Staff training budget – slashed to just 69p a head – could put already vulnerable children at risk, say care leaders

An early intervention tool used by children’s services professionals is improving outcomes for children, reducing costs and helping to overcome barriers to learning, a coalition of local authorities has found.

Four local authority social care projects are to receive Private Finance Initiative credits, the Department for Health has said. They are among 17 projects reviewed by the department late last year.

A Lincolnshire mental health charity has made the decision to close following cuts to its funding. Lincoln Mind’s main contract with the county council will not be renewed beyond March.

Wye Valley NHS Trust has become the first organisation in England to provide integrated acute, community and social services previously provided separately by a local authority, acute trust and primary care trust.

Sue Ryder has picked up a five-year contract to provide all specialist palliative care services in west Berkshire in the first instance of an NHS-run hospice being transferred to a voluntary sector provider.

Three-quarters of women on mental health wards have to share them with men, according to an official report.

The parents of a chronically sick Somerset man who died after an overdose of prescription drugs have called for social services to take better care of the long-term ill.

AN investigation is underway at a privately-run care home after staff were suspended. The group of five workers have all been suspended from Stanley Park Care Home in Stanley, County Durham, owned by the Darlington-based Southern Cross Healthcare.

A lack of investment in workforce development is threatening to damage professional standards in children’s homes, the chief executive of the Social Care Association (SCA) has warned.