Health given a welcome injection

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

Health emerged as the big winner and local government the loser in yesterday’s comprehensive spending review, prompting fears over increases in council tax and cuts to services, including adult social care.

NHS spending will rise by 4% in real terms per year from 2008-11 and local government funding will increase by only 1% in real terms, which the Local Government Association described as the worst settlement in a decade.

Source:- The Financial Times Wednesday 10 October 2007 page 3

Mother ‘gave drugs to shield her children’

A teaching assistant at a village school who supplied cannabis to her two children, aged 16 and 18, so they did not have to buy it from dealers was spared jail yesterday.

Nicola Cooper was given 200 hours’ community work.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 10 October 2007 page 10

Man kills himself and son a day after losing wife

A distraught father is believed to have killed himself and his son, who had learning disabilities, the day after his wife died.

The bodies of Ray Gigg, 70, and his son Lincoln, 39, were recovered from a Peugeot that had plunged into Sharpness Docks, near Dursley, Gloucestershire, on Monday.

It was believed Mr Gigg feared he could not cope with being Lincoln’s sole carer after he lost his wife June on Sunday.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 10 October 2007 page 11

Parents ‘ill-equipped’ to ensure their children are safe on internet

Parents are “ill-equipped” to keep their children safe from violent and damaging influences on the internet, the government said yesterday.

Ed Balls, the children’s secretary, said only one in 20 parents know that many children gave out personal details online, as the government launched a major inquiry into the impact of the internet and video games on children.

Source:- The Daily Telegraph Wednesday 10 October 2007 page 14

Almost all children aged 10-15 are victims of crime

Research by the Howard League for Penal Reform out today has revealed that 95% of 10- to 15-year-olds have experienced crime at least once.

The poll of more than 3,000 children found that almost three-quarters had been assaulted over the previous year, and that two-thirds had been victims of theft.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 10 October 2007 page 8

Emergency release for hundreds in prisons to ease record overcrowding

Jack Straw is preparing to announce emergency measures to release hundreds more offenders early in the face of record levels of prison overcrowding.

Source:- The Times, Wednesday 10 October 2007, page 2

Immovable force

Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of the children’s charity, Kids Company, is threatening to close the organisation by next April if the government does not provide secure funding.

Source:- The Guardian Society, Wednesday October 10 2007, page 1-2

Disabled film-makers’ reel talent

In its third year of running, 39 films made by people with learning disabilities will be showcased at next week’s film festival for people with learning disabilities, the Oska Bright film festival, in Hove, East Sussex.

Source:- The Guardian Society, Wednesday October 10 2007, page 2

Calling on experience

Recovering anorexic, Alex Corkran, has set up a company, Springback, whose employees, who are not registered therapists or professional counsellors, talk to young people about their first hand experiences of eating disorders or disability to fill a gap in frontline provision. 

Source:- The Guardian Society, Wednesday October 10 2007, page 3

Core values

The social innovator, Edgar Cahn, talks about the relationship between social networks, family structures and economic self-sufficiency with long term health. 

Source:- The Guardian Society, Wednesday October 10 2007, page 5

Scottish news

Talking about depression is worse than Old Firm game’

“It was more intimidating than an Old Firm game,” said Neil Lennon, the former Celtic captain. He was speaking candidly of his battle with the depression which crippled his confidence and left him “a complete shell, a total wreck”.

Lennon who now plays in England was launching a new study on recovering from long-term mental health problems, carried out by the Scottish Recovery Network (SRN).

Their book, Journeys of Recovery, draws on the personal experiences of nearly 70 people across Scotland to highlight factors that helped and hindered their recovery from a range of conditions.

Source:- The Herald, Wednesday 10 October

Head of school in abuse case ‘ignored problems’

The former depute head of the Kerelaw School ignored signs of bullying and inappropriate restraint methods at a secure unit attached to it, it has been claimed.

Chris Johnson claims he was unfairly sacked from his position at the school in Ayrshire.

John Legg, who chaired the disciplinary hearing which led to Mr Johnson’s dismissal, suggested to a Glasgow employment tribunal that Johnson had ignored complaints of bullying and alleged “ragdolling”, meaning being manhandled like rag dolls.

Source:- The Scotsman, Wednesday 10 October

Welsh news

£4bn pledge for Wales

The assembly government is set to get an extra £4.3billion over the next three years it was announced yesterday.

The Treasury’s Comprehensive Spending Review gave Wales a 2.4 per cent increase in spending, increasing its budget from £7bn at the time of devolution in 1999 to nearly £16 billion in 2010/11.

Source:-icWales, 10 October, Wednesday 2007