£30m to aid child help line

By Mithran Samuel, Maria Ahmed, Derren Hayes and Amy Taylor

£30m to aid child help line

The government has promised £30m to expand the Childline service, children’s secretary Ed Balls announced yesterday.

Source:- Daily Mirror Thursday 5 July 2007 page 9

Voters to get direct say on local spending

Residents will get a much bigger say in how local authority budgets are spent under plans due to be unveiled today by communities and local government secretary Hazel Blears.

She will announce 10 pilots for a scheme in which councils allocate a portion of their budgets for residents to decide how to spend, in a system pioneered in Latin America.

Source:- The Guardian Thursday 5 July 2007 page 1

We’ve never going home

Up to 300,000 Polish migrants to Britain may be planning to stay in the country, compared to a government estimate of 13,000, research carried out by a Warsaw-based firm on leavers has found.

Councils and government say they have been unprepared for the scale of migration from the 2004 European Union accession states in terms of its impact on public services.

Source:- Daily Mail Thursday 5 July 2007 page 26

Second NHS review in two years is aimed at boosting staff morale

The government sought to regain the initiative over the NHS yesterday by announcing another review.

The aim of the review seems to be winning over NHS staff to the reform agenda, but critics are interpreting it as a sign of weakness.

Source:- The Times, Thursday 5 July 2007, page 2
 
Damilola killers lose

The two brothers convicted of the manslaughter of the schoolboy Damilola Taylor in Peckham, southeast London, in 2000, have lost appeals against their sentence.

Source:- The Times, Thursday 5 July 2007, page 4
 
Teacher suspended for secretly filming disruptive pupils

A supply teacher who secretly filmed pupils fighting, swearing at her and disrupting classes for a television documentary was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct yesterday.

Source:- The Times, Thursday 5 July 2007, page 15
 
Schools told to be tough on homophobic bullying

Teachers who turn a blind eye to casual name-calling of pupils as “gay” and “queer” are colluding in the homophobic bullying that is rife in schools.

Source:- The Times, Thursday 5 July 2007, page 15
 
CSA condemned as a great British disaster

The Child Support Agency has been condemned by MPs as “one of the greatest public administration disasters of recent times”.

The Public Accounts Committee said that parents with caring responsibilities could be losing £520 a year in maintenance payments because of the agency’s many failures.

Source:- The Times, Thursday 5 July 2007, page 24
 
Paedophile vicar still being paid

A vicar is still being paid his £20,000-a-year salary by the Church of England – two months after he was jailed for abusing young boys over a 30-year period, it has emerged. Officials at the Church of England said that the removal of Rev David Smith, 52, from office in St John’s in Clevedon, Somerset, had been delayed by legal procedures.

Source:- The Times, Thursday 5 July 2007, page 26
 
Fewer black and Asian judges

The proportion of black and Asian judges recommended to the Lord Chancellor for appointment to the bench last year under the new system was just 5 per cent.

Source:- The Times, Thursday 5 July 2007, page 8
 
 
Rape support centres hit by funding gap

Victims of rape could be left without proper counselling or support because the government has been unable to sustain reliable funding for support services. Rape Crisis believes that up to half of its 32 centres will be forced to close or left in “severe trouble.”

Source:- The Independent, Thursday 5 July 2007, page 13

Scottish news

Care home worker is jailed for stealing from dying residents

A care home worker has been jailed for 25 months after using her position to steal thousands of pounds worth of belongings from residents.

Ayr Sheriff Court heard Jane Blackwood rifled through the drawers in vulnerable peoples’ rooms while working at a Baptist Church-run home in Victoria Park, Ayr.

Sheriff Colin Miller told Blackwood that he had been revolted by her crimes.

Source:- The Scotsman, Thursday 5th July

Welsh news

Child abuse report still not fully implemented

Measures to improve the protection of children announced after an abuse scandal at a Welsh school have still not been followed through it emerged yesterday.

The deputy children’s commissioner for Wales, Sara Reid, said that proper funding still needed to be provided to set up an independent counselling service for school children as recommended by the 2004 Clywch report. The investigation looked at the sexual abuse of children by Welsh teacher John Owen.

Source:- Western Mail, Thursday, 5 July 2007