Community Care articles from May 2004

Community Care archives from May 2004

Mayday for asylum.(Brief Article)
May 6, 2004... The government stands accused of causing a crisis for local authorities through its decision to deny support to asylum seekers from the new EU countries. Despite warnings from councils and campaigning bodies such as the Refugee Council, the...

Behind the headlines.(UK Disabled People's Parliament)(Elder services)(Panel Discussion)
May 6, 2004... Our regular panel comments on a topic in the news: THISWEEK, The closure of the Disabled People's parliament The UK Disabled People's Parliament may be wound up because of a lack of funding. It was launched last year with a grant of [pounds...

An Epic ; journey.(Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre in Melbourne, Australia)
May 6, 2004... In the first of our series on last year's winners of the Isabel Schwarz travel fellowship, project manager Aurelie Freeman (right) tells Natalie Valios about her trip to see how mental health services provide quick and...

my regional bias.
May 6, 2004... Bob Holman is very much in favour of bringing policy-makers closer to the people whom they serve, as long as "ugly nationalism" is not the motive. And social care and health services stand to gain plenty The concept of regional assemblies...

is help; easily at hand?(Direct Payments)
May 6, 2004... Direct payments were brought in to empower service users, but have they really made the recipients more independent? Certainly, a recent report has produced some gloomy findings. Anabel Unity Sale and Katie Leason find out whether it reflects...

who is going to give their time?(Social service volunteers)
May 6, 2004... viewpoint Volunteering is in sharp decline - a trend for which there is no simple solution, writes Mark Lever The number of people doing voluntary work slumped by more than 30 per cent between 1995 and 2000. Action is needed to encourage...

child protection; Home opened for trafficked children.(Brief Article)
May 6, 2004... Specialist foster carers have been recruited and trained to look after trafficked children in the south of England. Children aged under 16 will be placed with foster carers, while those aged 16 to 18 will be accommodated in the UK's only...

young offenders; Unknown extent of suicide risk in cells.(Brief Article)
May 6, 2004... The Home Office does not know how many of the children it places in special cells or segregation are deemed to be at risk of suicide, officials have admitted. Responding to a parliamentary question, prisons minister Paul Goggins said the...

time.(Case management (Social services))
May 6, 2004... of their lives Keeping accurate records of cases can alert professionals to recurrent behaviours of looked-after children and improve the provision of care, writes Lambeth's Keith Revoir Case chronologies safeguard children and are now...

ready for assembly?(election forecasting)
May 6, 2004... Referendums are to be held on regional assemblies. But what would such bodies do and what relationship would they have with local councils and Westminster? Mark Hunter reports Faced with indifference to his proposals for devolving...

consumed by worry.(health aspects of anxiety)
May 6, 2004... Anxiety is the most disabling of my mental health problems. As long as I can remember I've had a huge propensity to worry. During school and college if I felt under pressure I would faint. I would rearrange books on library shelves and food in...

child protection by maggie wood; Workers fear that Edinburgh merger; will deflect attention from reforms.(Brief Article)
May 6, 2004... Child protection reforms will be thrown off track by plans to merge Edinburgh's children's social services and education services, public sector union Unison has warned. Despite protests from Edinburgh social workers, the council's cabinet...

mental health; Minister backs body to stamp out racism.(Brief Article)
May 6, 2004... The government has confirmed it will ensure all mental health staff will receive training about race issues, following a recommendation in the report into David Bennett's death. A review set up to tackle racism in mental health, co-chaired...

deprivation; 'Poverty measure will focus policies'.(Brief Article)
May 6, 2004... Changes to the way the government measures deprivation were released last week. Minister for regeneration Jeff Rooker said the new system would provide greater detail and allows the government to identify small pockets of deprivation...

funding; Road pricing 'would take toll on health'.(road toll scheme)(Brief Article)
May 6, 2004... Proposed new road tolls in Edinburgh could lead to more hospital admissions, the chief executive of primary care services for NHS Lothian has warned a public inquiry. Murray Duncanson said demand for beds could be increased if health and...

adult care; Local authorities fear extra burdens.(Brief Article)
May 6, 2004... Councils around London are concerned that initiatives to get adults out of residential care and increase their independence could place extra burdens on their social services departments. Whereas placing authorities retain care management...

children bill by lauren revans; Peers set to force concessions on proposals for information-sharing.(Children Bill)
May 6, 2004... Provisions in the Children Bill should specifically cover care leavers, refugee and asylum-seeking children, young offenders and people with learning difficulties aged under 25, Lords were due to argue this week. Attention must also be...

mental health; New route for side effect complaints.(Brief Article)
May 6, 2004... Patients with side effects from drugs will be able to report them directly to the medicine watchdog under new government plans. Health minister Lord Warner announced the move this week following concerns about the use of Seroxat and other...

voluntary sector by sally gillen; Labour moots vast extension of charity provision of social services.
May 6, 2004... Huge parts of key social care services could be provided by charities in future under plans being drawn up for the Labour Party manifesto. Former health secretary Alan Milburn was expected to tell a conference organised by the Association...

Youth justice; Coroner calls for inquiry into death.(Brief Article)
May 6, 2004... The coroner who conducted the inquest into the death of Joseph Scholes has called for a public inquiry after the appalling conditions the 16 year old endured at Stoke Heath Young Offenders Institution. In an unprecedented move, John Ellery...

ethnic minorities; Housing scheme attracts criticism.(Islamic community)(Brief Article)
May 6, 2004... Tower Hamlets Council has hit back at critics of its decision to target a new extra care housing scheme at the Islamic community. The London borough said the 40-bed home, catering for older people from the Muslim community, was needed...

asylum seekers; Policy reversal averts support crisis.(Brief Article)
May 6, 2004... No asylum seekers from the 10 EU accession countries supported by the National Asylum Support Service were made homeless over the weekend after a last minute reprieve. The government had previously announced that asylum seekers from the...

A lost generation.(Russian social services)
May 6, 2004... letter from saratov, Russia Russia needs to completely revamp its approach to social services in the face of the poverty now gripping many families. Setting up a dedicated ministry would be a start, says Natalia Lovtsova The most...

we are the champions.(older people's carers)
May 6, 2004... but what are we for? Academic Jill Manthorpe looks at research into how older people's champions feel about their role and how effective they are It is more than three years since the National Service Framework for Older People introduced...

learning difficulties; Promise to tackle access to banks.(Brief Article)
May 6, 2004... The government has pledged to improve access to financial services for people with learning difficulties. Its annual report on learning difficulties said that people had problems opening bank accounts and more could be done to help them....

local government; Capped councils in dilemmas over cuts.(Brief Article)
May 6, 2004... Herefordshire Council fears that older people's services may need to be cut if it is forced by the government to slash its overall budget by [pounds sterling]250,000, while Torbay Council in Devon has refused to rule out cuts in social services...

child protection by craig kenny; Professionals failed to adequately assess Toni-Ann's carers, says review.
May 6, 2004... A court-appointed children's guardian and a social worker have been severely criticised for failing to protect a seven-year-old girl who was shot dead in a London hostel last September. Toni-Ann Byfield, a looked-after child, was killed at...

we should do as the scandinavians do.(Social services administration)
May 6, 2004... Yvonne roberts Why is it that people with caring responsibilities in the UK are accorded such low status? Half of Britain's foster carers are unpaid while about 10 per cent receive only the minimum wage, according to a survey conducted...

share and share alike.(Children Bill)(Information management)
May 6, 2004... As the Children Bill reached the committee stage of the House of Lords this week, there were two burning issues on their Lordships' agenda. First, the pathetic powers of the envisaged children's commissioner in England and whether these could...

time for a split?(Organizational change of British Association of Social Workers)(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... Scottish members of the British Association of Social Workers will vote next week on whether they should end ties with public sector union Unison and form their own separate social workers' trade union. The vote has been sparked by the fact...

mothers behind bars.
May 13, 2004... Prison is no place for babies. But if their mother is a serious offender, where else can they be raised? Natalie Valios reports On 10 March 2003 there were 31 babies under nine months and 19 babies under 18 months in prisons in England and...

sounds; familiar.(social service to older patients)
May 13, 2004... In the second of our series on last year's winners of the Isabel Schwarz travel fellowship, senior social worker Wendy Lennon tells Anabel Unity Sale about her trip to Australia to look at hospital discharge of older people Some countries...

stuck in ; the middle.
May 13, 2004... Autistic spectrum disorders fall neither into the learning difficulties nor mental health categories. Consequently there is a gap in services for people with this widely misunderstood condition, writes Janet Snell. And, on page 42, Kerry Evans...

education; Pupil shortage hits inclusive schools.(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... Inclusive schools could be faced with dwindling numbers because parents believe they are inferior, a director of social services and health has warned. John Weeks, director of social services and health at Cheshire Council, said falling...

asylum seekers; Families still await Home Office news.(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... Thousands of asylum seeker families who could be eligible for a government scheme granting indefinite leave to remain in the UK are still awaiting a decision more than a month after the programme's planned finish date. The Home Office...

the face of care.(Caregivers)
May 13, 2004... Last May I was sitting in a waiting room with several other anxious people. We were all awaiting attention. A potentially life-changing opinion from a professional concentrated my mind particularly sharply. We have all been there: waiting...

children by Derren hayes; Care standards 'deter' short-break foster carers of disabled children.
May 13, 2004... Children's charity Barnardo's is lobbying to change care standards for short-term foster care placements because they are deterring people from caring for disabled children. The move follows a survey of workers at 36 Barnardo's projects,...

child protection by shirley kumar and craig kenny; Kent pushed to limits as 'dumping ground' for looked-after children.
May 13, 2004... Kent Council is prepared to name and shame a dozen local authorities in London and the South East which are continuing to use the county as a "dumping ground" for looked-after children. The threat came from Peter Gilroy, Kent social...

workforce; Unison seeks to avert Scottish split.(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... Unison has called on the Scottish branch of the British Association of Social Workers to scrap plans to end ties with the union and set up its own trade union for social workers. Owen Davies, senior national officer at Unison, said that it...

children by sally gillen; Voluntary sector reluctant to take on statutory child protection role.
May 13, 2004... The recruitment crisis in child protection is forcing the government to look to the voluntary sector for boosting child protection social worker numbers, children's minister Margaret Hodge has revealed. She said the government was in the...

delayed discharges; Minister withdraws East Sussex claims.(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... Community care minister Stephen Ladyman has backed down over comments that East Sussex Council will lose out over the delayed discharge fining system. The council has spent less than one-third of its [pounds sterling]526,000 delayed...

mental health; Call to end jail for vulnerable people.(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... Campaigners have called on the government to end the "cruel and unnecessary punishment of jailing vulnerable people", as it was revealed that three-quarters of male prisoners have multiple mental health problems. Figures released last week...

motherhood's ruin.(Prison administration)
May 13, 2004... The Prison Service has been improving services for mothers with babies after a long period of neglect. But Beatrix Campbell asks, whatever the changes, should we be locking up mothers who transgress Prison is an institution defined by its...

young people by clare jerrom; Children's Fund managers criticise spending on youth crime measures.
May 13, 2004... The requirement for Children's Fund projects to spend a quarter of their funding on youth crime prevention has been criticised by a significant number of project managers, according to the first national evaluation of the fund. Research...

child protection; Toni-Ann case raises new concerns over guardians' experience.
May 13, 2004... The wisdom of reducing the qualification threshold for appointing guardians has been questioned after a review into the circumstances surrounding the death of a seven-year-old girl, reports Derren Hayes The publication last week of the...

care homes; Scottish providers face gap in fees.(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... Private care home providers in Scotland are paid too little, according to a report submitted to the Scottish executive this week. The report says the payment needed to care for Scotland's estimated 26,000 older people in care homes should...

supporting people; Councils face cost poser if vulnerable people exercise their independence.(social service)
May 13, 2004... Some councils are bracing themselves for an influx of service users who are crossing municipal boundaries after leaving residential care. Craig Kenny reports Supporting People is about helping vulnerable people to live more independently,...

asylum seekers; Crackdown on free NHS care launched.(United Kingdom. National Health Service)(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... Proposals to prevent failed asylum seekers and others with no legal right to be in the UK accessing free care from GPs are being launched this week. The government consultation paper will contain proposed regulations requiring people to...

delayed discharges; Managers rapped for crisis in Wales.(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... One in three delayed discharges in Welsh hospitals is caused by trouble arranging community care. A report by the Audit Commission in Wales blames past bad management and policy-making for the bed-blocking crisis - particularly the...

youth justice; 'Extreme risk' boy claims rights' abuse.(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... A 17-year-old boy, who claims his right to a "private and family life" was violated when he was held on remand in a high security adult prison, took his case for compensation to the High Court last week. Home secretary David Blunkett...

justice; Child death cases may be reopened.(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... A handful of the 258 cases involving people who were convicted for killing children aged under two may be reopened, the attorney general confirmed last week. In a parliamentary statement he said that 97 cases had so far been reviewed and...

children; Funding boost for parenting support.(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... Support services for families are to benefit from a [pounds sterling]22.6m cash boost, children's minister Margaret Hodge announced this week. The largest slice, worth [pounds sterling]15.5m and managed by the National Family and Parenting...

housing; Warmer houses will cut fuel poverty.(Heatstreets project)(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... An [pounds sterling]8.5m initiative to tackle fuel poverty is to target 7,000 homeowners in west London. Under the Heatstreets project, electricity supplier Powergen will conduct a street-by-street campaign in the boroughs of Brent, Ealing,...

children Bill by Lauren Revans; Minister fends off amendments but agrees UN convention must apply.
May 13, 2004... The children's commissioner must abide by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the government has conceded. Sure Start minister Baroness Ashton accepted that it was unacceptable to allow the commissioner the right to opt out of the...

prevention; Council goes its own way on flag system.(Children's services)(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... East Sussex Council has shunned government recommendations to flag concerns about children on its secure electronic telephone directory, fearing the move would not be in children's interests. Guidance to the Children Bill suggests that...

regeneration; Hodge in children's centres cash plea.(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... Regional development agencies were urged this week to invest in children's centres by children's minister Margaret Hodge. She said she hoped the nine agencies, which were primarily charged with tackling economic regeneration, would...

training grounds.(Occupational training)
May 13, 2004... With so much on your plate, side orders of training might seem unpalatable to many managers in a hurry. But don't worry, as there's plenty of help waiting to be tapped, writes David Mortimer The assistant manager has been running your care...

care workers; North East councils in staff pay row.(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... Councils in the North East of England may be forced to pay out millions to care workers and other staff in claims for equal pay. Hundreds of low paid staff are rejecting an improved pay deal offered by councils under the single status...

young people; 'Connexions helps with joint working'.(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... Improved joint working is one of the main achievements of Connexions partnerships since they were set up. About half of stakeholders asked said that joint working was one of the main things that had improved, according to a study of phase...

asylum seekers; Court set for state support challenge.(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... AHigh Court challenge to the government's decision to block state support to asylum seekers from the 10 accession countries will take place next week. A judicial review is being sought by two asylum seekers, known as Mr H and Mr D, on the...

learning difficulties by Maggie Wood; Scots promise to reform protection following 'harrowing' abuse report.
May 13, 2004... Immediate action was promised by ministers yesterday following a damning indictment of Scottish Borders Council's social work and health services. Two separate reports by the Social Work Services Inspectorate and the Mental Welfare...

practice panel Leeds older people's team.(Ruby Hemstock)(Panel Discussion)
May 13, 2004... independence days A highly independent 91-year-old woman wants to live alone in her own home despite frequent falls. Our panel assesses her case panel responses joanna gare Patient choice is paramount for Ruby in order for...

grief and crime.(Juvenile offenders)
May 13, 2004... A new study of the work of youth offending teams in northern England shows that feelings of loss and rejection have a larger than expected influence on the lives of clients. Youth Justice Trust director Declan Kerr reports In April 2004...

playing catch-up.(Brief Article)
May 13, 2004... One of the recurring niggling problems that bedevils advice work in a social work setting is the difficulty that new residents in care homes have in paying the rent on the property they leave behind. Fortunately, through the actions of social...

Blair too quick to wield the big stick.
May 13, 2004... Afriend of mine is buying a house with a garden in Croydon in suburban south London. In her jubilation, she would probably add several exclamation marks to that sentence. For five years, against the odds, she has put her life back together,...

one ; family's fight.(Kerry Evans)
May 13, 2004... Kerry Evans is a writer and the mother of two severely autistic sons. Here she talks about how the struggle for services affects family life Can you imagine having to move 1,000 miles to the most northerly part of the UK just so your...

dangerous thoughts.(recruitment crisis among child protection social workers)
May 13, 2004... The government gives the impression that it is becoming more and more desperate in this post-Climbie era over what to do about our increasingly stretched child protection services. The latest idea is to rope in the voluntary sector....

prejudice that is still tolerated.(Romanies)
May 13, 2004... How far have we really come in terms of our attitudes towards travellers? Henry VIII made the status of gypsy a capital offence in 1530. Nearly 500 years later the government still seems to want to get rid of travellers, or to at least make it...

Commissioner queries use of tagging.(Juvenile offenders)(Electronic tagging)(Brief Article)
May 20, 2004... Electronic tagging of young people may be justified in only a few cases, Scotland's new children's commissioner has warned. Responding to Edinburgh's pilot scheme for the electronic tagging of young offenders, which is to start soon,...

tip of the iceberg.(child trafficking)(Brief Article)
May 20, 2004... It is very worrying indeed that social services are unable to find 12 children who may well have been brought to this country by child traffickers for a life of domestic slavery, sexploitation or worse. And we're talking about just one...

child protection; Head of children's guardians service aims to attract back former staff.(Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service)
May 20, 2004... Baroness Pitkeathley relishes a challenge and in setting out to refashion the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service after three troubled years, she has one. Derren Hayes spoke to her Baroness Pitkeathley, the chair of the...

why won't they listen to us?(Black health professionals)
May 20, 2004... I have spent over half my life struggling with various phases of mental health. I had great hopes when the government's policies and agendas encouraged active user, carer and community involvement. But this hope has been short-lived. And...

race against time.(effect of sleep-in regulations of residential social workers)
May 20, 2004... Hear the phrase "sleep-in" and you would be forgiven for longing for a lazy Sunday morning in bed. But, for residential social workers, a sleep-in is nothing of the sort. Rather than relaxing, sleep-ins - night shifts where staff "sleep" at the...

worth the heartache?(teenage pregnancy unit)(teenage pregnancy)
May 20, 2004... Most people agree that early, unplanned pregnancies are a "bad thing". Yet above that benchmark agreement, there is an astonishing amount of ill-tempered disagreement about exactly what is happening and who is responsible. The teenage...

rescue remedies.(national teenage pregnancy strategy)
May 20, 2004... Support for teenage care leavers who become parents is patchy. Elaine Chase and colleagues assess a study which looks at the needs of this group and suggest ways to meet them England has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy in...

tightening up ; work.(integrated working)(Integrated Care Network)
May 20, 2004... Partnership working is now a reality for many front-line professionals. Academic Bob Hudson reports on a recent conference that looked at the "nuts and bolts" of integrated working There can be few who by now are not converts to the idea of...

benefit or burden?(Volunteers in Child Protection project)
May 20, 2004... A local authority in south London is recruiting volunteers to visit children on the protection register. Katie Leason reports on whether this innovative project will relieve or add to the pressure on social workers Child protection social...

no longer a 'child'.(social services)
May 20, 2004... I am the 35-year-old mother of Emily, 15, Joanne, 12, and James, seven (not their real names). For 15 years I have been involved with social services, which are only now withdrawing from our lives. It started when I gave birth to Emily and...

schools; Extended projects worried over cash.(Extended Schools Pathfinder Projects)(Brief Article)
May 20, 2004... Extended schools that are not pathfinders are struggling to survive on inadequate funds. Jo Shuter, head teacher at Quintin Kynaston, a non-pathfinder extended school in St John's Wood in London, said that the [pounds sterling]97,000 her...

housing; Empty homes to be compulsorily leased.(public welfare domicile)(Brief Article)
May 20, 2004... Homelessness charities have welcomed government proposals to give councils powers to tackle the housing crisis by compulsorily leasing privately owned empty properties. Under an amendment to the Housing Bill, tabled by Labour backbencher...

voluntary sector; Test of government record on compact.(National Council for Voluntary Organisations)(Brief Article)
May 20, 2004... The National Council for Voluntary Organisations is to publish a series of reports next year looking at how well individual government departments are honouring the compact with the sector. The compact, signed in 1998, is a non-binding...

a sexual minefield.(teenage sexual behavior)
May 20, 2004... Our attitudes towards teenage sexuality are riven with hypocrisy and class prejudice. And we are unable to accept that abstinence is the one message that no one could confuse, writes Alison Taylor At the end of June, 30 US virgins will come...

policy by derren hayes; Fresh demand for legislation to lend weight to new equality commission.
May 20, 2004... Anti-discrimination campaigners have repeated warnings that a single equalities body could fail unless all aspects of its work are underpinned by the same legislation. The heightened concerns followed the publication last week of a white...

older people; Call to extend remit of Valuing People.(Elder services)(Brief Article)
May 20, 2004... The major improvements to people's lives secured under the Valuing People white paper must be extended to older people with learning difficulties, Rob Greig urged last week. The strategy's director of implementation said the government...