Virgin care has signed a £500 million contract with NHS Surrey to deliver community health services in south west and north west Surrey, which includes Walton and Weybridge, from 2012 to 2017.

Work on a new centre for terminally-ill people has begun at a hospital which serves Norfolk and north Suffolk.

Benefit rule changes to allow more care leavers to claim income support and housing benefits while they study do not go far enough, Catch 22’s National Care Advisory Service (NCAS) has warned.

Older people’s charity Age UK have called on the Government to act quickly on care reform, claiming the system is already in crisis due to the effects of spiralling costs and demand.

A care home is being shut down after continually failing to meet the needs of its residents. Littleport Grange nursing and residential home, in Littleport, was issued with a formal warning by health and social care watchdog, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in February.

People with learning disabilities are becoming isolated because of cuts to support and day services in England, says a joint report by 14 charities.

Around 400 sexual offences against children are reported to police each week but less than one in 10 result in a conviction, according to figures obtained by the NSPCC.

More than a third of all sex crimes are committed against children, figures have shown. A child was sexually attacked every 20 minutes last year, with more than 60 child sex offences reported to police every day.

I have been grappling with the potential consequences of last month’s Budget, and of the Health and Social Care Bill, for children who are vulnerable. Children’s success or failure relies on how well adults – those close to the child and those working in services for them – bring up, educate and care for them. By Maggie Atkinson

People arrested in Brighton on suspicion of a range of offences are to be tested for drugs at the city’s custody centre.