News round-up: Prisoners’ children ‘ignored’ by councils

Prisoners’ children being ‘ignored’ by councils, says Barnardo’s

More than 90 per cent of prisoners’ children get no special help when a parent is in jail, despite being at much greater risk of turning to crime themselves, according to research.

Barnardo’s examined the provision of services in Britain’s 208 local authority areas. The charity found that 188 made no reference to prisoners’ families, despite a government directive that they are a vulnerable group whose needs should be met. The vast majority of local authorities do not even count the number of prisoners’ children in their area.

BNP launches online assault on ethnic-minority Question Time panellists
 
The British National Party has launched an online assault on the two ethnic-minority members of the BBC Question Time panel who will take on Nick Griffin, the party’s leader, this week.

A posting on the BNP’s website derided Bonnie Greer, the writer and broadcaster, as a “black history fabricator”, and said that Baroness Warsi, the Conservative spokeswoman for community cohesion, who is of Pakistani origin, was a “product of Tory affirmative action”. The remarks came as the BBC struck back at ministers such as Peter Hain, the Welsh Secretary, and Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, who have criticised the corporation for inviting Mr Griffin on to Question Time.

Crime czar Louise Casey blames Gordon Brown for growth of yob culture

The Government’s own neighbourhood crime adviser has accused Gordon Brown of letting people down on antisocial behaviour.

Louise Casey said that not enough was being done to stop yobs making other people’s lives a misery. She said that, unless police and councils got a grip on the problem, it would pass from generation to generation.

Read more on this story in The Times

Dozens of teachers with criminal convictions allowed to remain in classroom

Dozens of teachers who have been convicted of crimes have been allowed to remain in the classroom in the last five years, according to research by the Liberal Democrats.
 
Figures requested by the party under the Freedom of Information Act showed 134 teachers have been convicted of crimes in the last five years.

Of those, 14 were given no punishment by the professional watchdog, the General Teaching Council for England (GTC), despite convictions for assault, drink-driving, drug possession, harassment and obtaining goods by deception, the party said.

Searching Google ‘can help delay dementia’

The UCLA scientists believe that internet searching and other mental exercises slow dementia by stimulating cells and pathways within the brain. Older people can boost their brain activity by performing simple online searches, according to a study that suggests the web could be used in the fight against mental decline.

A team led by Professor Gary Small at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) found that internet searches were more effective than reading at improving brain function.

Read more on this story in The Daily Telegraph

Ed Balls branded ‘a bit of a bully’

Barry Sheeman, chairman of the Commons children’s committee, criticises Balls after schools secretary ignores panel’s advice on appointment of next children’s commissioner.

Ed Balls appointed Maggie Atkinson to be the next children’s commissioner for England even though the committee advised him to choose someone else.

Ed Balls, the children’s secretary, was today branded “a bit of a bully” after he decided to ignore advice from a Commons select committee when appointing England’s next children’s commissioner.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

Alcohol death toll to reach 9,080 a year, study predicts

Experts call for urgent action to reduce ‘unacceptably high’ death toll from diseases directly linked to drinking

Alcohol will claim more than 90,000 lives over the next decade without urgent action to tackle the country’s increasingly ruinous relationship with drinking, experts warn today.

They predict that 90,800 people will be killed by diseases directly linked to drinking, such as alcoholic liver disease and chronic hepatitis, and alcohol poisoning.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

Surge in children taken into care as recession stress takes toll on parents

Fallout from Baby Peter abuse case adds to the pressure on foster care agencies

The recession is being blamed for a massive surge in the number of children being placed in care. Fostering agencies say that local authorities are making record numbers of referrals, partly because rising poverty levels are placing greater pressures on families, with the result that more parents are unable to look after their children.