Latest news with #socialworkers
South China Morning Post
14 hours ago
- South China Morning Post
Guidelines overdue on Hong Kong child abuse law
It is almost a year since the passage of a law requiring professionals working with children to report suspected cases of abuse. It is another six months of preparation before it comes into effect – time that must be put to good use to promote awareness and provide guidelines for professionals and institutions. Figures from the Social Welfare Department on child physical and sexual abuse in 2024 are a reminder of that. They show that the number of child sexual abuse cases is not only creeping up but has nearly doubled over the past decade to more than 500 in 2024. More than one in five of the sexual abusers last year was 16 years of age or below. This has prompted lawmakers to demand urgent attention from the government, and for an early release of guidelines on the implementation of a mandatory reporting mechanism under a law that criminalises failure to act. The latter suggestion is sensible. The law places a heavy responsibility on more than 100,000 professionals, including teachers, doctors, social workers, midwives and childcare staff. It was subject to much debate and amendments to safeguard them from unfair blame. The 1,504 child abuse cases recorded last year were up from 1,457 in 2023 and 1,439 in 2022. They also included 595 cases of physical abuse, 328 of neglect, 43 reports of multiple abuse and another 16 involving psychological abuse. More than 910 or 60.5 per cent of the victims were girls, half of whom suffered sexual abuse, while 58.1 per cent of male victims suffered physical harm. Among child abuse cases, nearly 60 per cent of all perpetrators were parents.
Irish Times
20 hours ago
- Irish Times
Teen in ‘brutal' attack on off-duty garda should have been in special care, court hears
A teenage boy who took part in the 'brutal' and 'appalling' robbery of an off-duty garda should have been in special care at the time, but there was no bed available, a court has heard. The boy was 14 when he was caught on CCTV taking part in the attack on the victim along with a 29-year-old man. The teenager kicked the man several times to the head as he lay motionless on the ground, having been punched by the older man. The boy was extremely vulnerable, having been taken into care when he was a baby due to maternal neglect and again in more recent years. At the time of the offence, social workers were extremely concerned as he was regularly going missing from care, doing drugs, hanging around with older men and being exploited by criminals. They believed his life was under threat, the boy's social worker told the court during his sentence hearing at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court . READ MORE Shortly before the attack took place, they recommended he had reached the threshold to be placed in emergency special care, but there was no bed available, the court heard. The now 15-year-old pleaded guilty to one count of robbery of the man at Camden Road, Dublin 8, on January 22nd, 2024. He has no previous convictions. During the attack the older man punched the unsuspecting victim to the ground before the boy kicked him repeatedly to the head. They then rifled his pockets and stole his phone, two passports, a garda ID card and bank cards. The co-accused has already been dealt with by the courts. A victim impact statement was handed into court but not read aloud at the victim's request. He was hospitalised in the wake of the attack. The social worker who was called to give evidence in the boy's defence said a bed was found for him after the assault. She said he is now doing well in care and has not gone missing for several months. He has several supportive extended family members and has plans to continue his education. James Dwyer SC, defending, said the boy has expressed remorse, regret and disbelief at his actions for what was a 'brutal' attack, describing himself as a monster. Sentencing the boy on Friday , Judge Elma Sheahan said his behaviour was 'outrageous'. She noted he has made great strides in recent times. 'The funny, kind and empathetic young boy he is when not engaged in illicit substances is at total variance to the actions of the boy who viciously and brutally kicked the victim in this case,' she said. She set a sentence of 22 months but said she would defer it for a year under a number of strict conditions., Speaking to the boy directly the judge said: 'You have a further opportunity to show to the court that you should not be placed in detention.' She adjourned the case to June 2026 but said that any breaches would result in him being brought back to court and sentenced.
BreakingNews.ie
20 hours ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Boy (14) involved in attack on off duty Garda was not in 'special care' due to lack of beds
A teenage boy who took part in the 'brutal' and 'appalling' robbery of an off-duty garda should have been in special care at the time, but there was no bed available, a court has heard. The boy was 14 years old when he was caught on CCTV taking part in the attack on the victim along with a 29-year-old man. The teenager kicked the man several times to the head as he lay motionless on the ground, having been punched by the older man. Advertisement The boy was extremely vulnerable, having been taken into care when he was a baby due to maternal neglect and again in more recent years. At the time of the offence, social workers were extremely concerned as he was regularly going missing from care, doing drugs, hanging around with older men and being exploited by criminals. They believed his life was under threat, the boy's social worker told the court during his sentence hearing at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. Shortly before the attack took place, they recommended he had reached the threshold to be placed in emergency special care, but there was no bed available, the court heard. The now 15-year-old boy pleaded guilty to one count of robbery of the man at Camden Road, Dublin 8, on January 22nd, 2024. He has no previous convictions. Advertisement During the attack, the older man punched the unsuspecting victim to the ground as he walked through the city centre after a night of socialising, before the boy kicked him repeatedly to the head. They then rifled his pockets and stole his phone, two passports, a garda ID card and bank cards. They returned to the scene to re-check his pockets, with the teenager kicking him to the head again as he lay motionless on the ground. They did not know the victim was a garda at the time, Garda Shane Monahan told Antonia Boyle BL, prosecuting. The co-accused, a 29-year-old man, has already been dealt with by the courts. A victim impact statement was handed into court but not read aloud at the victim's request. He was hospitalised in the wake of the attack. A number of the items were returned to him, but the garda ID card was never recovered. Advertisement The boy was identified by a garda who saw the CCTV footage, and he was arrested. He told gardaí he did not have much memory of the assault. The social worker who was called to give evidence in his defence said a bed was found for the boy after the assault. She said he is now doing well in care and has not gone missing for several months. He has several supportive extended family members and has plans to continue his education. James Dwyer SC, defending, said there were real concerns for the boy at the time of the attack that he was not able to keep himself safe. He outlined some additional needs the boy has and the effects his traumatic early childhood had on him. He said he has expressed remorse, regret and disbelief at his actions on the night for what was a 'brutal' attack, describing himself as a monster. Advertisement 'He should have been in special care when he committed this crime,' counsel said. Sentencing the boy on Friday, Judge Elma Sheahan said his behaviour was 'outrageous'. She said after kicking the victim repeatedly to the head as he lay defenceless, the boy 'left him lying on the ground injured and without a care in the world'. She said the CCTV footage of the attack was 'appalling and disturbing'. She noted that the boy has made great strides in very recent times, and there were a number of testimonials from extended family members and care workers. There has been a 'huge change in his mindset and behaviour', she noted. 'The funny, kind and empathetic young boy he is when not engaged in illicit substances is at total variance to the actions of the boy who viciously and brutally kicked the victim in this case,' she said. Advertisement The judge said she was concerned that the teenager's improvements were still very recent and she wanted to ensure he was serious about his rehabilitation. She set a sentence of 22 months but said she would defer it for a year under a number of strict conditions, including that he reside in his current care setting and follow all directions from the Probation Service and Child and Family Agency (CFA). 'I'm very serious about what I'm saying to you,' the judge said, speaking to the boy directly. 'There are huge efforts being made by your family and social workers to help you. You have a further opportunity to show to the court that you should not be placed in detention.' The judge adjourned the case to June 2026, but said that any breaches by the teenager would result in him being brought back to the court and sentenced.
BBC News
17-06-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Halton Council faces hefty bill to balance books
A council in Cheshire could end up repaying almost double the £10m it is set to borrow from the government in order to stay Borough Council is one of 30 local authorities in England to be granted exceptional financial support in order to stabilise its payment is not a bailout, but a loan from the government's Public Works Loans Board to be paid back over the next 20 Local Democracy Reporting Service understands Halton Council would have to pay back £19m at the current rate of interest on the loan. The Labour-run council applied for the loan after going £19m over budget with just £11.6m left in reserves.A previous report found the overspend had been largely driven by the cost of employing temporary agency staff, such as social workers and care workers, and expensive residential placements for £10m loan's current rate of interest is 4.5%, which equates to £450k a year in interest, totalling £9m in interest payments alone over the next 20 the original loan figure and interest combined, this would see a total repayment of £19m, all paid back at £950,000 a year for the next two interest rate on the loan is fixed, but borough finance chiefs hope that when the time comes to actually borrow the money – which is expected to be this autumn – the interest rate will be lower, reducing the overall payment. Read more stories from Cheshire on the BBC, watch BBC North West Tonight on BBC iPlayer and follow BBC North West on X. You can also send story ideas via Whatsapp to 0808 100 2230.
Telegraph
16-06-2025
- Telegraph
I welcome the grooming gang inquiry but people need to be prosecuted
'Unrapeable' is the word that always sticks in my mind. A policeman more than 15 years ago described one of the victims of the grooming gangs this way. This unrapeable thing, dehumanised and up for unspeakable violation, was actually a 13-year-old child with blood running down between her legs. The word 'child' matters here because there has been a fundamental refusal to see the girls trafficked around the country and abused by countless men in countless ways, as actual children. The phrase 'child prostitute' was also bandied about as though children choose to have sex with much older men for money, drugs or a box of fried chicken. As we digest Baroness Casey's 200-page report on the scandal, published this afternoon, there is unlikely to be much in it we don't already know (although many have basically chosen not to know it, or, indeed, act upon it). I knew about the pimping of children in care in the 1980s because I worked in children's homes/residential units. Reporting the same girls missing, night after night, became pointless as the police did nothing. The girls would tell their gullible social workers that their pimps were their lovely boyfriends. So many blind eyes were turned, I found it impossible. Unforgivably, those working in the system seemed to accept it as inevitable. My experience in London then was not with Asian gangs, but I saw how little value these children's lives had. But the problem in some cities was not just that these children were treated as not worth saving. Their voices were not centred because what they were telling us was too difficult: that they were being abused by gangs of men of Pakistani and Kashmiri descent. So, thank god for journalists like the late Andrew Norfolk and Julie Bindel who would not let this story go. Thank god for Maggie Oliver, a former detective with Greater Manchester Police and a whistleblower on the sex abuse ring in Rochdale. Thank god for the Muslim women who have spoken out, because we have to ask what these men, who injected children with heroin, sodomised, burnt and even branded them, do to their 'own' women. 'Progressives' who ran several of the councils involved are clueless about safeguarding. We have seen it around the trans issue, where any notion of safeguarding of children or vulnerable women has gone out of the window. Not all trans people are predatory, we are told. Well, of course not, but a few are. Not all Pakistani men are sex abusers. Again, of course not. But some are. Yet, Labour politicians continue to allege 'racism'. Only in January, Sir Keir Starmer said those supporting a national grooming gang inquiry were 'jumping on the bandwagon of the far-Right'. Last month, Lucy Powell, Leader of the Commons, accused a political commentator of 'dog whistle' politics when he brought up the subject on BBC Radio 4's Any Questions? How can the organised sexual exploitation of children over two decades, exploitation that is still going on, be dismissed as a dog whistle? What kind of denial is this? What a pathetic set of excuses have been trotted out: white men abuse too, so ethnicity is not a factor. Or 'community relations' must be protected at all costs so throw these white trash girls under a bus. No one cares about them anyway. Baroness Casey has not backed away from any of this or the fact that asylum seekers may be sex offenders. Those who knew what was going on but suppressed the information, considering it too incendiary, did so by failing to record the perpetrators' ethnicity. One of the problems now is that, following the Jay Report into Child Sexual Abuse in 2014, many of those involved just stepped down. In Yorkshire, the council's Director of Children's Services and the Police and Crime Commissioner for South Yorkshire resigned. Remember that the prevalent attitude deemed the girls 'undesirables' unworthy of police protection. Nothing has happened to such people. Meanwhile, some of the girls have been sent to prison for soliciting. The national inquiry that Starmer has now agreed to, after rejecting the idea multiple times, can compel witnesses to attend but could take months to set up and go on for years, like the Grenfell inquiry. And, unless its recommendations are acted upon, could serve as nothing but symbolic flagellation. What is needed is accountability which is why some are pushing for criminal investigations. Yes. We are surely talking about the criminal and institutional neglect of vulnerable children. The fear is that speaking the truth about what we have known for decades will spark anti-immigrant feeling. In response, I ask: 'Has ignoring the reality brought about community cohesion?' People talk. What is going on in Bradford? We have all heard the rumours. To ignore what has happened to these girls because it is politically inconvenient is to further use them, rather than seeing them as human beings. It is to be complicit in this shameful episode. That complicity must end.
