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The following are summaries of recent news items culled from the media

The Final Piece in the Jigsaw The Government announced the final elements of its plans for restructuring the social services today. Following the creation of the National Care Commission and the removal of responsibility for services for young children to the DfEE, the Government now intends to set up Children's Departments which will provide all services for children and their families, including social work services, children's homes and services for young offenders. "This is a really forward-looking step," said the Minister, "based upon an appraisal of the systems used over the last 150 years. We have accepted the advice of our consultants that these departments should be placed under Home Office control, in order to ensure close co-operation with the penal system from the start, in line with the Prime Minister's wish for joined-up thinking. After all, that is where a lot of children in care end up." It has been suggested by a source close to the Minister that the real reason for this proposal is that too many Social Services Departments are liable to have to come under direct Department of Health control in the wake of criticisms by the Social Services Inspectorate. "We had enough of running services at St Charles and Glenthorne", he said, " and anyway, the PM's hoping that responsibility for services for children will help to make the Home Office more humane." The Government is also planning to put social care services for adults under joint management with Health Services. When asked what duties would be left for Social Services Departments to fulfil, the Minister declined to respond but was heard to remark that there was still a lot for them to do to find a final solution for asylum-seekers. The San Serif Bugle 1st April 2000

PARLIAMENT IN YOUTH JUSTICE PLEA Child welfare groups have urged the Scottish Parliament to overhaul the country's youth justice system by keeping young offenders out of prison. An influential think tank set up by COSLA and NCH Action for Children called for services tackling the causes for crime rather than concentrating on punishment as new figures revealed Scotland has the second highest rate in Europe for imprisoning young people. The report, Meeting Needs, Addressing Deeds, said 1613 young people were jailed in 1988 for petty offences. It also claimed that of 4586 teenagers aged between 16 and 18 sentenced to prison in 1997, 3905 were jailed for minor crimes at a cost of £40million. Alan Miller of the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration said: "It's a myth that prison is the tough option and community based rehabilitation is a soft option." Scottish Daily Mail. March 31, 2000.

Consultations about Standards for Early Years Day Provision The DfEE has been holding preliminary discussions, with a view to the circulation of documents for consultation about national standards for the inspection of day services for young children. Up to now, it has been for each local authority to determine its own standards, but the DfEE has decided that OFSTED will run the whole system throughout England. The Department's intention is to establish core standards which apply to all areas of service, and then to draw up detailed specification based on the core standards but adapted to each type of provision. It is anticipated that the consultation documents will be made available in a couple of months time.

COUPLE JAILED FOR NEGLECTING CHILDREN A couple from Brighton have been jailed for child cruelty in one of the worst cases of neglect police say they have ever come across. The pair were cleared of murdering three children last year. Lewes Crown Court heard the family had lived in squalor, and the children were filthy and underfed. The mother was jailed for two and a half years and her partner for two years. Neither can be named for legal reasons. 20/03/2000

Residential Child Care Training in Scotland After many months of waiting - presumably delayed by the establishment of the Scottish Parliament - it has been decided that of the two competing consortia, the one including the University of Strathclyde and the Residential Child Care Centre should run the training system for residential childcare workers in Scotland. This is good news, as the Centre has done much to put Scottish residential child care on a sound footing. In particular, Meg Lindsay has given the type of enthusiastic lead which the service needs to maintain its sense of momentum and morale. Appointments are now being made so that the consortium can get off the ground in two months' time.

Paedophile Jailed : A New Act Used for the First Time (CRY News - click here)

FICE Congress at Maastricht FICE has now announced the keynote speakers for its Congress. There will be a mixture of plenary speakers, debates, workshops and symposia. A number of the speakers are from the Netherlands, but other keynote contributors include Dr Craig Shealy of the USA. Dr Steen Lasson of Denmark, and our own Meg Lindsay. The Congress organisers have also made arrangements for a variety of cheap accommodation.

 

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