News round up: Social services criticised over disabled man’s death

By Mithran Samuel on December 18, 2008 in Adult safeguarding, Adults, Child safeguarding, Children, Family justice, Inspection and regulation

Social services criticised over death of disabled man found in suitcase

The father of a severely disabled man whose body was found in a suitcase accused social services of neglecting his son.
Read more on this story in The Daily Telegraph

After Baby P, another child condemned to a violent death by blundering social workers

Social services and police have been condemned for failing to stop a violent father who went on to murder his 11-week-old baby boy.

Courtney Bryan was well known to the authorities in Nottingham where he was involved in four families in which young children were seriously injured.

Big increase in councils failing to protect young

There has been a worrying increase in the number of councils in England failing to protect children from abuse, according to a government watchdog which also announced an overhaul of its heavily criticised tickbox inspection regime.

The number of councils in England judged inadequate at keeping children safe has doubled in a year, said the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), which recently came under fire for awarding a good rating last year to Haringey council in north London, where Baby P died.

Sharp increase in jobless figures

Unemployment looks certain to rise to 2 million in the new year after the number of people out of work increased by the largest amount since the early 1990s, and amid warnings that the onset of recession will push the number even higher.

The once-booming British services sector has borne the brunt of the job losses, the figures reveal, especially financial companies, hotels, restaurants and retailers. The figures also showed big rises in youth unemployment, particularly men, and long-term joblessness.

One of the few growth areas was public sector recruitment, thanks to hiring by the National Health Service.
Read more on this story in The Guardian

I was forced to marry, says kidnapped doctor

Humayra Abedin, the NHS doctor who was kidnapped by her parents in Bangladesh, was forced to marry against her will during her four months in captivity, she confirmed yesterday.

The 33-year-old doctor, who flew back to Britain this week after a court in Dhaka ordered her release, said her parents had picked out a man and made her marry him at a Muslim wedding in November. Her parents live in the Bangladeshi capital but the ceremony was held in another province.

Gay father hunts for lesbian mother who vanished with son

A gay father whose son was “snatched” away by his lesbian mother during family court proceedings was finally able to appeal publicly for his safe return yesterday after restrictions on identifying the parties was lifted.

Michael Turberville has not seen Ashley Skinner, 7, since the boy’s mother, Joanne, vanished with him during contested court proceedings more than a year ago.

He believes that his son may now be in Australia.