Child in foster care dies after being found in swimming pool

Child in foster care dies after being found in swimming pool

A 17-month-old girl has died after being found unconscious in the swimming pool of her foster parents’ home in Havant, Hampshire, on Sunday.

Portsmouth Council said it would carry out a review into the death of Anna Hider, as her parents, Emma Hider and Clyde Massiah, demanded answers into the circumstances surrounding her death.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 31 July 2007 page 5

‘Agony’ of teens kept in school

Plans to force teenagers to stay in education or training after 16 could lead to mass truancy and the needless criminalisation of thousands of young people, the chairman of teachers’ union the Professional Association of Teachers said yesterday.

Geraldine Everett told its annual conference the government’s plans to make education or training compulsory until 18 would lead to greater disaffaction among already disaffected young people.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 31 July 2007 page 13

Two jailed for torture and murder

A judge criticised adult social care services for failing to provide adequate support to a man with learning difficulties, who was bullied, tortured and then murdered by a couple who shared a flat with him.

Sarah Bullock, 17, and her boyfriend Darren Stewart, 30, were jailed for the murder of Steven Hoskin yesterday, who they bullied over a period of 15 months before forcing him to fall to his death from a railway viaduct in St Austell, Cornwall, last July.

A review into how agencies acted has been launched.

Source:- The Guardian Tuesday 31 July 2007 page 13

Shock statistics on child poverty

Nearly four million Britins children are living in poverty despite the fact at least one of their parents is working, a report by a coalition of charities has found.

The study challenges the government’s focus on getting parents into work as the route to tackling child poverty, after showing that 12% of children in households where both parents work were in poverty and 37% of those in homes where one parent worked were also poor.

Source:- Daily Telegraph Tuesday 31 July 2007 page 2

Please sir, we need more men in class, say primary boys

Over half of primary school-age boys say they would behave better and over 40% claim they would work harder if they had a male teacher, a study by the Training and Development Agency for Schools has found.

The study found that two in five boys now have no men teaching them while one in 12 has never been taught by a man.

Source:- Daily Telegraph Tuesday 31 July 2007 page 6

Work and pensions secretary Peter Hain has played down the potential role of the private sector in getting people on benefits into work.

Hain rejected the idea, proposed in a government-commissioned review by banker David Freud, of giving massive contracts to the private sector to run return-to-work services for those on benefit who are hardest to help.

Hain said he did not want to squeeze out existing voluntary and public sector training providers, though said he was keen for the private sector to take on more contracts where they were paid for the number of lone parents and people on incapacity benefits they found work for.

Source:- The Financial Times Tuesday 31 July 2007 page 1

Rise in number of sex offenders ‘is swamping supervision system’

Known sex offenders are living unchecked in the community because there are too many of them to be monitored, according to research commissioned by the Home Office.

Source:- The Times, Tuesday 31 July 2007, page 4
 
 
Bullies who tortured and killed are jailed

A 17-year-old girl and two men were jailed yesterday for the torture and murder of a man with learning difficulties.

Source:- The Times, Tuesday 31 July 2007, page 4
 
 
Gambling A level

Teenagers are to be offered a new A level covering the psychology of fruit machine gambling.

Source:- The Times, Tuesday 31 July 2007, page 4
 
 
Raising school leaving age ‘could give thousands a criminal record’

Plans to force teenagers to stay in education or training until they are 18 could cause mass truancy and criminalise thousands of young people, a teachers’ leader claimed yesterday.

Source:- The Times, Tuesday 31 July 2007, page 10
 
Schoolboys join recruitment drive for more male teachers

Boys at primary school say that they would behave better and work harder if there were more male teachers.

Source:- The Times, Tuesday 31 July 2007, page 10
 
Kafkaesque indeterminate sentences stretch prisons

Prisons are being stretched to breaking point by the huge increase in “ferocious and unjust” indeterminate jail sentences, the Prison Reform Trust has warned. It called on ministers to review the law which allows prisoners to be held as long as they are deemed to represent a danger to the public.

Source:- The Independent, Tuesday 31 July 2007, page 5
 
Cannabis joint as harmful as smoking five cigarettes

A single cannabis joint damages the lungs as much as smoking up to five cigarettes at once, researchers say. The drug forces the lungs to work harder by obstructing the air flow and causes chest tightness and wheezing, a study found.

Source:- The Independent, Tuesday 31 July 2007, page 9

Reprieve for woman, 103, facing care-home eviction

A woman of 103 who was set to be evicted for her nursing home may be allowed to remain now after a government minister stepped in.

Ivan Lewis, care services minister, told officials yesterday to ensure that Esme Collins was allowed to stay at the privately-run home in Abbeymoor nursing home in Worksop, Nottinghamshire.  She had been told to move out unless she could pay an extra £125 a week in fees.

Source:- Daily Mail, Tuesday, 31 July, page 25

Welsh news

Call for Hain to meet threatened workers

A councillor has called on secretary of state for Wales Peter Hain to come and meet disabled Remploy workers whose jobs are under threat.

Plaid Cymru group leader for the Rhondda Cynon Taf, councillor Pauline Jarman has called for Hain to come to meet disabled workers at Remploy factories in Treforest and Aberdare which are earmarked for closure.

Source:- South Wales Echo, Tuesday, 31 July 2007