News round up: Smacked children ‘have lower IQs’

September 25, 2009 in Child safeguarding, Residential care

Smacked children ‘have lower IQs’

Children who are smacked by their parents are less intelligent than their classmates, a new study shows.
Researchers also found a link between how often children were punished and their IQ.

They warned that children who were regularly smacked could suffer symptoms more closely associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, including becoming more fearful and easily startled.

Law chief: too many people are locked up

Controversial public protection sentences and inadequate penal funding have combined to drive up the record numbers of people being kept in prisons, the president of the new Supreme Court has warned.

Lord Phillips, who next month leads a panel hearing the first case to go before the court, said under-resourcing was “a very serious problem” facing prisons in England and Wales and he renewed his call for a greater use of community alternatives to jail.

Care homes closures boss earns £400,000 to top list of housing ‘fat cats’

A housing boss is pocketing more than £400,000 a year in taxpayer-funded pay and perks.
John Belcher, chief executive of Anchor Trust, received a 20 per cent pay rise last year even though his firm has closed a string of care homes in recent months.