Police reopened a 10-year-old investigation into abuse at a former County Durham detention centre last year when a former inmate said he was also abused. Since then the force said it has been contacted by more than 100 alleged victims.It is insulting to the public that the authorities, including the police, should expect that they get away with such weak explanations. Many alleged victims who came forward were ignored.
Following the original investigation, Neville Husband, who worked at the detention centre as a prison officer, was jailed for 12 years in 2003, and Leslie Johnson, a store man, was sentenced to six years in 2005.
Since the investigation was reopened in August, Durham Police has received statements from 143 alleged victims of abuse.
Many of those sent to Medomsley were first-time offenders often detained for relatively minor offences...
In 2003, Newcastle Crown Court heard Husband used his position of authority at the centre to systematically abuse his victims from 1974 to 1984. He was jailed after being found guilty of 10 counts of indecent assault and one of a serious sexual offence after police said almost two dozen victims came forward.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-25834368
There are quite a few social workers who have raised concerns with me about how the system is working. However, they know that they would be subject to disciplinary action were they to make the same points publicly...
I welcome the proposal to have greater scrutiny of care proceedings. It remains that unless the family courts operate as an effective quality control mechanism, management priorities will predominate. That is not good for children, parents or social workers.http://www.communitycare.co.uk/2014/01/22/social-workers-experts-john-hemming-mp-responds-
Data from care.data will be shared with commissioners, researchers and private companies in de-identified and identifiable forms. Health secretary Jeremy Hunt announced earlier this year that patients will be able to opt out of having their information extracted, but NHS England has ruled out a national publicity campaign and said the responsibility lies with individual GP practices.
http://www.pulsetoday.co.uk/your-practice/practice-topics/it/eight-weeks-to-inform-patients-their-data-is-going-to-be-harvested-gps-warned/1/20004562.article?&pageno=1&sortorder=dateadded&pagesize=20
A shamed police inspector jailed for "warped" child sex offences and a crime scene investigator exposed as a paedophile have been allowed to keep their comfortable public sector pensions. Despite being sacked in disgrace, both former South Wales Police inspector Geraint Lloyd Evans and ex-North Wales Police staff member Ian Wyn Williams are entitled to claim the cash.
The chief executive of a leading victim support charity last night blasted the move as "an outrage" and said the vast majority of police officers would be "appalled" by the revelations. The men are among four police staff in Wales convicted of child sex abuse since 2007.
They are able to claim the money because their crimes are not deemed to have been "gravely injurious to the interests of the state or to be liable to lead to a serious loss of confidence in the public service".
It was unclear whether the other two staff were allowed to keep their pensions after their convictions as Gwent Police and Dyfed-Powys Police refused to reveal the details in response to a Freedom of Information request.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/shamed-police-inspector-exposed-paedophile-6593219
Hundreds of children in England and Wales have been held under the Mental Health Act and locked in police cells because officers did not have anywhere else to take them, the BBC has learned.
There were 305 detentions of under-18s in the first 11 months of 2013, Radio 4's the World This Weekend found.
Some were detained for more than 24 hours, according to data released under Freedom of Information laws.
Health Minister Norman Lamb said the level of cell use was "unacceptable".
The latest information revealed that in 2012 there were 317 detentions.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25900085It goes without saying that a police cell is not a safe place for a child. Why have we not heard about this from social services?
The father of the girls, who is divorced from their mother, brought a case to the high court seeking the vaccination, according to the BBC. The parents had agreed not to vaccinate the girls following the MMR controversy surrounding subsequently discredited claims that the vaccine could cause autism.
Mrs Justice Theis said it was a specific case "only concerned with the welfare needs of these children". The case is the third time the MMR issue has been before the court.
A mother was ordered to have her child immunised against measles, mumps and rubella in 2003 after the court ruled the benefits of vaccination outweighed the risks while in 2011, children in care were ordered to have the jab against the wishes of their parents.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/oct/12/court-sisters-mmr-vaccine-against-will
The judge ruled that the girls were not competent to make a decision on their own behalf but you wonder at the wisdom of the judge when successive Cochrane Reviews have concluded "The design and reporting of safety outcomes in MMR studies, both pre- and post-marketing, are largely inadequate": while the rhetoric of these papers was pro the vaccine, they failed to disguise the underlying failure to ensure that the product is safe . Likewise, the bureaucratic line that MMR does not cause autism has been contradicted by a number of decisions in the US Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) , and notably in an Italian court case last year, uncontested by the Italian government.
Presently, the US Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) lists 63,438 events for MMR and 322 deaths: the limitation of the system is that as a passive reporting system cases are unconfirmed but also likely to be under-reported by fifty or a hundred times . Although the British state has largely rigged itself against the acknowledgment or compensation of vaccine damage the UK’s Vaccine Damage Payment Unit were forced in 2010 to acknowledge the grotesque damage to Robert Fletcher from MMR after a battle of 18 years. Most years (in contrast to the US’s VICP which has paid out $2.5b since 1989) there are no payments at all, and any payments that are made do not exceed £120k (less than $200k). In the UK vaccination takes place effectively entirely at the risk of citizen, which is another unreasonable feature of the present system given the moral pressure on citizens to comply.
http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/10/uncertainty-as-high-court-judge-rules-two-british-schoolgirls-should-be-given-mmr-vaccine.html
Deliberately concealing information from the parents for the sole purpose of getting them to comply with an "official" vaccination schedule could thus be considered as a form of ethical violation or misconduct. Official documents obtained from the UK Department of Health (DH) and the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) reveal that the British health authorities have been engaging in such practice for the last 30 years, apparently for the sole purpose of protecting the national vaccination programThere is evidence that the joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) deliberately withheld information from parents and health practitioners in order to ensure compliance with vaccination policy. In addition, some Committee members had extensive links with the pharmaceutical companies and the Committee colluded with the manufacturers to promote uptake of the vaccine.
BSEM March 2011(The health hazards of disease prevention)
From the British Society for Ecological Medicine
see article in BMJ
Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead was in the vanguard of David Cameron's Big Society scheme when it was launched in 2010.
A review into the death of an 11-month-old boy killed by his mother criticises child protection practice at the cost-cutting council which leads David Cameron's Big Society agenda.
Callum Wilson was known to social workers at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, one of four so-called vanguard Big Society authorities.
He was fostered at birth but was returned to his mother seven months later, who then pretended to friends he was a relative's baby.
A serious case review, as yet unpublished, is understood to question the assessment and monitoring of the family.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-berkshire-25865352
Children’s minister Aileen Campbell has said the approach would be useful in that a specific individual will have the responsibility of overseeing the wellbeing of specific children. As she put it, this will "make sure there is someone having an overview of what is happening to that child, to make sure that early indicators of anything that would pose a threat or risk to that child are flagged up".
Part of the plan is that professionals increasingly share information with one another so as to nip problems in the bud. Like the "every child matters" approach in England and Wales, "safeguarding" children is now the priority of anyone working with children, be that a teacher, a dentist, a youth worker, a swimming instructor and so on. And at one level this sounds OK – anything that stops child abuse…
Essentially, the idea of a specific person looking after the interests of a child coming with the name of "father" or "mother" has been lost from Scottish society – or at least lost within the corridors of power. ScotsmanMore and more schools are involving themselves with issues about life and relationships with less time to spend on reading, writing and arithmetic. For instance, children`s sex education began to be rolled out across Glasgow, starting with primary 1 schoolchildren in 2009, with claims that this was endorsed by most parents. HERE
focused surveys and questionnaires
discussion and debate
analysis of information, case studies and statistics
quick think/brainstorm activities
`draw and write`
role-play and drama situations
problem solving opportunities
use of audio visual, computer, and information communication technologiesSo every effort is going to be made to prevent children getting bored with the same subject. But there is something else going on:
The wellbeing indicators are used to record observations, events and concerns and as an aid in putting together a child`s plan. The My World Triangle and Resilience Matrix are used to gather, structure and help with assessing and analysing information.
Children and young people will progress differently, depending on their circumstances but every child and young person has the right to expect appropriate support from adults to allow them to develop as fully as possible across each of the Wellbeing Indicators.
All agencies in touch with children and young people must play their part in making sure that young people are healthy, achieving, nurtured, active, respected, responsible, included, and, above all, safe.
Only when support from the family and community and the universal services (ie school or health services) can no longer meet their needs will targeted and specialist help be called upon.
Getting it right for children and familiesWhat is frightening about this is that targeted and specialist help to address the child`s needs - across all the wellbeing indicators - will be called upon by the `named person,` not the parent, because it is the named person who has ultimate responsibility for the wellbeing of the child. The record of observations, events and concerns will be recorded by the named person and shared with other agencies, with or without consent, who will be encouraged to collaborate.
"New research published today by the University of Edinburgh reveals that young people’s involvement in offending is directly influenced by the characteristics of the local neighbourhoods they live in.
The research indicates that involvement in delinquent behaviour is associated with living in neighbourhoods that are characterised by higher levels of deprivation. Also, although young people generally start to give up or reduce their offending around the age of 14, those living in deprived localities are more likely to continue. However, deprivation at the individual or family level has no significant effect on young people’s involvement in offending.
Importantly, the characteristics of neighbourhoods that influence offending may vary between types of offence. The area characteristics that most strongly predicted involvement in property crime at an early age (13 or under) were poor supervision and control by adult neighbours, and social disorganisation, characterised by frequent population turnover and high density of young people. Those who got involved in property offending later in adolescence (age 14 or 15), however, were not influenced by the characteristics of their neighbourhoods.
Although neighbourhood deprivation explains involvement in delinquency, the same is not true for drug use. Cannabis use is more common in prosperous neighbourhoods, but also in areas of social disorganisation. This shows that different explanations are needed for delinquency and drug use, and that different initiatives are needed to tackle these two problems...
The four reports from which these findings are taken are the latest in a series from the Edinburgh Study of Youth Transitions and Crime, which is following a cohort of around 4,300 young people who started secondary schools in Edinburgh in the autumn of 1998."
http://www2.law.ed.ac.uk/cls/esytc/findings/pressrelease7.pdf
| Youth Unemployment | Youth Employment | |||
| Scotland | UK | Scotland | UK | |
| July 2008 - June 2009 | 14.5% | 16.9% | 60.0% | 54.5% |
| July 2009 - June 2010 | 18.2% | 19.5% | 55.6% | 51.0% |
| July 2010 - June 2011 | 19.6% | 19.8% | 55.6% | 50.3% |
| July 2011 - June 2012 | 21.4% | 21.3% | 53.7% | 49.4% |
| July 2012 - June 2013 | 20.5% | 20.7% | 53.2% | 49.7% |
European nations developed regimented groups, such as the Scouts and the German Bünde (and at the extreme, the Hitler Youth). On the other hand, there were autonomous movements that ranged from back-to-nature groups, such as the German Wandervögel or the British Woodcraft Folk, to consumerist types, such as 1920s flappers or swing kids in the 1930s.
Passing into general use near the end of the second world war, the American definition of youth's social role was the teenager: a product-hungry, democratic, pleasure-loving individual. This consumerist identity has become the principal pubertal ritual in many western countries.Admitting that at present in Britain teenagers are bearing the brunt of an artificially skewed austerity, David Blanchflower spelt out the cost of this among youth: depression, self-harming, suicidal thoughts. With cuts to the future jobs fund and the education maintenance allowance, and mooted curbs on benefits to the under-25s, teenagers are being hammered by the coalition.
January 19, 2014 at 3:36 pm
The national fostering and adoption agency was founded a few years ago by a couple of devoted social workers .The company was sold to a foreign company called graphite last year for a mere £130million; A wonderful profit for all concerned who triumphantly deny that there is anything sordid in making a lot of money out of children in care.
January 19, 2014 at 7:31 pm
They clearly saw the writing on the wall and cashed in! How many others? Social workers, managers, directors, cafcass officers & Judges and legal personnel who are involved with children’s care, foster or adoption & Court work, ostensibly providing a service but in reality making hand over fist profits! How many of them foster children? Does additional money exchange hands each time there is a placement change? Like a finders fee? How many adopt? Themselves or friends? Do they have to declare an interest? What if it is in the names of their parents, husbands or children?
It makes no difference where in the country they worked and then subsequently set up a business, the point is they would profit because they would know the system!
... Naomi Angell said recent changes to speed up care cases had shifted the balance against parents, but described Hemmings’ comments as ‘irresponsible and dangerous’.
‘Local authorities have a duty to, and society demands, that they protect children at risk,’ said Angell.
So let me summarise; Someone who makes their living from what many say is a corrupt and unjust system, believes that the Honourable John Hemming MP is giving "Dangerous Advice"? First of all it's interesting to note, that much of the dysfunction, corruption and miscarriages of justice that have occurred in your workplace, were exposed by Mr Hemming himself. Such scandals as;
The Italian tourist about to leave the UK when she suffered a panic attack because she didn't take her medication for fear that she would harm her unborn baby. The UK had 3 months to send her back to Italy but chose instead to cut her open and remove the baby 6 weeks early. The incident sent shockwaves around the world.
Or the EDL mother who "may" (or may not) harm her baby with her political beliefs that she once held as a teenager and no longer holds, she had to flee to Ireland along with her husband, a serviceman in the military who was also deemed unfit to look after his daughter as he has served in Afghanistan.
Fran Lyon, who fled the UK after she received a letter from a social worker she had never met and who knew nothing about her, stating that her baby would be removed at birth and adopted, she fled to Ireland where social services had no issues and continues to live happily with her daughter.
Mark & Nicky Webster, whose child was misdiagnosed as abused and lost 3 children to forced adoption even though vindicated by the criminal courts. Even after the vindication, were pursued to Ireland where they had fled to keep their fourth child...
And the excuse for the growing industry is that more children are "Protected", in what way exactly?
- 50% of prostitutes have been in "Care"
- 50% of Young Offenders have been in "Care"
- 80% of Big Issue sellers have been in "Care"
- 50% of girls in "Care" are mothers within 2 years if they don't already have children and are then 66 TIMES more likely to have their children removed and placed in "Care".
- A child in "Care" is 3 times more likely to die that children in the general population and 6 times more likely to be sexually assaulted. And these are just the official Government statistics.
You have to wonder how people can decry the sins of the past as seen in movies like "Oranges & Sunshine", "Philomena" and "Magdalene Laundries" when these injustices continue today on a far larger scale than occurred years ago. You also have to wonder how people in the future will view the corrupt, unjust courts of today. I believe John Hemming's legacy will be that he was right all along.
http://www.lawgazette.co.uk/practice/family-lawyer-criticises-mps-dangerous-advice/5039374.article
I an adoptee taken from my birth mother at birth in Ireland was horrific. My birth mom was transferred to "repent for sins" in laundries a few weeks after my birth. I was left behind where she birthed me and then sold when I was nearing 5 years old to USA family. I was told right off and knew I was a stranger in a new world at that age. I looked and talked different than any "new family members" and of course being locked up for almost 5 years fed soup and bread and in a 1 frock everyday I was lost and had a hard time adjusting. All the love and care from new family couldn't take away the "digging" in my heart for years that "I don't think I belong here or am wanted here".
The nuns told my new parents that I was abandoned by my birth mom and left at doorstep of convent but in good health". My parents just wanted a companion for there biological daughter and I was the "little package they got for a fee". They got there money and I had years and years of trying to figure out who the heck I was. I had issues and fears and insecurities no little girl should have or carry for most of her life. The Irish government denied my existence--would not give me any birth certificate or where abouts of family or health history for over 18 years. I finally through great lengths and many barriers got my birth mothers name and a wonderful link on internet found my birth mother within a year and I was reunited in 2002 with birth mom and large family that even looked like me.
I received health history and story from my birth mother of how it broke her heart that I was taken away from her. Her heart was broken and she had to tell clergy she would never contact me or seek me out for as long as she lived. My birth mother also believed the clergy when they told her "you have been a disgrace to the church and to your family and no one wants you and you best stay with us and work off your sins". My mother was locked up in laundries for 43 years. Got out in 1993 after years of my family begging her to get out but she felt to ashamed to leave the institution. I was reunited with her and my family embraced me and still does with much love and care. My birth mom passed in 2009 and like the clergy wanted her torture and hard labor for them will go unspoken by her--for they died with her. But the church lost there demand that we not meet. Through perseverance and help with adoption link on computer I was having tea and hugging my mom for many years before her death. I saw her 2-3 times a year for 7 years and was with her when she got ill and was with her when she passed. She will forever be in my heart. For she is truly a part of my heart. No one can take that away from me ever.http://www.independent.ie/opinion/susan-lohan-philomena-cheered-by-stars-while-the-state-turns-deaf-ear-29923045.html
From the Christian Institute
A couple who took their children out of school so they could have their first family holiday in five years risk being jailed after refusing to pay fines introduced under controversial new laws.
Stewart and Natasha Sutherland will appear before Telford Magistrates' Court tomorrow after they took their three children to the Greek island of Rhodes during the school term.
The couple were given an initial fine of £360 after the family of five went away for seven days at the end of September, but were unwilling to pay.
The penalty then doubled to £720 because they did not pay the fee within 21 days.
Analysis of figures obtained from the Department of Work and Pensions reveal that there are 20,059 children in the 32,700 households in Scotland who would be hit if the benefit was stopped.
Following the analysis, Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has written to Iain Duncan Smith to set out the implications for Scotland and request a meeting to discuss any proposals.
“My main concern is the risk that this cut would pose to the 20,000 children who would need to be rehoused and would face the prospect of being made homeless.
The payments have been made for a wide range of services including consultancy fees, curriculums, IT advice and equipment, travel, expenses and legal services by at least nine academy chains.
Critics fear that the Department for Education (DfE) is not closely monitoring the circulation of public money from academies to private firms.
While defending their use of public money, one trustee of an academy chain has called for increased scrutiny of their spending. Another said a director had resigned from the trust because of fears over a conflict of interest.
Grace Academy, which runs three schools in the Midlands and was set up by the Tory donor Lord Edmiston, has paid more than £1m either directly to or through companies owned or controlled by Edmiston, trustees' relatives and to members of the board of trustees.
Payments include £533,789 to International Motors Limited, a company owned by Edmiston, and £4,253 to Subaru UK Ltd, where he is the ultimate controlling party. More than £173,000 was also paid to the charities Grace Foundation and Christian Vision, both of which were set up by Edmiston. In addition, £108,816 has been paid to a company controlled by the son-in-law of one trustee.
Grace Academy also employs Gary Spicer, the brother of Lady Edmiston, as its executive director, on a salary of £30,000 plus pension. Spicer's own company received more than £367,732 from Grace Academy over the last six years for consultancy work.
Since 2010 more than 3,444 schools – including more than half of secondary schools – have taken on academy or free school status. Payments to businesses in which academy's trustees have a beneficial interest are allowed if the trust has fully complied with its procedures and conditions set out in the trust's articles of association. Before July 2010, the Charities Commission oversaw the governance of academies, but this was switched to the DfE in August 2011.
http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jan/12/taxpayer-funded-academy-paying-millions-private-firms-schools-education-revealed-educationAnother academy is reported to have been investigated by the Education Funding Agency because the school had obtained funding which it did not use for its intended purpose.
Kings Science Academy - which boasts Tory vice chair, Alan Lewis, as its executive patron - was among the first wave of free schools. It was visited and praised by Prime Minister, David Cameron, in 2012.
It charged for first class travel, parties, buying furniture for staff and allegedly submitted ‘fabricated invoices’ to the Department for Education for rent it did not actually pay.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2536895/Free-school-head-arrested-Teacher-one-open-flagship-Coalition-education-policy.html
