Plan for new ‘teenage call-up’

Plan for new ‘teenage call-up’
 
The head of the government’s taskforce on social cohesion has suggested that all teenagers should carry out community service to bring those of different backgrounds together and forge a common identity.
 
Darra Singh, chief executive of Ealing Council, west London, and chair of the Commission on Integration and Cohesion, called for a debate on the issue, however Terry Ryall, chief executive of youth volunteering charity ‘v’ said he opposed compulsion.
 
Source:- The Observer Sunday 10 June 2007 page 2

 
700,000 elderly people ‘are being abused’
 
More than 700,000 elderly people are being subjected to abuse, according to the results of the first investigation for a decade into the abuse of older people.
 
The study, funded by Comic Relief and by the King’s Institute of Gerontology in London, found high levels of neglect, verbal assaults and behaviour that strips people of their self-esteem.
 
Following the report, care services minister Ivan Lewis called for a “fresh look at the whole adult protection regime” to give it the same status as child protection.
 
Source:- The Observer Sunday 10 June 2007 page 3
 
Rap lyrics blamed for black violence
 
The home affairs select committee will this week call for more early intervention services to prevent violence within black communities in Britain.
 
It will call for action on deprivation, single-parent families and positive male role models for young black people.
 
Source:- The Observer Sunday 10 June 2007 page 17
 
Dangerous patients left to roam free because of shortage of police
 
Approved social workers claim mental health patients are not being detained because of a shortage of police, even when they have made threats to others.
 
The Approved Social Workers Leads Network also cited shortages of ambulances and hospital beds as causes of delays, in a report to MPs.
 
Source:- The Sunday Telegraph 10 June 2007 page 10
 
Drug mother has all 14 children taken into care
 
A pioneering court in London will help try and keep parents who abuse substances and their children together by providing mentoring services to parents and forcing them to seek treatment.
 
Judge Nick Crichton said there was a growing problem of parental drug addiction and cited the phenomenon of mothers who have their children taken into care embarking on a stream of replacement pregnancies to fill the emotional void.
 
She said one mother had had all 14 of her children taken into care.
 
Source:- The Sunday Times Sunday 10 June 2007 page 6

‘Monitor perverts’ for Sarah

The government is expected to announce proposals this week for parents to be able to check whether people who have unsupervised access to their children are sex offenders.

Under the proposals, mothers will be able to gain information about whether new partners are sex offenders.

Source:- The Sun Monday 11 June 2007 page 4

Treatment ‘should not try to stop people who self-harm’

Treatment seeking to minimise the harm people who self-harm do to themselves rather than preventing it altogether is being piloted in the North West.

Consultant clinical psychologist Sam Wener’s techniques, which include providing some patients with “safe cutting kits”, are based on the belief that traditional approaches, which include removing all harmful objects, are counterproductive.

However, it contravenes NHS guidelines, which state that preventing further self-harm must be the first goal of treatment, and so can only be used in private clinics.

Source:- The Times Monday 11 June 2007 page 19

Alzheimer’s cases around the world to quadruple

Research from America suggests that cases of Alzheimer’s will quadruple from 26m to 106m by 2050.

Source:- The Times Monday 11 June 2007 page 19

Tomorrow police will exhume a second body as part of an ongoing investigation into the deaths of seven residents of Parkfields care home in Butleigh, Somerset.

The home’s managers have been arrested on suspicion of “administering a noxious substance”.

Source:- The Times Monday 11 June 2007 page 27

Class divide hits learning by age of three

Middle-class children are on average a year ahead of less advantaged peers in educational development by the age of three, research out today has found.

The study, by the Institute of Education in London, found children of graduate parents were found to be 10 months ahead of those from families with few qualifications in vocabulary, and a year ahead in their understanding of colours, letters, numbers, sizes and shapes.

The project is tracking the progress of 15,500 children born between 2000 and 2002.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 11 June 2007 page 1

On sale in the UK: unproven goats’ blood treatment for MS patients

Concerns have been raised about the promotion and sales of a treatment aimed at people with multiple sclerosis which has no scientific backing behind it.

The MS Society has raised concerns about Aimspro, which is made up of the blood of goats that have been injected with killed HIV virus.

It has only received two small-scale trials, one of which was inconclusive and the other was stopped early.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 11 June 2007 page 9

Welsh news

OAPs six hour journey to visit wife

A pensioner whose wife has been placed in a care home 27 miles away has spoken out about his anguish.

Bill Lee, 81, has to undergo a six hour round trip from Cardiff to Porthcawl, South Wales to see his wife after she was placed in the home by Cardiff Council.

Source:- icWales, Saturday, June 9 2007

Children’s leader calls for clearer guidelines for sex-abuse cases

The acting children’s commissioner for Wales wants clearer procedures for referring allegations of abuse against teachers to a private company hired by the Welsh Assembly Government.

Maria Battle said that parents had raised concerns with her that some allegations had not been referred to the Dream Group.

Teaching Unions have claimed governors are referring issues which could be dealt with within schools to private investigators at the Dream Group.

The group was hired as a part of the assembly government’s response to the Clywch Inquiry by the late Children’s Commissioner Peter Clarke.

Source:- Western Mail, Saturday, June 9 2007


Unspent millions in anti-poverty scheme revealed

Plaid Cymru called for an investigation into Wales’ anti-poverty initiative after it was revealed that 13 per cent of its funding wasn’t being spent.

The findings were revealed after a BBC Wales investigation into the £136m Communities First initiative.

Source:- Western Mail, Monday, June 11 2007