Pressure grows for reform in care for elderly

Pressure grows for reform in care for elderly

Pressure mounted on the government to fundamentally reform the system of long-term care funding today after a coalition of social care leaders and research bodies published a survey showing widespread support for change among providers and users.

The survey by the Caring Choices coalition, led by Help the Aged, Age Concern, the King’s Fund and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, found strong support for a system of state funding for all, with a minority of costs borne by the individual.

The research is designed to influence the forthcoming green paper on social care.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 7 January 2008 page 10

Blunkett sets out scheme to stop formation of underclass

Former Cabinet minister David Blunkett will set out plans to prevent the formation of an entrenched underclass tomorrow, including a “dramatic expansion” of the child trust fund, which provides payments to parents to invest for their children.

Blunkett said people were leading increasingly separate lives according to their wealth, and called on the government to make social mobility a guiding light for its policies.

Other plans included life mentors for poorer school pupils, funded by a tax on child benefit for the best off.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 7 January 2008 page 13

Tory plan to stop benefits of jobless who refuse work

People who refuse a third “reasonable offer” of a job will have their unemployment benefit removed for three years, under Conservative plans that will be announced tomorrow.

Under the proposals, a couple claiming job seeker’s allowance would forgo £92.80, more than half their income. The Tories also plan to make people on incapacity benefit face a compulsory interview to decide whether they can work, in proposals mental health charity Mind suggested may contribute to stigma against people with mental health problems.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 7 January 2008 page 13

Solicitors shunning legal aid work as pay rates fall, survey reveals

A survey by the Association of Lawyers for Children has found that one-third of solicitors and 40% of law firms plan to reduce reliance on legal aid work in care cases.

The findings come in the wake of government reforms to legal aid which has seen incomes from cases drop for practitioenrs.

Source:- The Guardian Monday 7 January 2008 page 14

The Myspace Predators

A Panorama programme this evening will highlighted the risks faced by teenagers from paedophiles from using social networking sites such as MySpace.

One researcher posed as a 14-year-old and posted a fake profile online and received four or five approaches from apparent paedophiles within two weeks, and she was sent photos of men posing naked and lurid messages.

The programme advises parents to become much more internet literate to keep their children as safe as possible.

Source:- The Daily Mail Monday 7 January 2008 page 22-23