Mental patient killed teenager after release

June 22, 2007 in Community Care

By Mithran Samuel and Maria Ahmed

Mental patient killed teenager after release

A mental patient shot dead a teenager 11 weeks after senior psychiatrist agreed his release from hospital, a GMC disciplinary panel was told yesterday.

Source:- The Times, Friday 22 June 2007, page 32

City academies ‘fail to deliver’ on innovation

City academies have failed to live up to their ambition of being “powerhouses of innovation”, says a former chief inspector for schools.

Source:- The Financial Times, Friday 22 June 2007, page 2

Wellbeing of pupils ‘sacrificed for results’

Labour has exaggerated the progress made in schools over the past decade and sacrificed pupils’ wellbeing by placing too much importance on tests, according to a leading government adviser.

Source:- The Times, Friday 22 June 2007, page 15

Smokers’ foster bar

Smokers may be banned from fostering young kids, under news guidelines to be published on the day the national tobacco ban starts.

Source:- The Sun, Friday 22 June 2007, page 2

PC on paedophile squad ‘groomed a girl of 13 for sex’

A policeman responsible for monitoring sex offenders was jailed for two years yesterday grooming a 13-year-old girl.

PC Andrew Burton, from Sheffield, admitted the offence, which took place when he was responsible for monitoring sex offenders in the community.

Source:- The Daily Mail Friday 22 June 2007 page 30

Schizophrenic obsessed by Hannibal the Cannibal freed to kill friend

A psychiatrist appeared before a General Medical Council tribunal yesterday on misconduct charges for releasing a patient with schizophrenia from hospital, who later went on to kill his friend.

Dr Shashank Chattree discharged Mark Harrington in 2001, despite warnings from colleagues that he had residual paranoid symptoms and was at risk of relapse, and weeks later he killed Anthony Rigby.

Source:- The Daily Mail Friday 22 June 2007 page 31

Only 1 in 1,000 attacks on NHS staff leads to a prosecution

Only one in 1,000 assaults on NHS staff results in a prosecution, figures released under the Freedom of Information Act revealed yesterday.

NHS bosses claimed that a high number of assaults were carried out by people with mental health problems, making prosecutions difficult.

Source:- The Daily Mail Friday 22 June 2007 page 45

Top ten barristers receive £4m under ‘generous’ legal aid system

Four barristers specialising in children’s cases each received more than £400,000 in civil legal aid fees last year, the Ministry of Justice said yesterday.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Friday 22 June 2007 page 6

Former youth justice chief attacks rule change on restraint

The Youth Justice Board’s former head of policy has criticised proposed changes to the rules in secure training centres to allow restraint to secure compliance from young offenders as “utterly deplorable”.

Jon Fayle, head of policy until last November, warned that the rule change, which will come into effect on 6 July unless challenged by MPs, would lead to a significant use of restraint in secure training centres.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 22 June 2007 page 11

Half school ‘failures’ are white working-class boys, says report

White pupils are at more risk of low achievement in schools than African-Caribbean or Bangladeshi pupils once allowance is made for neigbourhood disadvantage, receipt of school meals and other factors, a report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found.

The report also revealed that white working-class British boys accounted for almost half of those leaving school with low or no qualifications.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 22 June 2007 page 12

Spate of suicides leaves estate in shock

Northern Ireland is experiencing an epidemic of suicides, with 291 people taking their own lives last year, up 37% on 2005, with most of them young males.

Three pupils at the same school have hanged themselves in the past four weeks.

Source:- The Guardian Friday 22 June 2007 page 15

Scottish news

Crown drops prosecution of Kerelaw school staff

Prosecutors have shelved action against 10 workers accused of abusing children at Kerelaw residential school.

Crown officials said they did not have enough evidence to proceed in the cases and that they were prepared to meet with complainers personally to explain why.

A total of 20 members of staff from Kerelaw, an Ayrshire unit for troubled youngsters, have been reported to the procurator-fiscal. The decision means that 13 of them will not, at least for the time being, face prosecution as Crown counsel had earlier decided to take no action on three cases.

Source:- The Herald, Friday 22 June

Politicians ‘fuelling climate of fear’ over sex offender threat

Politicians are guilty of “stoking a climate of fear” over the danger posed by sex offenders, according to the expert behind a major shake-up of the way paedophiles and rapists are monitored in Scotland.

Professor George Irving, who carried out a root-and-branch review of the sex offender registration scheme for ministers in 2005, said policies were in danger of being driven by a hysterical fear of sexual predators, rather than fact.

He said some politicians and sections of the media had exaggerated the risk posed by sex offenders, creating an unwarranted degree of fear among the public.

Source:- The Scotsman, Friday 22 June

Free support for carers call

Retired GP-turned-MSP Dr Ian McKee has called for free personal care to be given to people looking after youngsters with dementia.

The former Wester Hailes doctor, now SNP MSP for Lothians, has tabled a motion at the Scottish Parliament.

He said there are between 170 and 225 people under the age of 65 who suffer from severe dementia in the Lothians.

Source:- The Scotsman, Friday 22 June

Sturgeon rejects more use of private care for patients

Health secretary Nicola Sturgeon has ruled out any further expansion of private healthcare to treat NHS patients in Scotland.

She said the SNP government was opposed to the use of public money to help the private sector “compete” with the NHS.

She also indicated Scotland could go its own way on issues like junior doctor recruitment if this was in the best interest of the country.

Source:- The Scotsman, Friday 22 June

Foster ban for smokers

A leading charity have drawn up new advice for local authorities and agencies recommending smokers do not foster children under five.

The Fostering Network is bidding to protect very young children from long-term effects on their health as a result of exposure to smoking. It’s thought councils, who have the final say over foster carers, will implement the new rules gradually from July 1

Their draft paper, Foster Carers and Smoking, published last month, said: “No children under five should be placed with non-related foster carers who smoke.”

Source:- The Record, Friday 22 June