A health watchdog has issued a formal warning to a Cornish care agency, ordering it to improve its standards.

Care home worker Rebecca Reasbeck allegedly killed dementia sufferer Irene Herring by setting her room on fire so she could become a ‘heroine’, a court has heard.

The Credit Crunch was three years ago this month and yet it still remains impossible to avoid the desperation for growth in the UK economy, occupying media output on an almost daily basis.

The government’s welfare reforms could turn health visiting into a crisis service for families with poverty and mental health problems, the president of the Unite/Community Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association (CPHVA) has warned.

While denying that it is bitter, the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) has called on the government to explain why it appears to have been sidelined and why £30m is being used to establish a new quango – the College of Social Work – that would be little more than “a recruiting body to attract new members to Unison”.

Next month sees what has been described as a major step in the setting up of HealthWatch England – the start of the recruitment process for its chair who will take up the post in April 2012.

Skills for Care has refreshed its innovative career pathways e-tool to include new qualifications on the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) and additional case studies.

A MENTAL health nurse at a Northampton care home allegedly paid patients in cash, cigarettes and sherry for sexual favours, and dragged one resident across the floor “like a rag doll”, a panel heard.

An alliance of 50 charities is warning that adult social care is in crisis and urging people across the West to back a campaign for urgent reform.

Care leavers face a postcode lottery in support when they attempt to set up home, with local authority grants to ease the transition to independent living ranging from £750 to £2,500, an investigation by CYP Now has uncovered.