One in seven under-13s have tried cannabis

Hard-pressed parents struggle to help with schoolwork

Researchers from Cambridge University argue that the government’s push to encourage parents to become involved in their children’s education at home could backfire as playtime and childhood becomes ‘scholarised’.

The Guardian, Friday November 23 2007, page 8

One in seven under-13s have tried cannabis

A report claims that England has the worst child drug problem in Europe with one in seven under-13s using cannabis.

The Guardian, Friday November 23 2007, page 14

One woman’s ‘honour crime’ hell

A 22-year-old woman tells the story of the abuse she suffered at the hands of her family and husband after a forced marriage.

Source:- The Daily Mirror, Friday 23 November, pp24-25

Wanted man freed from custody hours before fatal bus attack

A man, who was mistakenly released from a young offenders institution hours before he killed a man on a bus, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter with diminished responsibility because he said he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia at the time.

Anthony Joseph, 23, killed Richard Whelan, in July 2005, after being released from Forest Bank YOI in Manchester, despite an outstanding warrant for his arrest, which meant he should have been kept in hospital.

He has been remanded to Broadmoor secure hospital to await sentencing, pending psychiatric reports.

Source:- The Guardian, Friday 23 November 2007, page 5

NHS heads for £3bn cash surplus

The NHS is heading for a £1.8bn surplus with semi-independent foundation trusts also looking to end the financial year well in the black, despite the service having recorded a £570m deficit in 2005-6.

Karen Jennings, head of health for Unison, criticised such “dramatic swings” in finances, and said staff and patients had been put through “a lot of unnecessary pain” by cuts to get the service back in balance last year.

Source:- The Financial Times, Friday 23 November 2007, page 4