Public inquiry into Haut de la Garenne abuse claims

Public inquiry into Haut de la Garenne abuse claims

A public inquiry is to be held into more than five decades of alleged child abuse at care homes on Jersey, the island’s Government agreed yesterday.

More than 100 people claim they were physically and sexually abused at different care homes on the island, with most saying that they were attacked at Haut de la Garenne, where the remains of a child were found buried on February 23.

Read more on this story in The Times

Incapacity benefit claimants lose incentive to stay sick

Incentives that encourage people to stay on incapacity benefit were scrapped yesterday in the latest stage of the government’s welfare reform package.

James Purnell, the work and pensions secretary, sounded the death knell for the benefit when he published regulations to replace it with a new work-focused employment and support allowance (ESA).

Read more on this story in The Times

White boys ‘make least progress’ at school

White boys make less progress at secondary school than any other group, according to a government-funded report. Boys and girls from the poorest white families suffer at school through lack of ambition, a low opinion of their own abilities and a failure to complete their homework, it is claimed.

Read more on this story in The Daily Telegraph

Teachers to get search powers

Teachers should be able to search pupils for alcohol, drugs and stolen goods, Ed Balls, the schools secretary, said yesterday.

Read more on this story in The Daily Telegraph

Doctor who began MMR scare stands by research

The doctor who linked MMR vaccine with autism, triggering a collapse in vaccination rates, has defended his research, saying he adhered at all times to official ethical guidelines.

Andrew Wakefield, lead author of the paper published in The Lancet in February 1998 which undermined confidence in the safety of MMR vaccine, said he had wanted to help treat and prevent autism after being approached by worried parents.
Read more on this story in The Independent

Asylum: the peers’ revolt

Britain must radically change its immigration policy and end immediately the deportation of failed asylum-seekers who fear persecution in Iran, a group of leading peers will tell the government today.

Read more on this story in The Independent

Child internet safety plans under fire over game censors

The government yesterday backed an ambitious blueprint by the TV psychologist Dr Tanya Byron to improve child safety online, but immediately faced a backlash over plans to introduce cinema-style ratings for video games.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

Cameron ally spells out Tory attack on Brown’s tax credits

A key ally of David Cameron yesterday likened Gordon Brown’s main weapon against poverty to the discredited subsidies handed out to nationalised British industries in the 1970s.

Greg Clark, a shadow minister regarded as an intellectual driving force behind the Tory leadership, declared that a Conservative government would aim to dismantle tax credits in the way Margaret Thatcher had cut back state subsidies to industry.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

Prison for charity boss thief

A finance manager at disability charity Scope who stole £150,000 from his organisation was jailed for two years and nine months yesterday.

Greedy John Cunningham, 35, spent it on fast cars, flying lessons, and a swanky flat in Sandbanks, Dorset — one of the world’s dearest places.

Read more on this story in The Sun

800 town hall staff earn more than £100,000 – and council tax is going up

More than 800 town hall officials are taking home six-figure salaries, it emerged yesterday.

A survey found the number of local government officers paid more than £100,000 has leapt by 27 per cent within the past year.

Read more on this story in The Daily Mail

Dementia patients slept on filthy mattresses on the floor at ‘the worst care home in Britain’

Elderly residents were subject to appalling neglect and degradation at a care home condemned as the worst in Britain, a disciplinary panel heard yesterday.

Dementia patients were forced to sleep on filthy mattresses placed on the floor, mouldy food was left rotting in cupboards and faeces was found smeared on the walls.

Manager Ann Rigby, 50, has admitted six counts of failing to ensure the home was maintained and cleaned and failing to provide adequate nursing care.

She declined to appear at the Nursing and Midwifery Council hearing in central London.