News round up: ‘Shocking’ sickness rates in social work

‘Shocking’ sickness rates in social work

Social workers are taking “shocking” levels of sick leave – far higher than the national average – prompting protests they are being subjected to intolerable pressure.

Freedom of Information requests discovered that the average social worker takes almost 12 days off a year through illness – with one in 10 calling in sick at least 20 times.

Read more on this story in The Independent

Three brothers arrested over sadistic attack on boys

Three brothers aged 8, 11 and 12 and a friend aged 12 have been questioned by police investigating an alleged sexual assault on three young boys in a Bristol park.

The three older boys were arrested and bailed but the youngest child was allowed to go without further action because he is below the age of criminal responsibility.

Read more on this story in The Times

Dementia may have been caused by the Second World War, says scientist

The dementia affecting hundreds of thousands of Britons may be a legacy of the Second World War, a scientist has claimed.

Research presented at a conference in York yesterday suggested that traumatic stress can trigger Alzheimer’s and other conditions.

Read more on this story in the Daily Mail

Iain Duncan Smith urges welfare reform to get jobless into work

More than half a million households could be moved off welfare and into work under plans that would eventually save the taxpayer £700m a year, the former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith will announce tomorrow.

In a major report, Duncan Smith will outline plans to transform the “static” welfare system by removing barriers that discourage the unemployed from seeking work.

Read more on this story in the Guardian