The Department for Education and Skills has finally announced that Ofsted will be the body that must be informed of any safeguarding reviews. There had been confusion over who would take over the role when the responsibility for the inspection of children’s social services is switched from the Commission for Social Care Inspection to Ofsted on 1 April.

Prime Minister Tony Blair has called for “truly personalised” services with people given the information and power needed to choose a school or hospital. His policy review of public services says people want services more tailored to their needs, with more choice and a “greater diversity of providers”.

Over two-thirds of British Asians think that reporting child abuse would have a negative affect on the ‘honour’, known as ‘izzat’, of a child’s family, according to a survey by the NSPCC.

{mosimage}Over half of the 500 respondents, who were drawn from the Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities also felt that reporting child abuse to the authorities would have a negative affect on their own or their family’s ‘honour’. The respondents took part in face to face interviews and rated the sexual abuse of a child as having the most negative effect on family ‘honour’, followed by physical abuse then emotional abuse.

NSPCC Asian Helpline Manager, Saleha Islam said: “Child abuse happens in all communities and there is no evidence that it is greater amongst British Asians. However, cultural issues and the importance placed on family reputation could mean that it is being hidden away.

“Izzat means that family comes before the individual, but to keep children safe from abuse their interests must come first.  We want to send out a message to the British Asian community that putting up a wall of silence will not protect children. It will only protect the abuser who will be free to abuse again.”

Social Care Association, professional membership organisation for social care workers gave three awards at their annual dinner at the Erskine Bridge Hotel in Renfrewshire on Tuesday 13 March.

Young women tricked into coming to England, often by boyfriends, are being sold off in auctions at airport coffee shops as soon as they arrive. They are among the thousands of women brought into the UK to be sex slaves, usually with no idea of their fate.

A modified version of the virus that causes Aids could become the basis of a prenatal gene therapy for cystic fibrosis, new research has suggested.British scientists have discovered that a form of HIV, adapted to be harmless, is a promising vector for ferrying replacement genes into the lungs of affected foetuses.

The latest teenage victim of the continuing spiral of youth murders may have been chased off a London bus by his knife-wielding attackers, police said yesterday. Adam Regis, 15, who was a nephew of the former Olympic athlete John Regis, died after being assaulted on Saturday night as he returned home from a trip to the cinema with a group of friends.

Cookery lessons and golf also found to work at projects in deprived areas  
They may not be the most traditional of crime prevention techniques, but Indian head massage, golf and cookery lessons are being used to help teenage boys in poor areas “de-stress” and stay away from the temptations of drink, drugs and offending.

Waits for the results of X-rays and other scans in England are often too long, a report finds. The Healthcare Commission found waiting times in hospital X-ray departments had dropped – by 33% for some tests.

UK scientists believe in the future they will be curing babies in the womb of serious diseases with the use of gene therapy. The work is controversial not just because of the ethics but also safety concerns.