News round-up: Agencies ‘fail to prevent child abuse deaths’

Agencies “fail to prevent child abuse deaths”

Up to 100 children are dying every year from abuse and neglect in England because social workers and health professionals are too busy arguing over who is responsible for them, according to a government-commissioned report.

Read more on this story in The Daily Telegraph today

Home Office defends plans to send back child asylum seekers

The Home Office is to start the forcible removal of lone child asylum seekers, despite fears that many will be sent back to war zones where their safety and welfare cannot be guaranteed.

Read more on this story in The Guardian today

85% of poorer white boys fall short in GCSEs

The vast majority of white working class boys are leaving school with too few qualifications, the government said yesterday, as it published a breakdown of results revealing that 85% of white boys from poorer homes fail to get five good GCSEs.

Read more on this story in The Guardian today

Murder rate falls for fifth successive year, but concern over “hidden” family violence

The number of children murdered by their parents has risen by about one-third in the past year, from 24 to 33 victims, according to the latest Home Office homicide figures published yesterday.


Read more on this story in The Guardian today

People-smuggling gang targeted in police raid

Scotland Yard yesterday claimed to have disrupted one of Britain¹s biggest people-smuggling rackets, which is believed to have brought about 1,000 illegal immigrants into the country over two years.

Read more on this story in The Guardian today

Mother’s victory could give six million right to flexitime

European Court upholds case of woman who resigned from her job when she was denied time off work to look after her disabled son

Read more on this story in The Times today

Wiis keep elderly at top of their game

Elderly residents at a Welsh nursing home are flinging themselves around with gay abandon after being given a £400 grant to buy two Nintendo Wii games console

Read more on this story in The Times today 
 

Darling to deliver Budget on March 12

Alistair Darling will deliver his first Budget on March 12, the first time for more than a decade that the annual event has not been presented by Gordon Brown

Read more on this story in The Times today

“Make a bat box” option to avoid jail

The government is to spend £14 million to keep criminals facing sentences of less than 12 months out of jail. Offenders will be mentored and forced to do unpaid work such as making bat boxes or growing vegetables as an alternative to being locked up, in an initiative announced by justice secretary Jack
Straw.

Read more on this story in The Times today