News round-up: Baby P council issues urgent appeal for staff

Baby P council issues urgent appeal for staff

Haringey has made an urgent appeal to all London councils to lend it social workers to ease a recruitment crisis triggered by the case of Baby P, the Guardian has learned.

In a series of leaked emails between the capital’s directors of children’s services, the north London council urges each of the 30 London boroughs to lend a “good quality” social worker for a month to get it through a “real pinch point” of assessing cases of suspected abuse.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

Police will not target offenders against law on violent porn

Officers will not actively target members of the public to track down those who own violent pornography banned under a new law, police chiefs admitted yesterday.

The law, which comes into effect today, was passed in response to a three-year campaign by the mother of the teacher Jane Longhurst, who was murdered by a man obsessed with hardcore internet pornography.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

Absent parents who don’t pay maintenance could lose passports

Child maintenance officials will be able to confiscate driving licences and passports from “deadbeat dads” without going to court, under legislation going before Parliament this week.

Under the remit of the old Child Support Agency, enforcement workers could apply for a court order to commandeer the driving licences of parents who refuse to pay for their children. Last year Parliament passed an Act to give the new Child Maintenance and Enforcement Commission (CMEC) the same power with relation to passports.

Read more on this story in The Times

Cannabis becomes Class B drug today but no spot fines yet

Cannabis is upgraded to a Class B drug today, but users will not be fined after the sudden withdrawal of new powers to allow on-the-spot penalties.

The embarrassing hitch has arisen after the Ministry of Justice withdrew a parliamentary order that would have given police the power to issue penalty notices for 21 offences, including possession of cannabis.

Read more on this story in The Times

Sara Payne joins Whitehall

Sara Payne will today become the government’s first victims’ adviser.

The crusader, 39, won fame for her tireless fight for new paedophile laws in memory of murdered daughter Sarah, eight.

Read more on this story in The Sun