Pot kids addicted at just 6

By Maria Ahmed, Mithran Samuel, Amy Taylor and Derren Hayes
 
Birth certificates ‘should tell children who their real parents are’

The birth certificates of children born from donated eggs and sperm would be marked with details of the way they were conceived, under proposals advanced yesterday by MPs and peers.

Source:- The Times, Wednesday 1 August 2007, page 4

Police want ‘Tesco jails’

Police and retailers are backing proposals for short-term “Tesco jails” for shopping malls and major sporting venues as a way of speedily dealing with shoplifters, drunks and hooligans.

Source:- The Times, Wednesday 1 August 2007, page 1
 
 
CBI fears for private sector after Hain remarks

The CBI raised increasing concerns about the role of the private sector in the government’s new welfare to work scheme after comments made by the work and pensions secretary.

Peter Hain said that the giving out large contracts to the private sector to carry out the scheme were “not his preferred option.”

John Cridland, deputy director general of the CBI employers’ organisation said that the suggestion that the private sector’s involvement would be less than proposed in the recent Freud report meant the government risked missing out on an opportunity to “to build on the private sector’s proven track record” in the field.

Source:- Financial Times, Wednesday, August 1, 2007, page 3

Councils urged to take on wider NHS role

Councils should take over the management of health services in areas where primary care trusts are failing, according to a new report from a think tank.

The New Local Government Network said the change would need to be agreed between councils and PCTs.

Source:- Financial Times, Wednesday, August 1, 2007, page 2

I’ll give heads power to ban the school yobs, says Cameron

Headteachers would be given the final say on expelling unruly youngsters under new plans from the Conservatives.

David Cameron said that there had been a break down of discipline in schools and that is was ridiculous that heads were often overruled by their local education authority over children they were trying to expel.

Source:- Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 1, 2007, page 5

Children as young as six are being treated for addiction to cannabis, experts have claimed, with children presenting symptoms including paranoia, anxiety, depression and even schizophrenia.

Mike Linnell, of substance misuse charity the Lifeline Project, said many of its youngest clients were either in care or involved in the criminal justice system.

Source:- The Sun Wednesday 1 August 2007 page 29

Inmates left in limbo by failures in new sentences – judges

Prisoners have been left unlawfully in prisons serving indefinite sentences without access to the rehabilitation programmes necessary to secure their release, appeal court judges ruled yesterday.

The court ruled that the detention of a number of people on so-called indeterminate sentences for public protection – which are supposed to apply to serious sexual or violent offenders – beyond their minimum release dates without the means to prove they are safe to release was “arbitrary, unreasonable and unlawful”.

The Ministry of Justice said it would challenge the decision and also promised an extra £3m for rehabilitation courses, to help prisoners fulfil the criterion that they are no longer a danger to the public on release.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 1 August 2007 page 6

Courts still handing out jail terms despite ministry pleas

The courts appear to be ignoring ministerial pleas to use community sentences rather than jail, according to fresh figures on the prison population.

They show that the proportion of offenders given community penalties or fined dropped last year, while the proportion sent to prison remained stable.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 1 August 2007 page 6

ITV under pressure after revealing truth about Alzheimer’s death documentary

ITV has faced criticism after admitting that a documentary to be shown next month does not show the death of a man from Alzheimer’s, as it had previously suggested.

The broadcaster said the programme on the relationship between Malcolm Pointon and his wife and carer Barbara did not show his death, after the filmmaker, Tom Watson, said he had decided deliberately not to be there for his passing.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 1 August 2007 page 7

Late diagnosis blamed for lower child cancer survival rates in UK

Children with cancer in Britain have lower survival rates than those in other western European countries because the NHS gives them low priority, research reveals today.

A study published in journal The Lancet Oncology, late diagnosis and inadequate monitoring of patients are cited for the reason why only 30% of children in Britain survived neuroblastoma, a tumour of the adrenal gland, compared with 46% in German, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 1 August 2007 page 11

Mental health survey reveals fears for patients

Nearly one in two of Britain’s mental health nurses think the NHS regularly puts patients at risk by failing to provide enough staff, according to a survey by the Royal College of Nursing.

The survey also found that nurses spent too much time on paperwork to use professional skills such as psychological therapy.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 1 August 2007 page 13

Risky business

A risk-averse culture across social care forces staff to break the rules in order to deliver good care, claims writer and broadcaster Simon Fanshawe.

He cites examples of older people who had fallen not being helped up because staff were not insured to assist them, and of a boy with learning difficulties who was prevented from swimming with his brother on health and safety grounds.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 1 August 2007 page 2

Playing the game

Exaggerating service users’ needs is key to providing good social work today, professionals have claimed in a series of interviews.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 1 August 2007 page 2-3

Change of culture

Hackney Council in east London is completely reorganising its children and families social work function by scrapping existing social work teams and replacing them with small units also involving family therapists and removing administrative functions from social workers.

The units will be headed by a social work consultant, while administrative work will be handled by a co-ordinator, and managers will only be making decisions about families they know, unlike current practice in many areas.

Deputy director of children’s services Steve Goodman said, despite being in the early stages of implementation, the model has already yielded results, with fewer children coming into care.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 1 August 2007 page 3

Deep sense of shame

Community care social worker Alison Napier explains why she is considering leaving the profession in the face of tightening eligibility criteria that is making many people in need ineligible for services and higher charges.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 1 August 2007 page 4-5

Full stop missing on child abuse

A report by an organisation which advises charitable donors has raised questions about the value of much work by the voluntary sector designed to combat child abuse.

The study by New Philanthropy Capital, which recommends a number of projects which it believes are good value for charitable investment, calls into question the value of the NSPCC’s Full Stop campaign designed to raise both money and awareness about child abuse.

NPC said public awareness campaigns would have little bearing on what happened behind closed doors in terms of neglect and abuse.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 1 August 2007 page 5

Questionable punishment

Guardian public services editor David Brindle questions whether the General Social Care Council is too lenient in its treatment of social workers due to the fact that most people to go before its conduct committees have received warnings, rather than being struck off or suspended from work.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 1 August 2007 page 6

Scottish news
 
Girl raped as youth freed early from offenders’ institution

A young man attacked and raped a teenager three weeks after he was released early from a young offenders’ institution.

The High Court in Glasgow heard that James Campbell launched the attack on his 17-year-old victim as she slept in an Airdrie homeless unit.

Kath Harper, prosecuting, said: “She woke up to find she was being assaulted by the accused who was naked. He was punching her on the face. He said he wanted sex and she told him no. Despite this, he raped her.”

Source:- The Scotsman Wednesday 1 August

Welsh news

‘Beat cyberbullies by shutting YouTube’

Teachers called for websites such as YouTube to be shut down yesterday due to online bullies.

The Professional Association of Teachers (PAT) say that teachers and children have been bullied and even received death threats online.

Source:- Western Mail, Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Manager jailed for child porn

A charity worker was found guilty of child pornography offences yesterday and jailed for 18 months at Cardiff Crown Court

Thousands of indecent pictures were found on the computer of Michael Adrian Kelly, 51, of Avon.

Source:- Western Mail, Wednesday, August 1, 2007

Girl was ‘sold for sex in return for fuel’

A teenager was sold to lorry drivers for sex in return for fuel, a court heard yesterday.

David John Chaney, 58, of Cwmbran, is accused of procuring the girl to become a prostitute and living off the profits of prostitution.

The jury was told that the girl was 15 when the first alleged offence took place.

Source:- Western Mail, Wednesday, August 1, 2007