News round-up: More than half of 13-year-olds have drunk alcohol

By Personnel Today on February 7, 2008 in Community Care

More than half of 13-year-olds have drunk alcohol

Most of Britain’s 13-year-olds have drunk alcohol, marking a worrying “tipping point” for underage drinking, the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, warned yesterday as she promised to step up enforcement action.

‘Alarming’ juryless inquests plan

Government plans to give the Home Secretary new powers to order sensitive inquests to be held without a jury have been branded “seriously alarming” by an influential parliamentary committee.

Man accused of raping girl after fleeing secure hospital

A major investigation was under way yesterday after a man was accused of escaping from a secure mental health unit and raping a schoolgirl.

New centre honours Stephen Lawrence

A couple of miles from the spot where her son was brutally murdered 15 years ago, Doreen Lawrence will today witness the opening of a £10m architecture centre in his honour.

NHS closes its doors to foreign doctors

Doctors from India, South Africa and other Commonwealth countries are to be barred from the NHS in an attempt to preserve health service jobs for British graduates.

Teenage fathers’ babies at risk

Children of teenage fathers are more likely to be born prematurely or to die young, new research has suggested.

Return home of the ‘boomerang kids’ stretches parents to limit

The swelling ranks of boomerang kids, who return to their parents’ home in adulthood and remain there into their 20s or even 30s, are putting enormous strain on family relations, according to a leading charity.

Patients face a long wait for hearing aid

Patients with hearing and balance disorders can wait years to be seen by an appropriate specialist, a report from the Royal College of Physicians says.

4,000 NHS computer cards ‘missing’

More than 4,000 NHS smartcards providing computer access to confidential medical records have been lost or stolen, with 1,400 going missing in the past year.

‘Nerve bypass’ offers spinal injury hope

A radical new procedure is offering hope to thousands of paralysed people to be able to regain the use of their limbs.

Vending machines to give teenagers condoms

Free condoms and pregnancy testing kits are to be dispensed from interactive vending machines in chemists as part of a contraception drive.

New Deal jobs cost taxpayers £1,000 each

One of the Government’s flagship employment schemes is costing the taxpayer more than £1,000 for each person it finds work for, MPs have warned.

Jailed: The man who helped his wife flee abroad as social workers threatened to take their baby

A father is in jail and his wife is in hiding abroad with her children after he helped them flee the country to escape social services, it emerged yesterday.

Thousands of gypsy children brought to Britain to work as pickpockets, warns MP

As many as 2,000 children of Roma gypsies have been trafficked into the UK to be schooled in the art of street crime by modern-day Fagins, the Government was warned today.

Tougher reviews for London grants unveiled

The London Development Agency is introducing a new monitoring regime as it battles to overcome allegations it inappropriately awarded millions of pounds in grants.

Private healthcare study ‘suppressed’

The Department of Health has suppressed evidence that axed programmes to buy £750m of private sector care a year for NHS patients had earlier been showing “very good value for money”.