Community Care articles from June 2003

Community Care archives from June 2003

slippery slope of legalised killing.
June 5, 2003... viewpoint The Patient (Assisted Dying) Bill could reinforce a view of disabled people as a burden, argues Jane Campbell Parliament is gearing up for another set piece debate on euthanasia this month, with the second reading of Lord Joffe's...

wedge of support.
June 5, 2003... Leeds has been enjoying the fruits of the Children's Fund for two years. Programme development officer Liz Jeffery assesses the results and prospects Trailblazing an initiative may bestow a certain prestige on those concerned but...

make yourself at home?
June 5, 2003... Why does the public sympathise with or at least tolerate a group of asylum seekers and refugees arriving at one point in history, yet vilify another group arriving at a different time? Natalie Valios investigates Knickers and ready meals -...

mental health by katie leason; Training in psychiatric institutions comes under fire at death inquiry.
June 5, 2003... Control and restraint of some psychiatric patients is being carried out by untrained staff and people whose training is out-of-date, an inquiry was told last week. June Tweedie, a commissioner on the Mental Health Act Commission, told the...

a subtle poison.
June 5, 2003... It is psychologically rather than physically addictive, but its effects on individuals and entire communities are still devastating. Anabel Unity Sale looks at what is being done nationally to combat crack cocaine problems and...

education; Colleges failing on mental health need.
June 5, 2003... Less than two-thirds of further education colleges have special services for people with a mental health problem. A report by the National Institute for Mental Health in England and the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education finds...

care leavers; Education lottery for young people.
June 5, 2003... Young people in care entering higher education face a lottery as to how much financial support they will receive from their local authority, a new report reveals. Research carried out by the Thomas Coram Research Unit finds great...

charities; Mind scraps dove in [pounds sterling]150k image change.
June 5, 2003... Mental health charity Mind has spent [pounds sterling]150,000 of charitable funds on a rebrand in which a new logo replaces its traditional dove. The new brand is to be applied across the Mind network, which includes 210 local Mind...

truancy; Prosecutions failing to make difference.
June 5, 2003... Prosecuting parents for their child's truancy fails to improve attendance at school, according to research. No link was found between the number of court cases against parents and the improvement or reduction in school attendance rates...

children by derren hayes; Shake-up for support services 'set to attract more people into adoption'.
June 5, 2003... Adoption groups have welcomed the new regulations on support services as likely to encourage more people to consider adoption. Published two months later than planned, the regulations are an improvement on the original proposals, say...

learning difficulties; Partnership boards failing older carers.
June 5, 2003... Learning disability partnership boards are struggling to identify the needs of older family carers of people with learning difficulties. Research covering more than 70 partnership boards has found that fewer than half know how many people...

asylum seekers by clare jerrom; Charities embrace Community Care's bid to alter opinions over asylum.
June 5, 2003... C ommunity Care's campaign for 2003 urging a fair deal for refugees and asylum seekers was launched to the media and social care decision-makers in London last week. At the launch, editor Polly Neate said: "Community Care has chosen to...

homelessness; Study proposes better hostel links.
June 5, 2003... More than half of children living in temporary accommodation have witnessed or experienced violence and two-thirds have experienced disruption to their education, new research has found. The report, written by supported housing charity...

mental health; Charity calls for end to drugs charges.
June 5, 2003... Mental health charity Mind is calling for people with chronic mental health problems to be exempt from prescription charges after a survey revealed that many shell out a significant amount each month on treating their illness. A survey of...

carers; Pledge to assess carers goes unmet.
June 5, 2003... Just under a third of carers have been assessed by social services despite a government pledge to appraise all of them. Research by charity Carers UK published this week in the run-up to National Carers' Week finds that almost half of the...

local government ; Councils sceptical of regional forums.
June 5, 2003... Almost 75 per cent of councils believe that elected regional assemblies will reduce local government's power. However, the Local Government Association poll reveals that only one-third believe that regional assemblies would mean a...

learning difficulties; Detention 'a breach of human rights'.
June 5, 2003... The legal challenge to give the same safeguards to people with mental illness or learning difficulties who are informally detained as those who are sectioned has reached the European Court of Human Rights. The carers of a man known as Mr L...

policy by Lauren Revans; Scottish executive plans new laws to crack down on antisocial behaviour.
June 5, 2003... Scotland's first minister, Jack McConnell, has promised to introduce new punishments for antisocial children and their parents in a bill in the autumn. Outlining the executive's legislative plans for the first year of the second...

care standards; Commission needs more investigators.
June 5, 2003... The National Care Standards Commission's complaints procedure is suffering from a lack of foresight and of suitable people to carry out stage three investigations. Four weeks after Bristol care home owner Lorna Arnold tried to progress to...

parents; Think tank pushes for more support.
June 5, 2003... The government's failure to provide adequate levels of support for parents during pregnancy and children's first year is undermining financial initiatives to tackle childhood inequalities, an influential think tank has warned. A report...

adoption; Few placements in first year casts doubts over register's usefulness.
June 5, 2003... The Adoption Register has been slated for "matching" too few children with parents. But have the agencies done enough to provide accurate information, asks Derren Hayes P ublication of the Adoption Register's first annual report last week...

Young offenders; Secure centre wins inspectors' plaudits.
June 5, 2003... Rainsbrook Secure Training Centre has been praised for its strong practice in safeguarding children and its child-centred approach in a Social Services Inspectorate report this week. Young people at the 76-place centre near Rugby felt safe...

children at risk by clare jerrom; Children's service providers want to see co-operation enshrined in law.
June 5, 2003... The children at risk green paper should place a legal requirement on all agencies involved in the delivery of children's services to co-operate with social services to safeguard children, according to local government organisations last week....

politics; Ministerial position remains in limbo.
June 5, 2003... The confusion over who is to be the next minister for young people continues this week with the Home Office still unable to confirm who is to fill the position. Those believed to be first in line are Paul Goggins, who took over from Hilary...

readers' views; Media have created asylum moral panic.
June 5, 2003... O ver half the visitors to Community Care's website think some newspapers have engineered a moral panic about asylum seekers. Fifty-seven per cent said the negative coverage of asylum seekers' issues influenced people's views, with 43 per...

Child protection; Judge reports staff to inspection body.
June 5, 2003... A High Court judge has sent a letter of complaint about the conduct of two social workers to the Social Services Inspectorate, it was confirmed this week. Mr Justice Wall took the unusual action after hearing a case last month involving...

competent to assume?
June 5, 2003... When Scotland's first minister Jack McConnell set out his government's stall for the next parliament, much of what he had to say about young people came across as rather draconian. But there was some welcome news for those who find...

children; Child protection trusts ruled out.
June 5, 2003... None of the children's trusts pilot projects will be focusing on child protection, a senior official from the Department of Health has revealed. The DoH's lead on children's trusts Carole Bell told a children's services conference this...

let councils serve.
June 5, 2003... The root-and-branch reforms of child protection recommended by the Victoria Climbie Inquiry were designed, said the inquiry chairperson Lord Laming, to "create a clear line of accountability" among the agencies responsible for children's...

disabilities; Charity blames poor care on information.
June 5, 2003... Disabled people are receiving inadequate care because of out-of-date information. A two-year inquiry report from charity John Grooms released this week states that a lack of information about the disabled population is resulting in poorly...

voluntary sector; Doubts remain over government's proposals for service delivery role.
June 5, 2003... Next month, the government will publish plans to prepare charities to deliverpublic services, but concerns around independence persist. Sally Gillen reports For many people, the attraction of working in the voluntary sector is being able...

book reviews.
June 5, 2003... Karin Crawford looks at the complexities of disability and Anne Bannister is impressed by a practical manual "The word 'partnership' is now a very evident part of the everyday language of people who are involved in the process of providing...

silence not so golden.
June 5, 2003... this life Cognitive therapy should be more freely available for mental health service users, says Stella Townson My first contact with the mental health services was in the 1970s when I was living in London. I became increasingly aware I...

research into practice.
June 5, 2003... What are the roles and responsibilities of parents today? What is their relationship with the state? New research by Clem Henricson of the National Family and Parenting Institute concludes that parenthood is a complex area and that ambiguities...

What's the damage?
June 5, 2003... Mental health problems resulting from brain injuries have historically been neglected by statutory services. But this has begun to change, writes brain injury adviser Mike Hope Brain injury is more common than many would...

reversing the spiral.
June 5, 2003... letter from belgium A project working with young people who have been excluded from school is helping to prevent the downward spiral that can leave them with an education below their abilities, says Nicole Vettenburg Flanders is...

there's another way.
June 5, 2003... Should the NHS be making complementary therapies more available for people with mental health problems? Katie Leason reports Wacky, hippyish, weird... There are many derogatory words used to describe complementary therapies. Yet many...

control yourselves.
June 5, 2003... Labour's core philosophy is not so far removed from the puritan idea that poverty was a moral failing and riches a reward for goodness. But reality shows there are limits to this thinking, says Melissa Benn Long ago, I went out with a...

student loan.
June 5, 2003... An International Women's Day event and a chance conversation on a quay are the ingredients that cooked up a unique scheme for social work students to work with asylum seekers and refugees in Plymouth, Devon. Until then, people dispersed to...

somebody must lose when investors gain.
June 5, 2003... Yvonne roberts Stephen Byers's change of heart has raised questions over the profit motive in public services He is an unlikely champion of the public sector. Stephen Byers, the former transport secretary who spun himself right out of...

welfare is key to drugs success.(social welfare)
June 12, 2003... Since the 1970s, drug policy in the UK has been enforcement-based. Three-quarters of the available money is still being spent on policing the crisis, with the remaining quarter divided between prevention, harm reduction and treatment. But a...

End media obsession.(political asylum)(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... A leading House of Commons committee has been told that the media is "obsessed" with the numbers of asylum seekers coming into the country to the exclusion of all else. We couldn't agree more. The media have failed, Immigration Advisory Service...

LOVINg IT.
June 12, 2003... Last October, communitycare spoke to six freshly qualified students about their experiences of their first few months at work. Now, Clare Jerrom revisits them to find out how their careers are bedding down The recruitment and retention...

wales slays the critics.(partnership in social services)
June 12, 2003... Welsh social services departments have been severely criticised recently for the quality of their care provision, the way it is managed and the lack of prospects for innovation and speedy improvement.1 One way to capitalise on the momentum...

rights minded.(human rights mandate)
June 12, 2003... Plans are afoot to give the new single equality body a human rights mandate. Analyst Sarah Spencer asks whether the government would approve an organisation that could challenge its own patchy record If the government is bold enough to...

housing; Act is failing to help homeless teenagers.(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... Nearly a year since the Homelessness Act became law, introducing a requirement for councils to give priority to 16 and 17 year olds, many are struggling to find appropriate homes. As a result agencies in England and Wales are being forced...

always there for you.(social workers)
June 12, 2003... she draws. She will invite or accept my interest in her drawings. Recently she has shown less willingness to talk but this fits with her pubertal behavioural changes. We talk about her drawings, holidays, school and any recent family...

rebels wit hout a clause.(Gay parents)
June 12, 2003... Two social workers, Norah Ellis and Dawn Jackson, agreed to be transferred from children's services by SeftonCouncil last October after indicating to colleagues that they could not work with same-sex couples looking to adopt...

voluntary sector; Double triumph for compact initiative.(Community Transport)(Centro)(Tree Council)(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... Aprogramme which was set up to sort out cases in which the government had breached its funding agreement with the voluntary sector has achieved its first two successes. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations' compact advisory...

children; Trusts 'could cause services break-up'.(Harrogate Centre for Excellence in Health and Social Care)(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... Children's trusts could fragment services and suffer high staff turnover, the Royal College of Nursing has warned. Senior RCN officer Karen Didovich told a children's trust conference last week of her concerns that the successful pilot bids...

young offenders; Staff unhappy with Lancashire police.(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... Asurvey of children's social services staff in Lancashire is expected to show hundreds of instances of juveniles being held in police cells overnight because of a lack of secure units locally. The survey is likely to reveal staff concerns...

asylum seekers by clare jerrom; 'Obsession' with statistics masks the truth about seeking asylum.
June 12, 2003... The media is "obsessed" with asylum seeker statistics and has failed to paint an accurate picture as to why people are fleeing to the UK, the Immigration Advisory Service's (IAS) chief executive told the House of Commons home affairs committee...

criminal checks by derren hayes; Records bureau slammed for hiking cost of police checks on care staff.
June 12, 2003... Charities, the private sector and politicians have united in condemning the Criminal Records Bureau's decision to more than double the charge for police checks on social care staff from July. The increase will put added financial pressure...

carers; Councils struggle to justify wide variations in assessment rates.
June 12, 2003... Legislation entitling all carers to an assessment as a prelude to providing them with services is not yet being applied evenly across the country. Amy Taylor reports It should be easier than ever for carers to be assessed. But despite...

child protection by sally gillen; Utting warns against major change.
June 12, 2003... Child care expert Sir William Utting has endorsed the proposals for cultural change outlined in the Victoria Climbie Report but warned against making other fundamental reforms. The former chief inspector of social services said that Laming...

drug abuse by clare jerrom; Family planning and drug agencies should link to 'control pregnancies'.
June 12, 2003... Drug agencies should link with specialist family planning services to advise on and administer long-acting contraceptive injections and other treatments, a new government report recommends. The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs'...

voluntary sector; Cash rewards for young volunteers.(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... Young people from low income families in England will be paid [pounds sterling]45 a week to work at voluntary organisations, under a government scheme that started last week. More than 1,000 people from nine areas will be put in placements...

adoption; Lack of information 'a hidden problem'.(Worcestershire Council)(Herefordshire Council)(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... The adopters planning legal action against two councils for not providing enough information before their sons were placed with them believe the problem is widespread. Since their story appeared in the national media last week, Andrew and...

workforce; Larger loans for starter homes.(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... Attempts to open up a key worker housing scheme to more social workers are being undermined by a reduction in the number of key workers to be helped by the initiative. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said that new measures to...

mental health; Coroner critical of community care.(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... The rules surrounding the care of people with mental health problems have been criticised by the Isle of Wight coroner following the death of a man who suffered from schizophrenia found hanged in Newport on New Year's Eve. Sean Thompson...

mental health; Charity pleads for rethink on funding.(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... Mental health charity Maca has demanded a review of funding of mental health services, after a report showed they were costing double previous estimates. Head of public affairs Simon Lawton-Smith said the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health...

care standards; Commissions 'will be toothless tigers'.(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... A clause in the Health and Social Care Bill 2003 to allow the health secretary to decide how complaints are dealt with has been atttacked by the Liberal Democrats. Social care spokesperson Paul Burstow said interference from the government...

disabilities; Flexibility eludes working parents.(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... More than two-thirds of parents of disabled children are unaware of their rights to work more flexibly, according to new research. Also, 40 per cent of employers have no flexible working arrangements and 37 per cent of parents of disabled...

performance; Torbay drops claim for judicial review.(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... Torbay Council has agreed to drop its legal action against the Audit Commission over the "poor" rating it received in its comprehensive performance assessment. Torbay, one of 13 councils graded poor in December, had planned to seek a...

regulation; Councils to pay for worker registration.(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... Some local authorities are planning to pay for social workers to be placed on the professional register in its first year. A poll of 15 councils by Tony Hunter, junior vice-president of the Association of Directors of Social Services,...

mental health; Mother may sue over son's death.(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... The mother of a mentally ill man, who was shot dead last week by police at Heathrow after threatening them with a replica gun, may sue the agencies she claims failed to help him. Maureen Larkins says Hounslow Council ignored her pleas to offer...

education; Schools 2 txt msg parents of truants.(text message)(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... Parents could soon receive a text message telling them that their child has not turned up for school if measures suggested by a government review this week are implemented. The review of education welfare services has proposed the...

care of elderly; No service crisis, death inquiry told.(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... A public inquiry into the case of an 88-year-old woman who died when she was moved from her nursing home was told there was no crisis in residential care for older people in Gloucestershire. Margaret Sheather, Gloucestershire Council's...

readers' views; Split decision over Mind rebranding.(charity)(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... A small majority of visitors to Community Care's website say Mind was not justified in spending [pounds sterling]150,000 on a rebranding exercise. Fifty-one per cent believe the charity was wrong to spend the money. This week's...

no room at the top.
June 12, 2003... Is there such a thing as social care in the minds of ministers and senior government officials? Or are there children's services, older people's services, mental health services and so on, encompassing various professions and perspectives...

figuring it all out.
June 12, 2003... To coin a phrase - the penny has finally dropped. Managers have to take into account their budget. Martin Willis puts his money where his mouth is and offers some practical tips My son has a monthly allowance, part of which is for his bus...

children in need; Schools Act woe for Scottish councils.(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... Councils could be faced with a bill of up to [pounds sterling]120m per year in order to include children with special educational needs in mainstream schools, according to a recent Audit Scotland report. Section 15 of the Standards in...

care homes by Derren hayes; Government report warns of impact of more rises in insurance premiums.(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... A government report has warned of further increases to employers' liability insurance and recognised the impact of the rising costs on care homes. The interim report from the Department for Work and Pensions' review of employers' liability...

children ; Ministers discuss services shake-up.
June 12, 2003... Ministers are discussing whether there should be an overarching document covering all children, rather than just one focusing on children at risk, Home Office minister Beverley Hughes said this week. Speaking at a Local Government...

EXCLUSIVE by Sally Gillen and Lauren Revans; Leak reveals fears over loss of social care voice at Department of Health.
June 12, 2003... The deputy chief inspector of the Social Services Inspectorate has admonished NHS chief executive Nigel Crisp over his plans to cut social care jobs within the department by two-thirds, Community Care has learned. Averil Nottage's e-mail,...

battle for hearts and minds must be won.(study by Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health)
June 12, 2003... L ast week, the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health published the first attempt to calculate the human cost of reduced quality of life caused by mental illness and loss of life for those driven to suicide. The figure - [pounds sterling]77.4bn -...

book reviews.(Book Review)
June 12, 2003... Anne Bannister looks at a guide to child protection and Charlie Beaumont discusses a study of youth crime A Practitioner's Tool for Child Protection and the Assessment of Parents Jeff Fowler, Jessica Kingsley Publishers ISBN 1...

carers buried in paper.
June 12, 2003... I have lived with my present carer for 10 years and four months. She is like family. With her I have been to Ireland, France and Spain. Her children treat me with respect like I am equal to them. Her grandchildren see me as someone who will...

research into practice.
June 12, 2003... Stress-related illness at work is rising but Lana Morris finds that good practice to help promote good mental health is hard to implement Stress is a well researched issue. But despite available good advice, implementing solutions in the...

Behind the headlines.
June 12, 2003... Our regular panel comments on a topic in the news The crackdown on antisocial behaviour sounded familiar, but the Scottish executive's new legislative programme generally continues to pursue a more liberal agenda than its Westminster...

repeat prescription.
June 12, 2003... Peter White finds that words of encouragement, however often repeated, can reignite professionals' enthusiasm for social work and prevent them being worn down by paperwork and criticism Life would be so much easier if you could live it...

child care; Public anxiety over men in child care.(paedophilia)(Brief Article)
June 12, 2003... More than half the public believe one of the main barriers to men working in child care is the concern around the risk of paedophilia, according to new research. The Mori survey for child care charity Daycare Trust reveals that, despite...

lost without each other.
June 12, 2003... A man in his eighties cares for his wife who has dementia. But he is finding it increasingly difficult to cope and is having mental health problems. It was up to social workers Sallie Cottle (left, top) and Giles Gardner to decide whether...

peaks and troughs.
June 12, 2003... Tax credits continue to cause problems for clients and advisers alike. Even the National Audit Office is involved, investigating the recent payment problems. Because tax credits are the responsibility of the Inland Revenue, it almost takes...