Northern Ireland Health Minister Paul Goggins, has learned of the benefits achieved from the Fostering Achievement Scheme he launched last year. Young people and carers, who have benefited from the scheme, met with the Minister to tell him of how their lives have improved.
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Senior doctors fear the size of Scotland’s flagship new children’s hospital is to be cut by up to one-quarter amid soaring building costs. The Herald understands NHS planners no longer believe they can deliver a promised 40,000sq metre replacement for the Royal Hospital for Sick Children at Yorkhill with a £100m grant pledged by the Executive in 2004.
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Welsh Assembly Members are to vote on legislation which could make it simpler for councils to tackle anti-social behaviour by installing gates to block alleys. “Alley-gating” is the policy of putting locked gates at each end of alleyways running behind homes.
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Choose Life, Scotland’s national strategy to prevent suicide, will host its fourth national summit in Edinburgh this week, which will bring together key people tasked with reducing Scotland’s suicide rate.
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Sex offenders could be forced to register their e-mail addresses to prevent them approaching children on the internet, the government says. Home Secretary John Reid said he was also considering making paedophiles add their chatroom names to their other details on the Sex Offenders Register.
{mosimage}The move comes a day after three men were jailed for using a chatroom to plot the rape of two young girls. The announcement coincides with European Safer Internet Day. With as many as two-thirds of British teenagers now using social networking sites such as MySpace, many parents, teachers and politicians fear this opens up new dangers for children. The Safer Internet campaign will see websites and child safety experts discuss ways of safeguarding children from online threats.
The Sex Offenders Register contains the details of all those convicted of a sexual crime in England and Wales. Figures from the Home Office for 2005/06 showed there were nearly 30,000 registered sex offenders in England and Wales.
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The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), the organisation established to set up a register of key groups of people who work in social services in Scotland, has extended the list of qualifications it recognises and accepts for the purposes of registration.
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Academics claim data is being manipulated to help NHS hospitals meet the Government’s target that no one should wait more than four hours to be seen in A&E, it has been reported.
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The new Board of Scottish Voices had their first meeting on 31st January 2007 and voted in key office bearers to take the work of the group forward. At this exciting time it was recognised that all board members are of equal importance in making sure the voice of service users and carers are heard.
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Bradford Metropolitan District Council has introduced mobile technology in an effort to increase the time its 75 social workers spend helping vulnerable children and adults.
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Violence in prisons has soared almost 600% in 10 years, according to official figures. The number of violent incidents spiralled from 2,342 in 1996 to 13,771 in 2005, Home Secretary John Reid disclosed in a letter to the Liberal Democrats.
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