Wednesday 19 December 2012

Christmas Holiday!

Photograph by TinyApartmentCrafts
I shall be on annual leave from Thursday 20th December 2012 until Sunday 13th January 2013 (inclusive).

The entire University, including the Library will be closed from Saturday 22nd December until Tuesday 1st January (inclusive).

Please check the Library website at: http://lrweb.beds.ac.uk/opening for further details.

Happy holidays everyone, see you in the new year!

Young Offenders Failed By Care System Says New Report

Photograph by Richard Masoner/Cycledelicious
An new report by HM Inspectorate of Probation "Looked After Children: An inspection of the work of Youth Offending Teams with children and young people who are looked after and placed away from home" reveals that children in care in England and Wales who've been in trouble with the law are being failed by youth offending teams.

The Inspectorate of Probation raised concerns about children placed far from home, and some youth offending team staff who thought little about the emotional impact of being in care.

The report looked at 60 children, from about 3,000 supervised by the teams. It found about a third of children were placed more than 100 miles away from home, and nearly two-thirds were placed 50 miles away.


Basic checks were not made when placing these "vulnerable and potentially dangerous" children into homes, the report said, adding that examples had been found of sex attackers being placed with abuse victims.

Youth offending teams and and other agencies did not "always work effectively together in the best interests of the children", and poor planning and assessment meant insufficient protection for two-thirds of the children.


You can read more on this story on the BBC News website here.


















Tuesday 11 December 2012

Library Christmas Opening Hours

The ecard created by by Grzegorz Łobiński for the EcardSphere project.

Merry Christmas to all my blog followers!

Just to remind everyone: All University buildings (including the Library) will close from Saturday 22nd December 2012 - Tuesday 1st January 2013.

The Libraries will re-open on Wednesday 2nd January 2013.

Term begins again on Monday 7th January 2013.

Monday 10 December 2012

24:7 Library Opening In 2013

In response to student requests Learning Resources will be piloting 24:7 opening hours  in 2013 at two campuses:
  • Luton, Park Square LRC
  • Bedford, Polhill Library
This will provide students print resources, study space and access to PCs for 168 hours per week.
 
 24:7 opening will be available from 7th January 2013 to 21st July 2013 in first instance.

Wednesday 5 December 2012

Dawsonera Maintainance 8th December 2012

This weekend 8th December 2012 Dawsonera Ebooks will be preforming an essential upgrade to their system which should improve its performance.

This means that between the hours of 10am - 6pm Dawsonera Ebooks will be unavailable.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused during this period.

Tuesday 4 December 2012

Child Arrests Continue To Fall Says Howard League

Photograph by J D Mack
Figures compiled by the Howard League for Penal Reform suggest that the number of children arrested by the police has fallen by a third since 2008. 

Police arrested 209,000 under-18s in 2011, down from 315,923 in 2008. The Howard League said 10 forces in England and Wales had halved the number of children taken into custody.

 The figures, compiled through a freedom of information request to all 43 police forces in England and Wales, include more than 2,100 children aged 10 - which is the age of criminal responsibility - and 11.

The director of campaigns at the Howard League, Andrew Neilson, said a move away from a mandatory target system for police was likely to be the main reason for the third successive fall.

He said: "In 2008, the first year we have data for, the target culture was coming to an end.

"At that time, police services were being ranked on the number of arrests they were processing, and to a degree children were low-hanging fruit that helped the police reach their arrest targets.

"While some police services still use these targets informally, we are seeing a move back towards a discretion-led, common sense approach, and that's reflected in the figures.

"I suspect there are a lot of things that the police are doing to reduce arrests, ranging from restorative justice disposals to triage arrangements at police stations, where a youth offending team worker will interview a young person to see if there are any welfare issues."

Monday 3 December 2012

New Survey Suggests Adult Social Care Is Suffering Under Cuts

Care for vulnerable older people has been suffering - both in quality and quantity - because of funding cuts, a survey of 200 social workers suggests.


In the survey by Age UK and the College of Social Work, more than 85% of respondents said they had seen the impact of cuts in the past year.

Of those, 95% said the cuts in England presented "a risk to the dignity of their older clients".

The Department for Health says the care of older people is a priority. Councils across the country have been facing a funding squeeze under the coalition's spending cuts.

Since 2004, social care funding has stagnated, and then decreased, Age UK said. This is despite an increase of more than 250,000 people aged 85 or over, the group most likely to require social care.

The charity said the funding given this year was half a billion pounds less than when the coalition came to power in 2010.

You can read more on this story on the BBC News website here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20566307