Brown: Public sector workers must accept three-year pay deals

Public sector workers must accept three-year pay deals, says Brown

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, has warned public sector workers that they risk destabilising the economy if they do not accept a three-year deal instead of annual settlements.
Source: The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday, 9 January, 2008, page 4

Read your way out of poverty and crime, says Brown

Leading literary figures joined a Gordon Brown-inspired government campaign yesterday to support more parents to read with their children to improve their prospects.
Source: The Daily Telegraph, Wednesday, 9 January, 2008, page 14

Tories vow overhaul of benefits

Welfare-to-work programmes will be funded by savings made from benefit claimants who have found employment, said the Conservative Party in its welfare reform proposals published yesterday. 
Source: The Financial Times, Wednesday, 9 January, 2008, page 2

The chair of the Healthcare Commission, Sir Ian Kennedy, told a parliamentary committee yesterday that government plans to merge three regulatory bodies – The Healthcare Commission, the Commission for Social Care Inspection, The Mental Health Act Commission – is a costly distraction that would put people at risk.
Source: The Financial Times, Wednesday, 9 January, 2008, page 3

Sharp rise in audit fees for councils

Councils will face rises of up to 33% in Audit Commission fees over the next three years. The fees cover the cost of inspections of how local authorities spend taxpayers’ money on services.
Source: The Financial Times, Wednesday, 9 January, 2008, page 4

Cannabis clampdown

The government aims to reclassify cannabis as a class B drug over health fears after a review by the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs completes this spring.
Source: The Times, Wednesday, 9 January, 2008, page 1

Girl who fled arranged marriage was smothered or strangled

Shafilea Ahmed, a 17-year-old girl who was found dead in a river after running away from an arranged marriage, was strangled or smothered, an inquest heard yesterday. 
Source: The Independent, Wednesday, 9 January, 2008, page 17

Cameron accused of reviving war on single parents

The Conservative Party leader, David Cameron, has been criticised by child poverty campaigners for attacking single parents by setting out welfare reform proposals that would see the long-term unemployed having to participate in year-long community work schemes in order to receive benefits.
Source: The Guardian, Wednesday, 9 January, 2008, page 13

Minister scraps one offender one record

A £500m computer system for managing offenders in the prison and probation system will be scaled back because of spiralling costs, the justice minister David Hansom said yesterday.
Source: The Guardian, Wednesday, 9 January, 2008, page 10

Care home improvements

Roger Clough, professor emeritus of social care at Lancaster University, says that residential care homes are one of the great successes of social care and should be celebrated.
Source: Society Guardian, Wednesday, 9 January, 2008, page 6

Financial freedom at last – but safeguards are needed

With the dawn of personal budgets, Christopher Manthorp, project director for a housing organisation for older people, argues that safeguards must be put in place to stop the financial abuse of older people.  
Source: Society Guardian, Wednesday, 9 January, 2008, page 6

Help for carers

A multi-agency system, which supports and advises carers, is being piloted in Surrey to encourage GPs to refer carers to support agencies to improve their health and wellbeing and raise awareness of carer’s needs.
Source: Society Guardian, Wednesday, 9 January, 2008, page 7

Brown: Kid gangs out of control

The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, will launch a new crime blitz next month to tackle problems with children’s gangs and gun and knife crime in Britain.
Source: The Daily Mirror, Wednesday, 9 January, 2008, page 8