A three-year-old girl who died after a house fire had to be taken to hospital in a police car because there were no ambulances available. Neighbours spent more than 20 minutes attempting to revive Angel Smith while they waited for an ambulance. She was eventually taken to hospital in Carmarthen by police officers. The delays suffered by Angel in receiving treatment from qualified paramedics emerged following mounting concern over the use of police vehicles to transport sick patients to hospital when ambulances are unavailable. The family’s local MP, Simon Hart, described the tragedy as ‘totally unacceptable’. He said he had also discovered that three of the six ambulances in south-west Wales were off duty at the same time on the day of the fire. A Dyfed-Powys representative said, ‘as a police force we request an ambulance almost on a daily basis and often you hear 'there’s no ambulance’. The ambulance service has had far too many cuts and this I’m afraid is the result'.
Sales of ouija boards up 300%
12 Dec 2014Ouija boards are selling fast. Google reports that sales of the board are up 300 per cent, and it is threatening to become a Christmas ‘must buy’. The culprit is a new Hollywood horror film titled Ouija. Low-budget, lowbrow, the critics hammered it, but cinema-going teens, looking for something scary in the Halloween season, loved it. Cue big box office takings and huge demand for Ouija boards, many manufactured by the American toys giant Hasbro, who helped finance the making of the film. But to some people, including churchmen, it is a danger to be avoided, a trigger for psychological harm - or something worse. ‘It’s like opening a shutter in one’s soul and letting in the supernatural,’ says Peter Irwin-Clark, a Church of England vicar who has witnessed the dark side of Ouija. ‘There are spiritual realities out there and they can be very negative.’
Collapse of the two-parent family
12 Dec 2014The shifting patterns of family life in the UK are exposed in the latest findings from a study of the lives of 13,000 children born at the beginning of the new century. More than one in three children have already lived through domestic upheaval such as seeing their parents break up by the age of eleven and only half still have married parents by the time they finish primary school. But while the study provides further evidence of a powerful link between family break-up and issues such as behavioural problems or poverty, it also reveals how the children themselves are still 'strikingly happy'. It gives a vivid picture of modern British childhood with details on everything from what time children go to bed and whether their parents still use a ‘naughty’ chair to their intelligence test scores or their illicit use of social networking sites such as Facebook.
Celebrity role models causing rise in ‘sexting’
28 Nov 2014Celebrities are the cause of a sharp rise in the number of children sending sexually explicit text messages, a child protection expert has warned. Dr Zoe Hilton told MPs that schoolchildren are copying the ‘sexting’ trend which is endorsed by adult celebrities. Speaking to the Commons Education Committee, she warned that children may be unaware of the dangerous repercussions of sharing explicit pictures. Hilton, who is the Head of Safeguarding and Child Protection at the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (CEOP), said, ‘children and particularly older children are looking at celebrities and are looking at what the adult population are doing. I think we’ve got to the point with older teenagers where sexting is actually a normative behaviour’, she added. Last year, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children warned that sexting is now common amongst teenagers.
Obesity costs Britain’s economy £47bn a year; more than war, terrorism or armed violence, a new study has found. The research, commissioned by consultants McKinsey and Company, recommended a series of 44 interventions to fight the epidemic. Measures include introducing a safe network of cycle lanes, portion control in fast-food packaged goods, and more PE lessons in schools. The report’s authors at the McKinsey Global Institute said the measures could bring 20% of overweight or obese people in UK back to a healthy weight within a decade. Success would save £16 billion a year, including an annual saving of about £766 million in the NHS, according to the study. The report found that only smoking does more damage to the UK economy than obesity.
London churches open HIV testing centres
28 Nov 2014HIV testing clinics have been opened in churches across London in the hope of combating high rates of infection as well as social stigma among the African population. Four African churches in Southwark, New Cross, Dagenham and Wood Green are involved in the project, which is coinciding with National HIV Testing Week from 22 to 30 November. Behind the campaign is Rev Fred Annin, the founder and CEO of Actionplus Foundation, which is working to support those with the virus. He wants the church to lead the movement. Actionplus was the first organisation to set up an HIV testing clinic in a Church in London and launched its Take Action Now campaign last year. ‘The Bible does not condemn people with HIV as cursed. It shouldn't be taboo to discuss it in churches. It's a medical condition and people need medical help.’ Annin said.
Racism in the police force
28 Nov 2014Six Metropolitan Police officers who dragged a black off-duty fireman from his car and shot him with a Taser should face charges of racial discrimination, a statutory watchdog says. The victim claims he was simply requesting assistance. Following a 20-month investigation into this case, the Independent Police Complaint Commission (IPCC) said there was noteworthy evidence the officers had profiled the fireman in a discriminatory manner. Now-retired Inspector David Burgum – the senior officer among the accused – denies the allegations levelled at him and his colleagues and questions fireman Kennedy-Macfoy’s motives throughout the case. He also strongly condemns the IPCC for being politicised and biased. The IPCC will pass the file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service, suggesting that one particular constable could face criminal charges over the use of the Taser and there was a failure on behalf of the officers to act with courtesy, patience, integrity, professionalism, diplomacy or common sense.
After abuse was exposed at Winterbourne View care home in 2011 the NHS realised a stronger framework was needed to address serious shortcomings in the system currently in place supporting adults with learning disabilities and autism in the community. They commissioned a review, which resulted in a report published on Wednesday that suggests a framework to support people with learning disabilities and autism as they move out of hospitals and into the community. This framework introduces a charter of rights for patients and their families, giving them a ‘right to challenge’ decisions and the right to request a personal budget.It includes a requirement for local decision-makers to follow a mandatory framework setting out who is responsible for which services and how they will be held to account; a planned closure programme of ‘inappropriate’ in-patient facilities and improved training and education for NHS, local government and service provider staff.