Thousands Of Elderly Abused In Own Homes
Hundreds of thousands of elderly people are being subjected to appalling abuse in their own homes, according to a report today.
Read MoreHundreds of thousands of elderly people are being subjected to appalling abuse in their own homes, according to a report today.
Read MoreAs damaged as they were damaging, the children of Kerelaw made the easiest of victims. For years pupils at the school – effectively Scotland’s biggest lock-up for troubled youngsters – had spoken of ferocious bullying, beatings and even rape.
Read MoreThousands of chronically-ill patients are to have their prescription charges scrapped by the Scottish Executive in a major victory for the high-profile campaign led by The Scotsman.
Read MoreForty care workers preyed either sexually or physically on Scottish children in what is one of Britain’s biggest abuse scandals, a report will reveal today.
{mosimage}A three-year investigation has found “a significant core of staff” at Kerelaw residential unit in Ayrshire were directly involved. They preyed on some of the most troubled and troubling youngsters in the country, sometimes in the full knowledge of colleagues and superiors amid “a culture of fear and collusion”.
Glasgow City Council, which ran Kerelaw, will today publish its first full report on what happened at the school. It will also issue a chilling warning that some of the workers it believes were involved are still working in Scotland’s care sector.
The report, a copy of which has been seen by The Herald, reveals that far more members of staff than ever before suggested were caught up in the abuse.
The report says: “The investigation shows that there was a significant core of staff, around 40 individuals, directly involved in the abuse of young people.
“However, a far larger number of staff had knowledge and information about abuse and potential abuse, and were unwilling or unable to address this abuse.”
Council investigators also found fault with senior social work and education managers in the authority. The report says: “It is also clear that there have been deficiencies in the quantity, quality, visibility and assertiveness of external management.”
Read MoreAbout one in 10 Scots have gone without medicine, food or electricity because of poverty, according to a study. Nine per cent of people who participated in the survey said they had gone hungry.
Read MoreMinisters have made some concessions to campaigners over the planned changes to mental heath laws. Health Minister Rosie Winterton has set a two-year target to ensure children are no longer treated in adult wards.
{mosimage}She has also said doctors will be given tight rules over the use of orders to force patients to take medicine and place them under detention if required.
Campaigners said the moves were welcome, but they still had some concerns. The bill, which amends the 1983 Act, has been designed to introduce powers in England and Wales to detain people with serious personality disorders even if they have not committed a crime.
The shake-up in the law has been driven by Michael Stone’s 1998 conviction for the brutal murders of Lin and Megan Russell. Stone was regarded as a dangerous psychopath but, because his condition was untreatable, he could not be held under mental health powers.
Concern had been raised that the bill would allow patients under 18 to be held in adult wards. The government has now said the bill will contain a clause saying they will be required to be treated in “age-appropriate settings”.
People detained under the mental health laws will also be given access to advocacy services to champion their rights. And the victims of mental health offenders will be given the chance to make representations over their proposed release.
Ministers have also made concessions over the most sensitive aspect of the bill – community treatment orders. Doctors will be told they can only impose the orders if they are aimed at preventing harm to the individual’s health or safety or protecting the public.
Read MoreThe Children’s Workforce Network (CWN) has announced that it is hosting its first ever conference to bring together its Reference Group to network and contribute to the ‘Refresh’ of the Government’s Children’s Workforce Strategy.
Read MoreMore than 150 children placed in care in the South East have vanished in the last three years. According to figures obtained by BBC South East Today 65 children who arrived at Gatwick Airport in Sussex on their own since 2004 have disappeared.
{mosimage}The figures released after a Freedom of Information request also show that 69 vanished from Kent and 27 from Surrey. Social workers say they are doing all they can but campaigners say they fear the children are being trafficked. They said more must be done to stop the missing youngsters being forced into domestic slavery and prostitution.
Some genuinely want to claim asylum but it is thought that many others have been forced to come to the UK from Africa, and increasingly China. The children are put on planes by one set of traffickers who arrange for them to be picked up at Gatwick Airport by another set who then take them away, Sussex Police believe. Prostitution is a likely occupation. Social workers at Gatwick often spot the victims before the traffickers do and are able to place them into care in Sussex. However the authorities also fear that many of these youngsters are later snatched back by the slavers.
Unaccompanied children that are picked up at Gatwick are currently looked after by foster carers or placed in hostels. But for five years there was a safe house in the county, where youngsters could be hidden. It was closed by West Sussex County Council in 2003.
Read MoreNHS Direct is referring on too many patients to GPs and emergency services, putting strain on the system, doctors and ambulance crews say. They claim to get urgent referrals when patients have minor problems, such as sprains and high temperatures, and have called for an inquiry into the service.
Read MorePlans to offer more “chemical castrations” to serious sex offenders will be among a raft of measures set to be unveiled by the government. Increasing provision of libido-reducing treatments forms part of a crackdown on paedophiles, sources told the BBC.
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