Lost discs inquiry delays child register

By Mithran Samuel, Maria Ahmed and Caroline Lovell

Lost discs inquiry delays child register

A database listing every child in England will be delayed amid fresh concerns over security, the government said yesterday.

Source: – The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 28 November 2007, page 12
 
 
Carer stole £400,000 of antiques from war veteran

A live-in carer used an auction catalogue to identify antiques belonging to an elderly war veteran and his sick wife then staged a burglary to steal a £400,000 haul, a court heard yesterday.

Source: – The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 28 November 2007, page 13

Exam results show black pupils closing learning gap

Just 35% of pupils receiving free school meals got five good GCSEs this year, compared to 63% of non-eligible pupils, revealing a stubborn gap in achievement between more affluent and poorer students.

However, the proportion of black Caribbean pupils to get five good GCSEs rose to 49.1%, up from 44.4% last year, a faster rise than other ethnic groups.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 28 November 2007 page 8

Controversial paediatrician reprimanded again

Top paediatrician and child protection expert Professor David Southall could face the end of his career after the General Medical Council found yesterday that he inappropriately accused a distressed mother of drugging and then murdering her ten-year-old son.

A General Medical Council tribunal will sit again today to decide whether Southall’s behaviour constitutes serious professional misconduct and, if so, what the penalty should be.

Southall was banned from child protection work for three years in 2004 after a GMC panel found him guilty of serious misconduct for accusing the husband of wrongly jailed solicitor Sally Clark of murdering their children.

Source:- The Guardian Wednesday 28 November 2007 page 9

Disabled workers’ ministry protest

A group of disabled workers from Remploy staged a demonstration inside the head office of the Department for Work and Pensions yesterday in protest at the company’s plans to close 28 of its factories.

Source:- The Financial Times Wednesday 28 November 2007 page 4

Reporter Jon Scott visited a secure training centre to see at first hand the issues it faces, particularly around the use of restraint of children who typically come from chaotic or abusive backgrounds.

The director said that in the month before restraint was used 57 times, 38 of those on just three boys; of the total, half involved more serious “phase three” carried out by multiple members of staff.

Restraint in STCs has been in the headlines this year following the inquests into the deaths of Gareth Myatt, who died while being restrained, and Adam Rickwood, who hanged himself after being restrained in 2004.

The government announced a review of the use of restraint across the secure estate in July.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 28 November 2007 page 1

Migrant housing myths exposed

Some of the enduring myths about immigration and social housing in the UK are debunked in a new report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

The report on recently arrived Liberian, Pakistani, Polish and Somali asylum seekers and migrant workers living in Sheffield reveals that instead of taking housing meant for British families, asylum seekers more often move into shoddy and unsafe social housing that nobody else wants.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 28 November 2007 page 2

Direct action

The government seems to be seriously considering introducing individual budgets for healthcare, enabling patients with long-term conditions to exercise greater control over their healthcare and integrate it with personalised social care.

NHS chief executive David Nicholson recently suggested such a move would be forthcoming, despite government pronouncements previously ruling it out.

Jon Glasby, professor of health and social care at Birmingham University, said it would make sense as it was often hard to distinguish health and social care for people with long-term conditions. However, Anna Dixon, deputy policy director at King’s Fund, warns there could be problems when people ran out of budget.

Source:- Society Guardian Wednesday 28 November 2007 page 7

Cell Block
 
The government will only manage to build half of the new prison places promised to ease the strain on overcrowded prisons by the end of this year.  The Prisons Officer Association warned that public safety was under threat as new prison places were cut from 2,500 to 1,400.
 
Source: – The Sun, Wednesday November 28 2007, page 2
 
Bullied schoolgirl, 15, hangs herself in loft
 
A schoolgirl from Watford hanged herself after being attacked in the street by school kids.  The school photographed her injuries after the attack but failed to inform the police.
 
Source: – The Sun, Wednesday November 28 2007, page 33
 
One in 10 women battered
 
The Commission for Equality and Human Rights is calling for more support for victims of domestic violence as it releases figures which reveal that 3m women are assaulted by their partners every year.
 
Source: – Daily Mirror, Wednesday November 28, 2007 page 35