media

Ministers rethinking plan to open family courts to media
The government is having second thoughts about its proposal to open family courts to the media, in the face of strong opposition from children’s groups and others, the lord chancellor signalled last night.
Source:- The Guardian, Thursday 22 March 2007, page 7

Missed chances of ending 20 years of cruelty
Welfare professionals missed a string of chances to raise concerns about a “sadistic” foster mother who subjected three children to physical and mental abuse over 20 years, it was claimed yesterday.
Source:- The Guardian, Thursday 22 March 2007, page 2

Brown says budget will lift children out of poverty
The chancellor insisted the tax changes, combined with increases to working families tax credit and child credit, would lift 200,000 children out of poverty, simplify the tax system and ensure 600,000 pensioners no longer have to pay income tax by increasing age-related allowances.
Source:- The Guardian, Thursday 22 March 2007, page 1

Ministers stall radical shake-up of council tax
The biggest review of local government for 40 years yesterday proposed radical reforms of council tax, including new bands for the most expensive homes and levies on charity shops as well as farms and derelict properties.
The sweeping proposals provoked an immediate response from ministers who tried to avoid a political row by either postponing or scrapping many of the ideas, although the study was commissioned by the Treasury three years ago.
Source:- The Guardian, Thursday 22 March 2007, page 6

Elderly ‘are being left in pain by care home staff’
Older people in nursing homes are being left in “shocking pain”, with two in five admitting that they are in constant agony, a survey commissioned by the Patients Association finds today.
More than 80 per cent of those interviewed said they had not been talked to by a doctor or nurse about treating the pain, and 57 per cent had never been asked about their pain by other staff.
Source:- The Daily Telegraph, Thursday 22 March 2007, page 10

Anti-prostitution strategy to offer counselling or court
Street workers are to be given bespoke counselling and help to find alternative lifestyles as part of a tough anti-prostitution strategy that is being piloted by the Home Office.
Source:- The Guardian, Thursday 22 March 2007, page 11

Student’s £4,000 for hurt feelings
A disabled student has been awarded £4,000 damages for injury to his feelings after he was denied access to the stage at his graduation ceremony.
Craig Potter, of Whitstable, Kent, who has cerebral palsy and has used a wheelchair all his life, sued Canterbury Christ Church University at the city’s county court under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Other students received a handshake on the stage from the chairman of governors, but Mr Potter, 28, got his at the bottom of the steps because the university had failed to provide a ramp.
Source:- The Times, Thursday 22 March 2007, page 8

Girls are main target of ‘cyberbullies’
Bullying of girls by text or e-mail is on the increase, with up to a fifth claiming to have been sent nasty messages last year.
Source:- The Times, Thursday 22 March 2007, page 30

Alarm over self-harm by foreign inmates
High levels of self-harm by foreign prisoners are revealed today by chief inspector of prisons Anne Owers, who blamed the uncertainty of their situation and their detention well beyond their sentence dates.
She said inspection reports found 86 per cent of detaineees were depressed or considering self-harm.
Source:- The Independent, Thursday 22 March 2007, page 6 

‘Big Issue’ founder to stand for Mayor of London
John Bird, who founded the Big Issue magazine, will stand as an independent candidate to become mayor of London in the 2008 election for the post.
Source:- The Independent, Thursday 22 March 2007, page 19

Scottish news

Parents’ anger as teacher who abused son is jailed
A former teacher at one of Scotland’s top private schools has been jailed for eight months after admitting he sexually abused pupils in his care.
Jonathan Quick, a retired Latin and sports teacher at Dollar Academy, abused three boys and a girl and assaulted a fourth boy in the late 1970s and early 80s.
Investigations began into the teacher in 2002 after the suicide of 23-year-old David Young, a medical student who had been taught by Quick in the 1990s.
Source:- The Herald, Thursday 22 March 2007

Nurse who cut panic alarms at care home spared jail
A former nurse who admitted tampering with panic alarms at a Scottish care home has escaped jail.
John Cruickshank disconnected emergency alarms at Grove Nursing Home in Kemnay, Aberdeenshire, where he was a staff nurse.
On one occasion, a 95-year-old dementia sufferer was left lying on a toilet floor with a broken thigh bone following a seizure. But the woman could not raise the alarm because her buzzer had been disconnected.
Source:- The Scotsman, Thursday 22 March 2007

Welsh news

Lack of cash puts care home places at risk
More care home places could be lost in Wales due to councils failing to provide a fair price for them.
Two years ago statutory guidance on correct fee levels for care home places was announced but no councils in Wales have yet implemented the rates.
Source:- Western Mail, Thursday 22 March 2007

5,000 violent pupils excluded from schools
There has been an increase in the number of attacks on Welsh teachers and pupils, figures released yesterday show.
The figures show that nearly 5, 000 Welsh pupils were excluded from schools in Wales over the past academic year for violent offences.
Source:- Western Mail, Thursday 22 March 2007