Council targets families that create the worst problems

Council targets families that create the worst problems
Families who commit crimes, have chronic drug abuse problems and fail at school and in the job market are being targeted by a Conservative-controlled council hoping to cut their cost to the state.
Read more on this story in The Guardian today

Teachers’ strike could shut 1,000 schools
More than 1,000 schools in England and Wales could be closed and most will have to send some children home when teachers take the first national strike action in 21 years on Thursday, figures obtained by the Guardian suggest.
Read more on this story in The Guardian today

Police miss target for mirroring communities
Almost two-thirds of police forces in England and Wales, including the four biggest, will miss the ethnic minority recruitment targets they were set nine years ago following the Macpherson inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence.
Read more on this story in The Guardian today

Alleged jumping of housing queues by new arrivals is a myth, research reveals
There is no evidence that new migrants are jumping the queue for council and housing association homes to the detriment of any other group, including white families, according to new research.
Read more on this story in The Guardian today

Project will help ‘third sector’
Ministers have decided to remove a large obstacle to the provision by charities of crucial public services, by asking Whitehall’s statisticians to create a new system that measures the true value of services provided by the so-called “third sector”.
Read more on this story in The Financial Times today

No suicide pact, say police after another teenager is found hanged in Bridgend
A part-time supermarket worker has become the 19th young person from the Welsh town of Bridgend to be found hanged. His body was discovered yesterday after a night out with friends.
Read more on this story in The Financial Times today

Policy Exchange: ‘£55 childcare for all mothers’
All mothers should be entitled to a weekly payment of £55 to help to cover childcare costs, even if they do not go out to work, a think-tank close to David Cameron has recommended.
Read more on this story in The Times today

Lawyers fight plans for case-worker trials
Barristers begin an offensive today over plans to allow nonlawyers to conduct magistrates’ courts trials.
Read more on this story in The Times today

Retirement brings council staff crisis
Town halls will suffer staffing crises over the next few years because a third of the workforce are due to retire, according to a report.
Read more on this story in The Times today

Race chief warns of an ethnic ‘cold war’
Uncontrolled immigration has led to a “cold war” between ethnic communities, according to the head of the race watchdog.
Read more on this story in The Times today

3.4m are claiming long-term benefit
Almost 3.4 million people have been claiming benefits for more than two years, figures from the Department for Work and Pensions reveal, and the number of long-term claimants has risen by more than 250,000 since 1999.
Read more on this story in The Times today

Olympics benefits
London’s poorest residents in the Lower Lea Valley may miss out on the economic benefits of the 2012 Olympics, a report by the New Economics Foundation and Community Links suggests.
Read more on this story in The Times today

Homeless murder charge
A man will appear before Basildon magistrates charged with murdering a homeless man whose body was found in a disused Scout hut.
Read more on this story in The Times today