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| 'Neglect' before care home deaths Five Northampton care home residents who died within two weeks of each other suffered "severe neglect", an inquiry finds. bbc.co.uk |
Vulnerable children 'will lose out' under plans to merge child protection unit with National Crime Agency Outgoing head of Ceop Jim Gamble says child protection will not be able to compete with terrorism, gun crime and drugsVulnerable children will lose out under government plans to merge the UK's online child protection unit into the new National Crime Agency, its outgoing head said today.Jim Gamble, who resigned as chief executive of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (Ceop) last week, said child protection issues simply would not be able to compete with terrorism, gun crime and drugs in a list of broader priorities.He also warned that costs would rise under the National Crime Agency (NCA), as at least one internet service provider (ISP) – which tracks down internet addresses to individuals – says it would charge the larger NCA administration costs for the service which it currently provides to Ceop for free.These costs would be about £100,000 per year for each ISP.Campaigners including Kate and Gerry McCann, the parents of missing Madeleine, and Sara Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter Sarah was murdered, urged the government to reconsider the move.But Theresa May, the home secretary, said the country did not need a "new quango" to carry out child protection work.Giving evidence to the home affairs select committee today, Gamble said it was important for Ceop to be able to continue to fight for children, instead of "fighting for airtime amongst drugs, terrorism, organised crime, guns and firearms".Children "do not sit as easy bedfellows" with such issues, he said."When you're categorising and prioritising what goes where and who does what, children do not come up on that list in that company."He added that incorporating Ceop into the NCA's responsibilities would also detract from tackling organised crime."You cannot use it [the NCA] like a Christmas tree to hang different balls on," he said."Making us fit is going to cost the taxpayer more, we're going to add bureaucracy and children will not be as well served. If I did not believe that I would not be leaving a job that I love."The National Crime Agency is not right for Ceop."Gamble added that the development of the NCA business case "fills me with woe and concern".He said it was moving "at speed and in a direction which I believe is fundamentally wrong"."If you're going to deliver child protection, it must be child-focused and child-first. We don't deliver policing in isolation," he said."In Ceop, social workers were working alongside people from NGOs working alongside police officers working alongside other specialists."They have a single culture, children first, and that's what we care about."Pushing us into a National Crime Agency where the culture will invariably be different is not going to be best for children nor vulnerable victims."We are no more related to organised crime than organised crime is related to domestic violence."Gamble added that if it was already decided that Ceop would be merged into the new NCA, "the discussion and debate is a moot point"."It is about saving face and not saving children," he said.Ceop, which is affiliated to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), was tasked in 2006 with tracking online paedophiles and bringing them to court.But under government plans the agency will become part of a new National Crime Agency in 2013.Gamble resigned last week but will serve four months' notice.Before joining the agency, Gamble served as head of Northern Ireland's anti-terrorist unit.As Ceop chief executive, Gamble led calls for Facebook to set up a "panic button" to give reassurance for young users. The application has been downloaded tens of thousands of times since being launched in July.Ed Balls, the shadow home secretary, urged May to reconsider the move."I share the serious concerns of experts and campaigners like Sara Payne that losing a proactive and dedicated centre will undermine our ability to tackle the exploitation and abuse of children," he said."Ceop is more than just a quango, as the home secretary dismissively called it last week."It should have the operational independence it needs to do the job and not be subsumed into the new National Crime Agency. The home secretary must think again."A Home Office spokeswoman said: "Child protection will always be an absolute priority for the government and there are no plans to undermine the work of Ceop or threaten its vital and important work."We are currently considering how the new National Crime Agency will operate and have not yet made any final decision on the future status of Ceop."When we do, we will do so taking into account the need to protect children online."Child protectionSocial careChildrenguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Otter numbers increase in England There is evidence of an increase in the number of otters living in England after fears the creatures were about to die out bbc.co.uk |
Tamara Mellon interview: For services to shoes Tamara Mellon has risen to dizzy heights from tough beginnings. She tells Julia Llewellyn Smith about her fractured family, booming business and recent OBE . telegraph.co.uk |
Cameron reassures business over immigration Prime minister tells CBI government will adopt a flexible approach that will not impede them from attracting the 'best talent from around the world'David Cameron today sought to reassure Britain's business leaders that the coalition will not block them from recruiting highly skilled staff from around the world when a permanent cap on non-EU immigration is introduced next year.Amid fears among leading British businesses that the cap will put them at a competitive disadvantage, the prime minister told the Confederation of British Industry that he would adopt a flexible approach.In a speech to the CBI annual conference, Cameron said: "Let me give you this assurance. As we control our borders and bring immigration to a manageable level, we will not impede you from attracting the best talent from around the world."The prime minister's remarks were his strongest hint to date that the government will heed the concerns of business as ministers finalise plans for a permanent cap on non-EU immigration that is due to be introduced next April. The government, which introduced a temporary limit of 24,000 skilled non-EU workers in July, wants to reduce net immigration to the tens of thousands.The CBI, which has warned that the temporary cap is already harming British business and is restricting the supply of skilled science researchers, welcomed the prime minister's remarks.Richard Lambert, the director general of the CBI, said: "The prime minister demonstrated a real passion for business and an understanding that only business will create growth ... He also made clear that access to finance and immigration would not be barriers to future growth."Downing Street said after the prime minister's speech: "We all know business have been talking about this issue. That is precisely why we wanted to have this period of consultation – to get the policy right. We were always very clear that we would try to implement that cap in a way that does not impede businesses from attracting the best talent to the UK. The objective is to bring net immigration down to the levels seen in the past – so tens of thousands. But we have not said anything more detailed about precisely how this is going to operate. We will do so in due course."The prime minister's remarks about immigration came as he set out a series of initiatives to boost economic growth less than a week after George Osborne outlined the most drastic fiscal retrenchment in a generation with £81bn of spending cuts by 2015. Cameron, who assured his audience that he had protected the science budget in cash terms, announced:• The first ever UK national plan to "update and modernise" Britain's infrastructure by unlocking £200bn of public and private investment. Cameron, who told his audience that the chancellor had announced an additional £8.6bn in capital spending over the next four years, outlined a series of projects. These include the new high-speed rail link from London to Birmingham, Crossrail in the capital, the Thames Gateway bridge and the Mersey Gateway bridge.• A £200m investment over the next four years in "technology and innovation centres". Based on the German Fraunhofer Institutes, which have been instrumental in developing the MP3 licence, these are designed to improve links between universities and business.• A boost to competition by merging the competition functions of the Office of Fair Trading and the Competition Commission to create a "much tougher and streamlined competition regime".• A £69m investment to encourage private sector investment in offshore wind projects. Cameron said: "We need thousands of offshore turbines in the next decade and beyond – each one as tall as the Gherkin [the Swiss Re skyscraper in London]. Manufacturing these needs large factories which have to be on the coast. Yet neither the factories nor these large port sites currently exist. And that, understandably, is putting off private investors. So we're stepping in."The prime minister dismissed criticisms from Labour that his government had adopted a hands-off approach to boosting growth. "I won't engage in some sterile debate between laissez faire and hands-on government. The question isn't 'Should government be involved?' because it is involved. It taxes. It regulates. It invests."The real question is: what is the right kind of involvement? ... My approach is clear: British business should have no more vocal champion than the British government and that's why I have put the promotion of British commerce and international trade at the heart of our foreign and economic policy."Vince Cable, the business secretary, used his own speech to the CBI this afternoon to warn bankers against awarding themselves generous bonuses. "Of course, there is no point in engaging in a sterile public exchange of insults," he said. "But no one listening to the chancellor's statement last week will be under any doubt of the government's collective determination to ensure that banks act in the interests of the wider economy – and that in the new year they don't engage in another self-indulgent bonus round."He added that it was time for those who ran big companies and took home enormous salaries to "return to planet Earth".Cable said the economy was still in intensive care: "Death was averted by speedy intervention to shore up the banking system to prevent an economic slump. The patient is now being nursed out of intensive care and off steroids. But serious damage has been done and we are only now at the stage of planning rehabilitation."Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, warned that the coalition was risking growth by cutting the deficit so quickly. The coalition plans to eliminate the structural deficit by 2015, in contrast to Labour, which would have halved the deficit over four years."I do fear that the path the government is pursuing is a gamble with growth and jobs," Miliband told the CBI. "They have a programme which will lead to the disappearance of a million private and public sector jobs but no credible plan to replace them."And their refusal to accept that a deficit reduction plan has to be sensitive to changing economic circumstances needlessly makes the British economy a hostage to fortune. Time will tell whether they turn out to be right."Economic policyImmigration and asylumConfederation of British Industry (CBI)David CameronVince CableNicholas Wattguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |