News round-up: Contracts for welfare work up for grabs

June 25, 2008 in Community Care

Contracts for welfare work up for grabs
Private sector companies are to be encouraged to make bids for contracts to run multibillion-pound welfare services, a Cabinet minister has said.

Unions’ price for keeping Labour solvent: new rights to strike
Unions are to demand new rights to strike as the price for keeping the cash-strapped Labour Party afloat.

Academies ‘using expulsions to raise standards’
The number of pupils excluded permanently by head teachers of academies rose sharply last year while falling at other schools, government figures showed yesterday.

Boris Johnson’s city crime map delayed by privacy issue
Boris Johnson is facing his first big policy obstacle as Mayor of London after the Information Commissioner objected to his plans to map crime in the capital street by street, The Times has learnt.

From porridge to Prozac
Most inmates of UK jails have mental health problems, and while progress has been made in treating inmates, a new report says neglect is common and care is far from effective.

Island of last resort: youth detention in Sweden
The troubled ‘inmates’ care for dogs, learn to bake cakes, and get frequent hugs from their social worker ‘family’. Maggie O’Kane on a Swedish approach to youth detention

Give armed forces priority access to health and education services, says defence chief
Britain’s armed forces and their families should be given preferential access to schools, hospitals and dental surgeries as a reward for the sacrifices they make for their country, the chief of the defence staff declared yesterday.