A new campaign from the Care Council for Wales has been launched to help promote a better understanding and appreciation of the social care profession in Wales and the services they provide.

Three Welsh schemes for helping tackle homelessness were highlighted at a national conference in London earlier this week. Paul Webb, from the Welsh Assembly’s housing strategy and services unit, spoke about accessing the private rented sector.

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.

Two Albanian men living in the UK who trafficked women for prostitution were today jailed and recommended for deportation. Cardiff Crown Court heard that Erjon Javori, 32, of Adelphi Street, Sheffield and Arjan Kanani, 22, of Queenwood, Cardiff, were involved in prostituting four Lithuanian women at brothels in Birmingham and Cardiff.

A serving police officer with Dyfed-Powys Police has been charged with possessing indecent images of children. The officer, from the Powys area, has been granted conditional bail and will appear before magistrates in Swansea on 6 February.

Union officials have warned a review of the way industrial injury benefits are paid could lead to cutbacks. The UK Government is to begin a consultation into the future of the scheme, which is paid to 350,000 people across the UK.

Furious neighbours led a revolt to kick paedophile Derek Williams off their estate yesterday after cops offered the child porn pervert a safe house.

Children’s charities have condemned a judge’s decision not to jail a man who downloaded child pornography, amid the row about prison overcrowding. Judge John Rogers QC suspended Derek Williams’ sentence, saying he had to consider a Home Office request to jail only the most serious offenders.

{mosimage}The lord chancellor has denied claims by opposition MPs that the judiciary’s discretion appeared to be influenced.

Williams, 46, of Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd, said he was “lucky to be out”. His six month term of imprisonment was suspended for two years. Williams was also ordered to register with the police as a sex offender for the next seven years and placed under supervision. He told BBC News: “Yes I am lucky to be out, but you cannot blame the judge for what he has done. His hands are tied. He was only doing his job.”
Despite pleading guilty, Williams claims he was innocent and admitted the offences because he wanted to get home to his family.

Home Secretary John Reid and legal chiefs sent advice to judges and magistrates this week reminding them that only the most dangerous and persistent criminals should be jailed because of the pressure on prison spaces.

In sentencing Williams on Thursday, Judge Rogers, the senior judge on the North Wales circuit, told Mold Crown Court he had to consider “the current sentencing climate”. He said: “As of yesterday, I have to bear in mind a communication from the home secretary.”

A £16m medical centre which will bring the latest in scanning technology closer to patients has been launched. Many patients have to travel as far away as London for a Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan which is used for cancer detection and diagnosis.

Wales’ Children’s Commissioner Peter Clarke has died of cancer aged 58. Mr Clarke pioneered the role in the UK of a children’s “champion” when he took up his post on March 1st, 2001. First Minister Rhodri Morgan has hailed the former director of Childline Cymru’s “commitment” and said he had “blazed a trail for others to follow”.

{mosimage}One of Mr Clarke’s first challenges was to hold the long-running Clywch inquiry into claims of sex abuse by a drama teacher who had committed suicide. His decision showed that he was unafraid to use the legal powers his office gave him.

Mr Clarke’s report described how John Owen serially sexually abused pupils over a period of two decades at the Welsh medium school Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen in Pontypridd. The Clywch report demanded major changes in protection for school children.

Mr Clarke also highlighted the issues of child poverty in Wales and bullying, as well as voicing concerns on topics ranging from the smacking of children to the building of schools on landfill sites.