“They are living [at an average of] 3.5 people to a room in Tower Hamlets and if you’re sharing a bedroom, it is easy to learn how to use heroin.”She said the centre was now starting to see increasing numbers of women, mostly in their late teens, who have become addicted after smoking heroin with their boyfriends. The women are in danger of becoming outcasts if their drug habits become known.Outreach worker Monzur Ahmed said: “They are worried that their brother or someone from the estate might come in and see them here It would be bad for their reputation. People would think, `Is she a prostitute? Where does she get her money for the drugs from?’ She could face a stigma.” The team plans to appoint a young Bengali woman to help the female users to come forward for treatment in confidence.The centre is one of only a handful in Britain to receive police referrals of people found in possession of Class A drugs.Offenders who are prepared to undergo an assessment session with drug counsellors are likely to be given only a caution by the courts.The scheme, which is supported by local police chiefs, has helped 111 offenders to address their drug-taking. Of these, 59 have asked to take part in extended treatment programmes, where they can receive a range of therapies, including acupuncture..

MINISTERS yesterday named the worst further education colleges in the country and praised the best ones. The announcement comes after a series of damning inspection reports on colleges. Two years ago, ministers named and shamed the worst schools in an effort to raise standards, but then abandoned the policy.
Baroness Blackstone, the Higher Education minister, announced that 10 colleges would become “beacon” colleges and receive an extra pounds 50,000 each to spread good practice.But a further four were singled out because of their poor results and poor student attendance records. They are Matthew Boulton College, Birmingham, Ealing Tertiary College, west London, the Isle of Wight College and West Cumbria College, Workington.The Further Education Funding Council found that all had serious weaknesses but at only one – Matthew Boulton College, was there “some failure to account properly for public funds”.Ministers have already demanded a “fresh start” at Bilston College, Wolverhampton, which plunged pounds 5.7m into the red after setting up a web of franchised courses across the country.Inspectors also criticised the management of Wirral Metropolitan College in Birkenhead, Merseyside where governors were forced to resign over debts of up to pounds 9m It now has a new board of governors. A National Audit Office report attacked Halton College in Cheshire after it claimed excess fees of pounds 6.4m from the Government.Further education colleges, which are at the centre of the Government’s efforts to improve “lifelong learning”, will receive pounds 725m of investment over the next two years.Lady Blackstone said: “The Government will not tolerate unacceptable standards or hesitate to intervene where colleges are failing their students and communities.”The 10 beacon colleges are Park Lane College, Leeds, Lewisham College in south-east London, Carmel Sixth Form College, St Helens, Greenhead Sixth Form College, Huddersfield, Havering College, St Charles Catholic Sixth Form College, north Kensington, London, Bishop Burton Agricultural College, East Yorkshire, John Leggott Sixth Form College, Scunthorpe, Knowsley College, Merseyside and Blackpool and Fylde College.Lady Blackstone said action to improve the Bilston and Wirral colleges was well under way.

She said: “The students and communities all these colleges serve must be reassured that their local colleges are providing education of a satisfactory standard.”. UNIVERSITY LECTURERS voted to strike for a 10 per cent pay rise yesterday. The Association of University Teachers (AUT) threatened to disrupt exams and university admissions this summer as part an escalating campaign of industrial action. The 42,000-strong union, which represents academics in universities, will launch its campaign with a one-day stoppage later this month.
The academics plan to boycott admissions for four days at the height of the annual scramble for university places in August. A similar four- day boycott of exams is scheduled for June.Yesterday, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education, which represents new universities’ staff, pledged to join the action if vice-chancellors did not improve their 3.5 per cent offer.Academics want a 10 per cent rise as a “down payment” on their moves to close a 30 per cent pay gap they say has arisen between lecturers and other professionals.Chris Banister, the AUT president, told delegates meeting in Scarborough that academics were “systematically undervalued”. He said: “They may continue trying to exploit us because they know our professionalism means we will want to continue delivering the quality higher education that we have.