Sheriff Refers Child Sex Case For Tougher Sentencing
A man who had sex with two under-aged girls will face a tougher sentence at the High Court after a sheriff said the powers at his disposal were “woefully inadequate”.
Read MoreA man who had sex with two under-aged girls will face a tougher sentence at the High Court after a sheriff said the powers at his disposal were “woefully inadequate”.
Read MoreKidney patients in Wales are suffering “Third World” conditions with renal units at breaking point, claims a charity.
Read MoreChildren’s minister Ed Balls and London’s mayor Ken Livingstone will today unveil plans to spend £40m relaunching youth services in London amid rising concerns about teenage alienation and gang violence.
Read MoreImmigrant workers are importing their national feuds and criminal behaviour to rural England, a police chief said yesterday.
Read MoreThe unpaid work of carers saves the UK £87bn per year – more than the total amount spent by the NHS in the last financial year, say experts.
{mosimage}The figure, calculated by the University of Leeds for the charity Carers UK, is up 52% since the last estimate, calculated in 2002. The average person caring for a sick or frail relative is now estimated to save the nation more than £15,260 a year. The government said measures had been taken to help carers, with more due.
The new figures are based on how much it would cost to provide alternative care if a carer was not available. This has been calculated at £14.50 an hour.
The total is more than four times the amount spent on social care services for adults and children by local authorities in the year 2005-2006.
Carers UK warned that the economy was over-reliant on care provided by family and friends – and if just a small proportion gave up it could have a disastrous impact.
It said many carers remained isolated and unsupported, with thousands living in poverty, unable to take up paid work or have a normal social life.
Read MoreMore than 180 children recently trafficked illegally into the UK have since gone missing without trace from social services care, according to a Unicef report warning that the government is failing to protect vulnerable youngsters brought into the country.
Read MoreNearly 400,000 elderly people could lose their home help after next year, local councils. They said assistance for frail and vulnerable older people will be withdrawn unless taxpayers pump extra billions into council coffers.
{mosimage}Leaders called on Gordon Brown and Chancellor Alistair Darling to pay money into their social services rather than into the NHS and hospitals in the major Whitehall spending review due next month.
The warning put hundreds of thousands of older people who depend on help paid for by social services at the centre of a spat between local government chiefs and Mr Brown.
Home help includes vital everyday assistance with dressing, washing, cooking, shopping and keeping house. Without it many elderly people would become isolated, ill, and unable to live by themselves – and many would be forced to abandon independent lives and go to live in care homes.
Sir Simon Milton, leader of the Local Government Association, set out the warning in a letter to council bosses.
He told them that unless town halls are given generous treatment in the Comprehensive Spending Review, “then there will be real difficulties.”
“In the next three years alone, there will be more than 400,000 more older people, many of whom will require social care.
Read MoreA YOUNG child who died from meningitis may have been saved if NHS 24 had got him to hospital earlier, an inquiry heard yesterday.
Read MoreKerb crawlers face Asbos and prosecution in Dundee as part of a two-pronged attack on prostitution in the city.
Read MoreA woman who fraudulently obtained nearly £40,000 in benefits because she claimed she was not having sex with her live-in partner had her £60,000 fine quashed by the Court of Appeal today.
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