Leading retailers such as Boots and Tesco will be invited to bid to open GPs’ surgeries in their stores in areas with too few doctors under an initiative to be announced by the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, today.

When Marie, a young girl from Cameroon, turned up in Manchester at the end of 2004 she was just one of hundreds of asylum seeking children alone in the city looking for help. Her story was harrowing.

{mosimage}Having been trafficked to France and forced into prostitution by her aunt, she fled to Britain with the help of a man who said he would help her escape.

Suffering a range of physical and mental health problems, probably due to the the abuse she endured, Marie was admitted to hospital. In two months she was dead.

A post-mortem examination revealed natural causes.She was 16. Sadly, Marie’s case is thought to be just the tip of the iceberg and part of a growing industry which contributes to the 5,000 child sex slaves recently estimated to be working in the UK by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation.

This comes as the UK marks the 200th anniversary of the Parliamentary Act to abolish the slave trade. According to Ecpat UK, an organisation which represents charities working against child exploitation, Marie’s was one of 28 known cases of trafficked children in Manchester in 2005.

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.”

Women will be told not to drink while pregnant or even when trying for a baby in controversial government guidelines which will mean warning labels being put on bottles of wine, spirits and beer. The plea for total abstinence follows growing fears over the rise among binge drinking among young women and concern that maternal drinking can cause possible brain damage in the womb.

{mosimage}The new warnings are being fiercely resisted by the drinks industry on the grounds it contradicts the Department of Health’s own official health advice to expectant mothers, which allows up to two units a day – the equivalent of a single glass of wine – once or twice a week. They want warnings which concentrate instead on proven dangers, arguing that overly strict advice will cause confusion and panic among mothers-to-be who have drunk occasionally and will fear that they have harmed their babies.

The question of alcohol during pregnancy is hugely sensitive. In America there is a powerful ‘total abstinence’ lobby – the actress Rachel Weisz was pilloried recently for suggesting a glass of wine after the third month of pregnancy was ‘fine’. ‘I mean, in Europe they drink it,’ she said. But despite the confusing message from the Government, campaigners insist even the occasional glass can trigger so-called Foetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), where babies are born brain damaged. Official advice is less strict and surveys suggest around two thirds of mothers-to-be drink at least occasionally.

Caroline Flint, the public health minister, has said that while cigarette-packet style warning labels for alcohol will be voluntary initially, if the drinks industry ignores them, the government will consider legislating. She has begun private consultations on suggested wording for a label, saying ‘Know your limits’, which gives the official recommended limits for men and women – three to four units and two to three units daily, respectively – then adds: ‘Avoid alcohol if you are pregnant or trying to conceive.’

Asylum-seekers were put at risk by the Government’s much-criticised policy of dispersing them around the country, according to a Home Office report which the department refused to publish.

Directors of adult social services have added their weight to concerns about the growing funding shortfalls for services to older people. According to John Dixon, vice president of the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS):

Recent statistics show that 22,000 people die in Britain each year through alcohol-related illness, and there are 350,000 serious drug users.
Increasingly, the answer for many is costly rehab in a private clinic, or NHS treatment which costs the State millions.
But a new book argues that addiction is not a medical condition which can be cured, but simply a question of moral weakness.
So is it right? Here, two former broadsheet newspaper editors – who both admit to having addictions – take up the cudgels.

Responding to the publication today of guidance from the Department of Health on health clearance for new healthcare workers the BMA said it welcomed any guidance that would ultimately improve the safety of patients but that further clarification was needed as to how it will work in practice.

A senior council official who has been at the centre of controversy over a child subjected to horrific abuse by her parents has been appointed to head the official agency that promotes good practice in social work.
Julie Jones, currently director of children’s services for Westminster in central London, is to become chief executive of the Social Care Institute for Excellence (Scie). Her appointment by the body, which has independent charitable status but is government-funded, has been endorsed by the Department of Health’s director-general of social care.