A GROUP set up by Flintshire County Council to give older people a voice has appointed a development worker. The Flintshire 50+ Advisory Group works with health, voluntary and private sectors and consults on a range of proposals and policies affecting older people.
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Half of pregnancies among girls under 18 are now ending in abortions although the number of pregnancies is falling, an analysis by The Times has shown.
Ministers are expected to respond to this milestone by forcing schools to improve sex education, with children as young as 5 taught about relationships and older pupils receiving specific advice about sex and contraception.
Government figures yesterday showed that the number of abortions continued to rise in England and Wales last year, with a leap in the number of very young girls having terminations.
The increase last year among girls under 16, the age of sexual consent, was 10 per cent, from 3,990 to 4,376. For girls aged under 14, the number of terminations increased from 135 to 163, a jump of 21 per cent.
The rate of abortions for girls under 18 was nearly 20 for every 1,000 last year, while analysis of recent trends suggests that conceptions among under 18s will have reached 40 pregnancies for every 1,000 women.
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A 17-year-old Dublin girl who was having “a bad come-down” on prescription drugs when she scalded her social worker has had her sentence adjourned by Judge Patricia Ryan until November.
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YORK and North Yorkshire will get their share of £5 million to help vulnerable youngsters stay in care beyond 18. Minister for Young People Kevin Brennan has announced that City of York and North Yorkshire County councils are two of ten local authorities to get a share of almost £5 million.
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The rising cost of dementia care could make the NHS financially unsustainable, scientists warned today. In a letter to the health secretary, Alan Johnson, dementia experts said more funding was needed for research into the disease to devise better treatments and reduce care costs.
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One in five of the country’s 76,000 social workers has signed off work for 20 consecutive days or more in the past five years because of conditions such as stress or anxiety.
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A woman has been charged with attempting to murder an 11-year-old boy six weeks after she was released from a mental health unit in the south-west of England.
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Plans for a five-year programme of building new care homes for the elderly have been announced by Fife Council. The authority, which runs 10 homes housing almost 300 residents, said it had set aside £40m to build the first four or five homes at about £8m each.
After the first phase, the council will “take stock” of the remaining homes to see if more need replacing. If approved, Appin and Raith Gates homes in Kirkcaldy and Alan McLure home in Glenrothes will be rebuilt first.
The proposals will go before the social work and health committee on Monday. Figures show an increasing elderly population across Scotland, but fewer people want to be looked after in care homes in their twilight years.
Only two of the current stock of 10 have en-suite facilities and councillors want all the care homes to be modernised
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Serious concerns about two of the country’s largest private homecare companies have been revealed in a BBC Scotland investigation. Domiciliary Care and HRM Homecare provide almost 15,000 hours of care per week to the most vulnerable sections of Scottish society.
Ex-workers accused them of putting profits before people’s welfare. Both companies denied the allegations but HRM has promised to investigate fully the BBC’s claims.
More than 70,000 elderly and disabled Scots have carers coming into their homes, allowing them to retain some independence. About a third of these services, which are paid for by local authorities, are now delivered by the private sector.
The allegations, which are broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland’s The Investigation on Monday morning, include:
* “cramming” – which means fitting in as many clients in as short a time as possible, irrespective of how long they have been allocated
* poorly-trained staff
* carers not turning up
* companies falsely charging local authorities for work that is not being done.
Child deaths in Wales will be reviewed in an attempt to prevent so many youngsters dying. Gwenda Thomas, Deputy Social Services Minister, yesterday announced the all-Wales pilot and said it would initially focus on child suicides. The review will identify avoidable factors and contributors to child deaths.
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