News round-up: Paediatricians reluctant to court ‘backlash’

By Maria Ahmed on March 19, 2008 in Community Care

Paediatricians reluctant to court ‘backlash’
About 150 children die every year as a result of maltreatment and many more are physically and emotionally damaged by parents, but many paediatricians are reluctant to get involved in child protection cases because of the potential backlash from parents, experts said yesterday.

Doctors and schools to spot 1,000 children at risk of turning to crime
About 1,000 children as young as 10 will be identified as at risk of becoming criminals and subject to intensive one-to-one mentoring and training, under plans unveiled yesterday.

Study finds 98% of child drug trials lack independent safety checks
Only a tiny minority of drug trials on children have an independent safety monitoring committee to pick up potentially dangerous side-effects, a study has revealed.

Police trying out national database with 750,000 mugshots, MPs told
The police are developing the first national database of mugshots so that they can use face recognition technology to match CCTV images with details of offenders, MPs were told yesterday.

The third way
Until commissioners learn to trust the voluntary sector, the government’s plans for youth provision will struggle to be realised

Vital role for third sector
World-class public services are at the heart of the government’s agenda.

Unwell adjusted
Labour pledged to reduce health inequality, but new figures show a widening gap. What has gone wrong?

Whitehall could put ‘scroungers’ to work
Are ministers failing to harness the resources of their multibillion pound procurement programme – from school and hospital building to the great Olympics “spendathon” – to steer the unemployed into work?

Stage drive
An arts venue offering music, drama, dance and more for young people gets the creative juices flowing

‘It’s nothing short of vandalism’
A new group is gearing up to fiercely oppose the government’s plan for the voluntary sector to deliver public services.

‘Happy slap’ sentence
A teenage girl who filmed a “happy slap” killing on a mobile phone was sentenced to two years in a detention centre for aiding and abetting manslaughter. She had pleaded guilty to the charge, the first of its kind, at Leeds Crown Court.

Boy, 14, raped girl, 10
A 14-year-old boy has admitted to twice raping a ten-year-old girl in a shed.

Authorities receive 500 reports every month of perverts targeting children on the internet
Dangerous paedophiles are joining ‘virtual world’ internet games and social networking sites and posing as children to groom unsuspecting youngsters for sex.

Broken homes creating ‘toxic circle’ for children
The demise of the traditional family is creating a “toxic circle” of school failure, poverty and crime, teachers said yesterday.