Category Archives: Society

Children still being sent far from home for mental health care in England

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Figures show practice continues eight years after pledge to end it, potentially impeding young people’s recovery

Children and young people in England with serious mental health problems are still being sent for treatment many miles away from their homes because bed shortages in some areas remain so severe, despite a pledge to end such practices eight years ago.

NHS England promised in 2017 to stop forcing highly troubled under-18s to leave family and friends after some received care more than 300 miles from where they lived.

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‘Repeated failures’ at Nottinghamshire prison where three inmates took their lives

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Inquest into deaths of three prisoners within three weeks at HMP Lowdham Grange in 2023 criticises ‘poor leadership’

There were several failings and missed opportunities at an overwhelmed prison where three inmates took their lives in the space of three weeks, an inquest jury has found.

Anthony Binfield, 30, Rolandas Karbauskas, 49, and David Richards, 42, were found in their cells at HMP Lowdham Grange in Nottinghamshire between 6-25 March 2023.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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Naomi Campbell claims she did not know of financial misconduct at charity

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Supermodel alleges ‘concerted deception’ by fellow trustee kept her in dark over running of Fashion for Relief

The supermodel Naomi Campbell has claimed she knew nothing of the extensive financial misconduct and mismanagement at the anti-poverty fashion charity she created and sat on the board of for more than five years.

Campbell was disqualified from running a charity in May 2024, before the publication of a devastating watchdog report that revealed a trail of administrative chaos, misuse of charity funds, and chaotic record-keeping.

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‘Strong reasonable doubt’ over Lucy Letby insulin convictions, experts say

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Exclusive: ‘No scientific justification’ to say former nurse definitely poisoned babies with insulin, according to study authors

The claim that Lucy Letby definitely poisoned babies with insulin has “no scientific justification whatsoever” and there is a “very strong level of reasonable doubt” about the convictions, according to the authors of a 100-page study on the case.

Prof Geoff Chase, one of the world’s foremost experts on the effect of insulin on pre-term babies, told the Guardian it was “very unlikely” anyone had administered potentially lethal doses to two of the infants.

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Make first-time, low-level offenders go to rehab instead of court, Bar Council suggests

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Exclusive: Barristers also say offenders could pay compensation to victims, in effort to tackle court backlog

First-time offenders in low-level crimes should be diverted from trials by paying compensation to victims or enrolling in rehabilitation to solve the courts crisis, the Bar Council has said.

The government has proposed abandoning jury trials in some cases to tackle the backlog in crown court cases, but the body representing barristers in England and Wales said this was “not a principled response” and would not work.

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Naomi Campbell taking legal action in attempt to overturn charity trustee ban

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Supermodel has alleged she was victim of ‘systematic fraud’ by fellow trustee at Fashion for Relief

Naomi Campbell has launched legal action in an attempt to overturn an order banning her from running a charity, claiming she was the victim of a “systematic fraud” perpetrated by a fellow trustee who set up a fake email account to impersonate her.

The supermodel was disqualified from being a charity trustee for five years in May 2024 after a Charity Commission inquiry found widespread evidence of financial misconduct at Fashion for Relief, the poverty charity she created.

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‘Basic lack of decency’ driving self-harm in women’s prisons, report says

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Inspectorate points to challenges including ban on using washing machines for knickers and difficulties with family contact

Women in prison are resorting to self-harm because of “astonishing gaps” in basic services including strict time limits when contacting their children and bans from using washing machines for dirty underwear, according to a watchdog’s report.

A survey of women in prisons in England found that “the frustrations of day-to-day life” and a “lack of basic care” were driving many to hurt themselves.

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Home Office wasted nearly £100m on plans to house asylum seekers, watchdog finds

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Public Accounts Committee examined series of site purchases and found ‘troubling culture that repeatedly wastes public money’

The Home Office’s plans to house asylum seekers reveal a “dysfunctional culture of repeated mistakes and weak internal challenge” that wasted nearly £100m, parliament’s spending watchdog has concluded.

A Public Accounts Committee report said the department had a “troubling culture that repeatedly wastes public money” after examining the acquisition of the £15.4m HMP Northeye site to house new arrivals.

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‘Watershed moment’ as three-year time limit on child rape claims scrapped in England and Wales

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Under current rules, civil child sexual abuse cases must be brought within three years of turning 18

Hundreds of child rape survivors, including those targeted by grooming gangs, are expected to pursue their abusers in the courts after ministers scrapped a three-year time limit on compensation claims.

Under reforms hailed by campaigners as a “watershed moment”, ministers said civil claims will no longer have to be brought within three years of a child abuse survivor’s 18th birthday.

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UK childhood mental health crisis to cost £1.1tn in lost pay, study finds

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Researchers estimate lifetime earnings lost as charities call for independent review of causes of the crisis

More than £1tn will be lost in lifetime earnings in the UK as a direct result of the mental health crisis in young people, research estimates.

Published to launch the new Future Minds mental health campaign, the study forecasts the financial burden of failing to tackle the mental health crisis.

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Labour MP to push for better maternal mental health care after friend’s suicide

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Laura Kyrke-Smith says perinatal mental health care in England is ‘postcode lottery’, with disadvantaged women more likely to miss out

A new Labour MP will speak in parliament on Wednesday of her anguish over her friend’s suicide just 10 weeks after giving birth – despite the friend having repeatedly sought help for her anxiety.

Laura Kyrke-Smith, the MP for Aylesbury, will call for more specific mental health support to be embedded in maternity services.

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NHS to launch world’s biggest trial of AI breast cancer diagnosis

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If successful, the scheme could speed up testing and reduce radiologists’ workload by around half

The NHS is launching the world’s biggest trial of artificial intelligence to detect breast cancer, which could lead to faster diagnosis of the disease.

AI will be deployed to analyse two-thirds of at least 700,000 mammograms done in England over the next few years to see if it is as accurate and reliable at reading scans as a radiologist.

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DWP ‘blocked whistleblower giving evidence to carer’s allowance review’

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Staffer told by official it would be inappropriate for him to give evidence to review of scandal-hit benefit

The Department for Work and Pensions has been accused of blocking a whistleblower who repeatedly raised the alarm about carer’s allowance from giving evidence to an independent review of the scandal-hit benefit.

The DWP staffer was told by a senior official it was inappropriate to share with the review their knowledge of the inner workings of a system that has become notorious for its often cruel treatment of unpaid carers.

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Environmental groups in UK ‘still very white – especially at the top’

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Greenpeace co-director responds to report finding fewer than one in 20 working in sector identifies as non-white

Environmental organisations “are still very white, especially at the top”, the co-director of Greenpeace has said as research showed little to no improvement in the ethnic diversity of their workforces.

Areeba Hamid’s comments came as the third annual racial action on the climate emergency (Race) report into diversity among environmental charities found fewer than one in 20 of those working in the sector identified as people of colour or as other racial or ethnic minority groups.

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‘Reform is a challenge’: Eluned Morgan hits south Wales valleys in constant campaign mode

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The Labour first minister talks to people in Blackwood, as Reform and Plaid snap at her heels

The next Welsh parliament elections are more than a year away but the first minister, Eluned Morgan, appeared to be on the campaign trail already as she swept through the town of Blackwood in the south Wales valleys.

Within half an hour, she had spoken to dozens of people, asking what they wanted of her government, acknowledging where things needed to be improved, challenging voters who she felt were not being fair on her party.

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AI tools used for child sexual abuse images targeted in Home Office crackdown

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UK will be first country to bring in tough new laws to tackle the technology behind the creation of abusive material

Britain is to become the first country to introduce laws tackling the use of AI tools to produce child sexual abuse images, amid warnings from law enforcement agencies of an ­alarming proliferation in such use of the technology.

In an attempt to close a legal ­loophole that has been a major ­concern for police and online safety campaigners, it will become illegal to possess, create or distribute AI tools designed to generate child sexual abuse material.

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UK betting giants under fire for ads targeting at-risk gamblers

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Judge condemns firm for use of customer’s data after problem gambler was sent 1,300 emails over two years

Gambling companies in Britain could be forced to overhaul their advertising practices after a betting firm was ruled to have unlawfully targeted a problem gambler who was bombarded with more than 1,300 marketing emails.

In a ruling at the high court, a judge found that Sky Betting & Gaming sent the man personalised marketing without proper consent after gathering hundreds of thousands of pieces of data about him and his gambling habits.

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‘Are we dating the same guy?’: Women turn to Facebook to uncover cheating and violence

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Experts say use of groups to warn others about dangerous men is indictment on governments’ failure to keep women safe

“Any info on Chris* please? Thanks.” The words in a Facebook post, above three pictures of a man. In the comments, a woman replies: “He was also posted a few days ago by someone.”

Further down, a second woman replies: “I’m shaking, I’m his fiancee.”

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‘This is sacred land’: an off-grid Wales community battles to keep their home

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Legal action has begun to remove the tenants after the 80-acre site was sold to be turned into a healing retreat

Lunch around the huge sycamore and oak table in the farmhouse kitchen of the off-grid Brithdir Mawr community in the Preseli mountains of west Wales is a warm, gentle affair.

Members of the housing co-operative share soup made from leeks and potatoes grown in the gardens, served with crumbly goat’s cheese from its own herd, all washed down with mugs of mountain spring water.

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Just Stop Oil protester, 78, released to home detention after fitting tag found

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Gaie Delap had prison term extended because contractors could not find wrist strap of right size

A 78-year-old climate protester has been released on home detention curfew just a week after her prison term was extended because government contractors were unable to find the right-sized tag for her wrist.

Gaie Delap, 78, a retired teacher and Just Stop Oil protester, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for her participation in a climate protest on the M25 in 2022 and was released last November under the home detention curfew (HDC) scheme.

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