Children Webmag - News Page

Fresh bid to find shot girl's killer

POLICE today launched a fresh appeal for information about the murder of a seven-year-old shot dead alongside a convicted crack dealer.

The plea came as a damning report was published into the care of Toni-Ann Byfield, who was murdered while staying at a north-west London flat.

An independent review uncovered a "catalogue of failures" by Birmingham social services, children’s guardians and immigration officials.

Toni-Ann was shot dead with dealer Bertram Byfield, 41, in Kensal Green on September 14 last year.

It was thought that Byfield was her father, but the review has established that there was no biological link between them.

The killings took place in what is thought to have been a drugs dispute which Byfield - who had served a nine-year jail sentence for drug dealing - was involved in.

Detectives believe Toni-Ann was shot in the back as she ran away, to stop her identifying the killer, while Byfield was shot in the chest. No-one has been charged in relation to the murders.

Detective Chief Inspector Neil Basu said Byfield was "closely affiliated" to a group of Jamaican crack dealers running cocaine between the UK and Jamaica.

Toni-Ann’s mother, Roselyn Richards, claimed her daughter would still be alive if social services officials had "done their job properly".

She said: "I want to know how and why Toni-Ann was with Bertram, and who was responsible for what happened to her."

Care workers revolt threat

SOCIAL workers in Edinburgh today threatened a revolt over plans for a major shake-up of the department.

They said they will refuse to deal with hundreds of "unallocated cases", which would either leave vulnerable children without proper professional care, or create chaos in the courts.

The protest has been sparked by council plans to split child care social workers from the rest of their department in the wake of the death of baby Caleb Ness.

Union members have said they would not be prepared to take "moral or professional" responsibility for children who had not been allocated a specific social worker, if the council reorganisation plans go ahead.

There are currently about 500 cases in the Capital - thought to involve up to 1000 children - who are deemed to need a social worker but have not been allocated one.

Union leaders today said social workers would take protest action unless the council backs down.

Following a ballot of members on Monday, Unison members said they would refuse to handle all unallocated cases. They say that could

mean either refusing to handle all cases which currently are unallocated, leaving hundreds of vulnerable children without a social worker.

However, they will also consider reprioritising their case loads so that the work they do not do is preparing reports on youngsters involved in the children’s hearing system - a move that would create chaos in the courts.

Unison Edinburgh branch secretary John Stevenson said today that the council’s plans would damage the ability of child care social workers to do their jobs.

The union was already worried about the hundreds of children, including dozens on the at-risk register, who it says have been left vulnerable because they had not been allocated a specific case worker.

Mr Stevenson said the department needed more resources, not a radical reorganisation.

"The consistent line coming from folk is that it is safer not to touch unallocated cases at all," he said.

Unison’s social work convener Lyn Williams added: "This is putting the buck back where it should be.

"I am very, very worried about the children in Edinburgh at the moment who have not been allocated a social worker, many of whom are at serious risk.

"There are around 500 cases, but the number of children involved is probably around 1000 and that takes us into really scary figures."

Unison members were set to demonstrate at the City Chambers this morning against the council’s proposals.

The plans were made in the wake of the "damning" report into the death of Leith baby Caleb, which highlighted major failings in links between social work, health and other organisations involved in children’s care.

Council members were meeting today to discuss the proposals to create a new department of education, children and families, a new department of health and social care and changes to joint and integrated working between the council and NHS Lothian.

But Unison accused the authority of ignoring the views of a range of organisations. Social work convener Kingsley Thomas said today: "I agree that we have to do more to recruit more staff and we are determined to do that. We have made a commitment to reduce case loads and we need to look at better support for staff and better conditions."

Cllr Thomas said he believed it unlikely social workers would take any form of industrial action which would put children in danger.

Edinburgh Evening News 29 April 2004

CHANCELLOR 'VALUES CHILDREN, VALUES CHILDCARE'

National childcare charity Daycare Trust today hailed Chancellor Gordon Brown 'childcare champion' as he announced sustained investment in early education and childcare through children's centres.

Gordon Brown pledged in his Budget speech to create 1700 children's centres around the country by 2008, with a longer-term goal of a children's centre in every community. He announced increased spending of £669 million on early years education and childcare by 2008, an annual rise of 17%. The Chancellor also extended free part-time early education places to 6000 two year olds living in disadvantaged areas.

Stephen Burke, Director of Daycare Trust, said: "Once again the Chancellor has shown that he is the childcare champion. This historic commitment has the potential to benefit every child and every family. Children's centres will become a hub in every community so that all families can benefit from local quality childcare services.

"Every child deserves a good start in life. The Chancellor clearly values children and values childcare. Investment in quality childcare is an investment in all our futures."

Thousands of parents around the country have taken part in Daycare Trust's Childcare Challenge postcard campaign since autumn 2003, calling on the Chancellor to create a children's centre in every community to make life better for them and their families.

Children's centres bring together quality childcare, early years education, health, family and employment support to give children a good start in life and help parents work and train. The Government has already announced the first 67 children's centres.

4CHILDREN CONGRATULATES THE CHANCELLOR ON HIS CONTINUED CHAMPIONING OF CHILDCARE BUT URGES HIM TO MAKE BOLDER MOVES TO CREATE CHILDCARE FOR ALL CHILDREN AND PARENTS IN THE CSR

4Children welcomes the announcements made in the Budget today of an additional £669 million to sustain investment in early education and childcare through children’s centres, but urges the chancellor to take the next bold steps when reporting on the treasury childcare review for the Comprehensive Spending Review in the summer.

Anne Longfield, Chief Executive of 4Children said: “The announced investment in 1700 children’s centres – one in each of 20% most deprived wards – by 2008, will transform the lives of many families and communities, particularly the thousands of lone parents and families in poverty who want to work but currently can’t due to the lack of childcare. But to ensure the long-term target of a children's centre in every community is to be realised we need to bring the total spend on childcare to £10bn per year to provide 10,000 Children’s Centres across the UK.”

“We still lag behind Europe where parents know that just as there will be a school in their locality so will there be high quality, affordable and reliable childcare. Only by continuing to increase investment in children’s centres – for children of all ages, 0-16, can we ensure no family goes without the essential support to better themselves.”

For further information please contact:

Alex Campbell or Simon Goldsborough at 4Children on 0207 7522 6917 or 020 7522 6928

Stephen Byers, Secretary of State for the Department for Trade and Industry, lends his support to 4Children’s radical new agenda for childcare children and families in the UK.
“4Children's new policy manifesto, 'Creating Opportunities, Building Futures' provides an ambitious, realistic and timely vision for improving the lives of children and families across the country. This bold agenda recognises the considerable challenges facing children as they grow up, and parents as they balance work and family life, as well as offering a clear and understandable set of solutions. It is a package that any political party committed to improving life chances and achieving social justice should embrace".

In brief, the report by 4Children calls on government to:

Develop a children’s funding programme of £10bn per year (bringing together and building on existing funds - £3bn of which already comes from parents)

Develop 10,000 Children’s Centres based in or around schools

Open up its schools from 8am to 6pm to provide childcare to enable parents to work and to provide the support services that nearly every family will need at some stage

Create a new children’s profession brining together all those who work with children

Stephen Byers was speaking at the launch of 4Children at their annual conference, Tomorrow’s World on 4th March.

For further information please contact: Simon Goldsborough at 4Children on 0207 512 2112

Doctors 'fear child abuse cases'

Doctors play a key role in investigating child abuse
Doctors involved in child protection work are receiving death threats and hate mail according to the BBC.

A Royal College of Paediatricians report suggested many doctors had doubts about continuing with the work.

They fear being made scapegoats or being the subject of a malicious complaint. A growing number have had official complaints made against them.

The college has called for urgent action, saying the current situation is damaging to doctors and children.

The college surveyed its 6,000 members, the vast majority of whom have done child protection work.

Twenty four hour Nursery

A children's nursery is planning to open for 24 hours a day. Jumping Jacks Playcentre in Wigton, Cumbria hopes to open its doors soon for twenty four hours - parents on shift work can leave their children aged 6 months to 14 years at any time - and they will even offer to accommodate them for up to seven days. However, it hasn't yet got Ofsted approval for its plans.

Milking for Carers...

For the first time, the government is placing adverts on the side of milk cartons, aimed at encouraging 45,000 more people to become social care workers - as part of a £4m campaign to fill vacancies for carers in residential and nursing homes, day centres and hospitals.

Using TV and press ads - as well as stickers on 3.7m milk cartons appearing in Tesco and Safeway stores from the end of February - the campaign will be the first to boost recruitment of carers.

3G 'child porn' claims scare operators into action

January 13 2004

It seems that a recent report by children's charity NCH, which implicated the internet in a huge rise in child porn and pointed the finger at 3G as the next big danger to kids, has spurred the mobile industry into action.

All of the UK's major mobile names, including Vodafone, Orange, Virgin, O2 and T-Mobile, as well as the only company to currently operate a third-generation service in the UK, Hutchison Whampoa's 3, have signed up to the new regulations, which are designed to protect children.

Children under 18 will be unable to use third-generation phones with unlimited access, effectively barring them from entering adult-orientated sites, including porn or gambling sites as well as chatrooms. The handsets will come with filters, which to have removed the buyer will have to prove they're 18 or over.

The report's author, who is also NCH's internet advisor, John Carr, said that he feared that the nature of mobile internet would make it easier for children to access the web without supervision by parents or teachers, and could lead children to be unwittingly groomed by paedophiles.

The new code of practice will come into force later this year.

The original story from NCH below

Internet feeds Child Pornography says NCH

Child pornography crimes have rocketed 1,500 per cent since 1988 mainly due to the increase in use of the internet, according to a report from the children's charity NCH.

And the report warns that a new avalanche of child porn could be unleashed by the increased use of Internet mobile phones.

Child welfare professionals are worried the new phones will be used by paedophiles to access child sex sites, take pictures of sex with children and trade in vile images of abuse.

It will make it very difficult to trace paedophiles viewing child abuse images as well as increasing the risk children could be "groomed" for abuse while using the Internet by mobile phone away from their parents.

Paedophiles have used the anonymity of the internet to prey on children - but some have been caught by tracing the computer's owner.

But the mobile phone network is even more anonymous.

Prepaid mobile phones bought for cash cannot be traced as there is no record of who owns the handset.

And advanced 3G - third generation - technology will allow paedophiles to access child porn on pay-as-you-go phones, with impunity.

Children's charity NCH (formerly National Children's Homes) said 549 child porn perverts were charged or cautioned in 2002, compared to just 35 in 1988.

Numbers are expected to rise even further when final data is published for 2002 due to the impact of Operation Ore, the investigation into 6,500 Britons alleged to have used credit cards to access internet child porn, the charity said.

There is evidence the internet had led to more children being sexually abused, said NCH's Internet consultant John Carr.

"The internet is about to go mobile, and that could make many things more difficult to prevent or detect," he said.

"The scale of the problem has changed beyond recognition in just over a decade.

"The increased demand has made child pornography into big business and the consequences for children in all parts of the world are horrifying.

"Offences being committed through chat rooms have also been rising steeply."

Social work department set to be axed

EDINBURGH’S under-fire social work department is set to be scrapped in the aftermath of the tragic death of baby Caleb Ness.

Under radical plans backed by city council leader Donald Anderson its key roles will be handed over to other sectors.

Responsibility for child protection would be handed to a new super department charged with pursuing the "best interests" of young people

The new body would have wide-ranging responsibilities for everything from schooling to the detection of child abuse.

Other key social work responsibilities, such as care of the elderly, would be transferred to a greatly-expanded housing department. The revamp - which is likely to see the city’s beleaguered social

work leader Councillor Kingsley Thomas lose his post - is seen as vital to preventing vulnerable children being failed by the city’s care system in future.

The failure of various child protection agencies to work closely enough together was criticised in a damning report into the death of baby Caleb.

The root-and-branch overhaul of city care services, and the 415 current frontline posts, is officially just one option being considered by the council.

But it is understood that the plan has the backing of senior councillors and the transformation could begin as early as April next year.

Edinburgh Evening News

Police set web trap to net paedophiles

Police have set up a fake child pornography website as part of an international law enforcement operation to catch paedophiles who search for images of abuse on the internet.

Operation Pin will use a bogus website claiming to contain images of child abuse to attract paedophiles. Anyone who uses the site will be given several opportunities through a series of warnings about the supposed content on the pages to leave the site.

Those who don't will be taken to a page informing them they have entered a law enforcement website, broken the law and that their details have been captured.

The operation was originally developed by West Midlands Police and has been expanded as part of a 'Virtual Global Task Force' headed up by the UK's National Crime Squad along with the FBI, Interpol and police forces in Australia and Canada.

Assistant Chief Constable Jim Gamble from the UK's National Crime Squad said at this morning's launch that people who view such images online fuel demand that leads directly to more abuse taking place.

"We hope this initiative will disrupt the activity of paedophiles operating on the internet, discourage those who facilitate the supply of images of child abuse online and undermine the confidence of those who hope to use the internet anonymously when searching for sexual gratification by viewing images of child sexual abuse," he said.

The US Department of Homeland Security's law enforcement and investigative bureau said it will exchange leads, intelligence and evidence with police from other countries to tackle the problem.

Silicon

Pervert teacher's pictures of pupils

A PRIMARY school teacher is facing jail after secretly taking indecent photographs of children in his classes.

Supply teacher Maurice George Turner used a specially adapted bag containing a hidden camera to snap the youngsters he was teaching at schools throughout Greater Manchester.

Turner, 54, of Salford, pleaded guilty at Manchester crown court to 19 charges of taking indecent photographs, making indecent photos and possessing 2,500 indecent internet images of children.

He also pleaded guilty to distributing indecent images of children.

As revealed in the Manchester Evening News, Turner was working as a supply teacher at Lewis Street Primary in Eccles when he was arrested in October.

Police took action after receiving intelligence from another force that was carrying out an investigation in Cumbria.

Turner used a digital camera hidden in a bag placed under a table to take pictures of the children who were unaware of his activities.

Turner, who had worked in high schools and primary schools since 1977, asked for 30 other offences to be taken into consideration.

He secretly took pictures at six primary schools - five in Salford and one in Bury.

The case was adjourned for probation reports and Turner will be sentenced in February.

Judge Jonathan Geake warned Turner that because of the gravity of the offences, he could expect a custodial sentence.

Tom Fitzpatrick, counsel for Turner said: "This is a serious case made all the more serious by the defendant's occupation and background."

Prior to his arrest, Turner had been working as a supply teacher in the Salford area on a temporary contract for five weeks. He shared a home in Little Hulton with a long-term partner who knew nothing of his obscene activities.

Salford local education authority set up an advice line for worried parents after Turner's arrest.

Manchester Evening News

SCHOOLS WARNED - BEWARE OF RUGBY LEGAL BACKLASH

RUGBY fever sweeping the nation's youth has been tempered by reports of schools placing strict bans on the sport.

Sports law experts say an increase in rugby-related injuries inevitably means a rise in the number of compensation claims.

Two recent cases highlight the legal dangers faced at the amateur and youth level of the game according to Manchester law firm George Davies Solicitors.

David Mercer, partner at George Davies Solicitors explains:

"There have been a couple of recent cases where young players have sued schools and authorities after getting injured playing rugby. It's a matter of major concern and head teachers should make sure their pupils participation in the sport is properly governed by trained and properly qualified people.

"A young player injured in a school rugby match in Cheshire successfully sued his opponent's school for around £100,000, after sustaining injuries to his neck and ligaments. The court found that the school was vicariously liable for it's pupil's actions and was forced to pay compensation. (Ramsay Elshafey v Kings School of Macclesfield)

"Earlier this year (Vowles v Evans) judges decided that a referee in an amateur adult rugby game was liable to the Claimant for allowing him to play as a substitute front row forward without checking his suitability in terms of previous experience or fitness. This arose when the referee failed to enforce the rule of allowing a non-contested scrum to be ordered where there is no front row forward available from one team," says Mercer.

"It is easy to see how youngsters not properly trained in the sport could be injured and then parents demand compensation and legal action in the event of any injuries that might happen. Schools must beware that for every Johnny Wilkinson produced, there will be ten compensation claims if they don't take action," he warns.

Growing up, sex and the disabled teenager

Parents often feel uncomfortable talking to their child about growing up, puberty, and sex. This can be even more difficult if their child has a disability.

There are half a million disabled children and young people in the UK today, but finding information and practical advice on this subject for teenagers and parents is almost impossible.

Now, for the first time, Contact a Family - the UK wide charity for families with disabled children - has joined with the Arthrogryposis Group to tackle the issue and produce one of the most comprehensive packs ever written.

Entitled Growing up, sexuality and the young disabled person, this free pack contains a series of publications offering a wealth of information and advice for the teenager, the parent, the social worker and the health professional.

Appropriately worded for its intended audience, this user-friendly, cartoon-illustrated pack comprises a folder with separate booklets. Areas covered include self esteem, making and keeping friends, personal relationships, body image, sex and relationship education at school and at home. In the booklet for children and young people, young disabled teenagers pass on their tips about dealing with some of the toughest bits of growing up.

Also included in the pack is a useful list of organisations and further resources.

"This pack is a must for any parent with a disabled teenager." says Francine Bates, Chief Executive of Contact a Family. "Growing up is about becoming a confident adult with many close friendships: it is about developing self-esteem, a good body image and the confidence to be happy with who you are. Disabled children are no different and go through the same processes as any other child.

"Of course, we recognise that attitudes to difficult issues around sex education vary widely. We want people to read the information and take from it that with which they are comfortable. We are sure that it will provide a valuable resource for many families."

A pack for teachers is also being produced.

Both packs will be available at a launch scheduled for the end of January 2004. They are funded by the Department for Education and Skills and are free of charge to parents and professionals. To obtain a copy of either pack, please call the Contact a Family freephone helpline on 0808 808 3555 (10am - 4pm Monday to Friday) or email: helpline@cafamily.org.uk

The National Lottery Community Fund helps children of alcoholics to dial up 0800 for help

The Community Fund has just awarded a national lottery grant of £99,142 to the National Association For Children of Alcoholics (NACOA). The money will help the Charity double its 0800 helpline activity and increase the support it can give to children. Here Mo Mowlam, patron of the charity explains why this help is so vitally needed.

NACOA's latest research reveals some disturbing figures. In the UK, there are at least 920,000 children and young people, under the age of 18, who share their home with a parent who has a problem with alcohol. They are often lonely and frightened, with no one to turn to for help and support, and seventy per cent of these children will try to hide the problem from the outside world.

Some feel that they are the reason for their parents drinking, they feel responsible for the arguments, the violence, anxiety and stress associated with growing up in an environment where alcohol is a problem.

NACOA responds by providing a free confidential listening and advice service for children of alcoholics to help support them and to provide information to those who are concerned with their welfare.

Making that first phone call is a momentous step. The £99,142 grant from the Community Fund will help us double our 0800 helpline advice and reach many more children who need advice and support. We will also be able to employ more counsellors who can deal with children on a one to one basis.

They provide callers with information and advice, helping them to work out what they can and can't do, what works for them and what doesn't, supporting them through difficult times or just being at the end of a telephone line to listen in safely. They also refer them to others for help in their local area.

If you have a parent who is an alcoholic, or you are concerned about the effects of someone's drinking or other addiction on a child, there are many people you can turn to for help and advice.

The NACOA Helpline (0800 358 3456) can put you in touch with local and national agencies, who provide other specialised help, with local drop-in centres, Citizens Advice Beaureax, various support groups, etc. if you wish.
Alternatively, you can ring and talk. We are here to listen to you and to help you find ways to deal with whatever problems you bring to us.

I support NACOA because I know what its like to grow up in a family with an alcoholic parent. There are thousands of families in the UK today keeping up the semblance of normality. Drink is one of the hidden sufferings.
Listening to children, helping them to understand that they are not alone, that they are not responsible for their parents drinking and that they can, with help, make healthy choices for themselves is essential if we want our children to live happy and fulfilled lives.