News round-up: Giveaways entice lone parents to job schemes

Giveaways entice lone parents to job schemes
Unemployed single mothers have been enticed to join government-funded job schemes with offers of shopping vouchers, washing machines, games consoles and Christmas turkeys by private sector groups whose fees are partly tied to how many volunteers they sign up.

Read this story in The Financial Times

Parental leave: fathers to get months of paid leave in paternity rights shakeup
Radical reforms to maternity leave legislation, which would allow fathers to take more paid time off, will be proposed today by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission.

Read this story in The Guardian

Council worker suspended for suggesting terminally-ill woman “put her faith in God”
Homelessness officer Duke Amachree has been suspended for encouraging a terminally-ill woman to turn to God after she told him her doctors could do nothing more for her.

Read this story in The Daily Telegraph

Acas to resolve disputes at earlier stage
A new service aimed at resolving up to 20,000 workplace discipline and grievance cases a year before they reach the employment tribunal system is to be launched next month by Acas, the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service.

Read this story in The Financial Times

Surge in charity advice work from executives
Financial services executives are increasingly offering their skills to provide free advice to charities, even as their public image is battered by the economic crisis.

Read this story in The Financial Times

Police identify 200 children as potential terrorists
Two hundred schoolchildren in Britain, some as young as 13, have been identified as potential terrorists by a police scheme that aims to spot youngsters who are “vulnerable” to Islamic radicalisation.

Read this story in The Independent

Quadriplegic sailor challenges elements again
Fundraiser Hilary Lister aims to sail solo around the British Isles aided by ‘sip and puff’ controls

Read this story in The Independent