Today, the beginning of the end

By Mithran Samuel, Derren Hayes and Amy Taylor

Today, the beginning of the end
One of Gordon Brown’s chief advisers, third sector minister Ed Miliband, has said Labour must do more to end child poverty and win the argument on tackling the causes of crime, ahead of the expected resignation of Tony Blair as party leader today.
Source:- The Guardian, Thursday 10 May 2007, page 1

Life likely to get tougher for Britain’s 175,000 young carers
Charities have warned that young carers will lose out from the mainstreaming of the Children’s Fund within local authority budgets next year, saying there are no guarantees that funding for the group will be maintained.
Organisations, including the Princess Royal Trust for Carers, also raised concerns over the future of the Carers Grant, which also funds support for young carers, whose future after 2007-8 is in doubt.
There are an estimated 175,000 carers aged under 18 in the UK.
Source:- The Guardian, Thursday 10 May 2007, page 9

Falconer faces up to jails crisis on first day of justice ministry
The head of the new Ministry of Justice, created yesterday, has said that the courts were passing overly long sentences for property crimes and that some short custodial sentences are not effective in reducing re-offending.
Lord Falconer called for increased use of community sentences and signalled that criminal justice legislation would be introduced to curb the main drivers of the rising prison population, the effects of which were highlighted in a report today by the chief inspector of prisons.
In a report on Norwich Prison, Anne Owers said that more than 7,000 inmates had been placed in police cells since October as a result of overcrowding.
Source:- The Guardian, Thursday 10 May 2007, page 14

Hewitt admits failure on mixed-sex wards pledge
Health secretary Patricia Hewitt has admitted that thousands of NHS patients had been caused “great distress” by the government’s failure to honour its 1997 manifesto commitment to end mixed-sex wards in England.
An investigation by the Department of Health’s chief nurse found that more than 16% of NHS acute trusts were still struggling to provide single-sex accommodation, despite Hewitt saying last year that 99% were providing single-sex accommodation in general wards.
Source:- The Guardian, Thursday 10 May 2007, page 16

Bullying at Ofsted
Almost one in four staff working for children’s inspectorate Ofsted claims to have been bullied or harassed at work, according to an internal survey.
Source:- The Times, Thursday 10 May 2007, page 2

Madeleine ‘abducted to order by an international child sex gang’
Portuguese police are now working on the assumption that Madeleine McCann was abducted “to order” by an international paedophile network.
British officers in specialising child abduction cases have flown out to the Algarve to help on the case.
Source:- The Times, Thursday 10 May 2007, page 9

Stroke patients at mercy of postcode lottery, study reveals
More than a third of people who have a stroke are not treated on stroke units where care is superior, a national audit funded by the Healthcare Commission has found.
The study also found disparities between countries, with just 28% patients in Wales treated in stroke units, compared to 64% for England and 73% for Northern Ireland.
Source:- The Telegraph, Thursday 10 May 2007, page 12

New rules to cover big rise in home schooling
The Department for Education and Skills has published new rules on home schooling amid concerns that children being educated by their parents, including those with learning difficulties, are being inadequately tutored.
The new rules say that councils do not have the power to enter premises, nor do parents have a duty to register home-schooled children with their local authority. But councils do have a new duty to identify children in danger of missing education.
Councils will be able to ask parents to submit evidence of their child’s education and parents failing to meet requirements could be forced to send their child to a state school.
Source:- The Telegraph, Thursday 10 May 2007, page 14

Schools encouraged to put gipsy language on timetable
Children will be allowed to take lessons in Romany in a move designed to increase tolerance towards gipsy communities.
Source:- The Telegraph, Thursday 10 May 2007, page 14

Man guilty of murdering wife in assisted euthanasia
A man who killed his wife after she begged him to help her die, as her life had been made miserable by an irritable bowel condition, was convicted of murder yesterday.
Frank Lund admitted killing his wife Patricia at their home in New Brighton, Merseyside, last September, but denied murder; however, the jury was told that they should find him guilty of murder if they were satisfied that he deliberately killed her.
Source:- The Independent, Thursday 10 May 2007, page 16

Welsh news

Agencies ‘could have done more to save baby Aaron’
A review of a baby’s death has found that agencies could have done more to rescue him from his mother and her violent mentally ill boyfriend.
A serious case review of Aaron Lewis’ death found that concerns about his mother’s boyfriend, Andrew Lloyd, 23, were not shared outside adult mental health services despite the family being known by other social service agencies.
The family lived in Townhill, Swansea.
Source: Western Mail, Thursday 10 May 2007