This autumn, the public sector union Unison held its first national conference exclusively for members in the voluntary sector, where its membership has soared by 50% in the last six years and now totals more than 60,000.

Uncertainty over the future of training and improvement support could put the children’s residential sector at serious risk, Sir Paul Ennals has warned.

SOCIAL services bosses in York are to privatise part of their care for the elderly, in a move that will affect nearly 700 residents and 75 staff.

Local authorities and the Local Government Association have been busy relaying messages of doom since the Comprehensive Spending Review and draconian cuts in public services were announced in October. And of course one can understand their concern as these times of austerity have the potential to change many of the services we take for granted.

A care home owner who raped a young woman and threatened to deport her has been jailed for 15 years.

Jersey’s chief minister has apologised to people who suffered abuse at children’s care homes in the island during the 1970s and 1980s.

More than 39,000 children in England are subject to a child protection plan, according to latest government statistics.

Directors of children’s services are to take a greater role in managing public health, the government has announced in its latest health white paper.

Tim Loughton, children’s minister, promotes the use of volunteers in child protection work as “an additional resource that, at a time when we are well stretched, it makes a lot of sense to explore” (Minister calls for more social work volunteers, 29 October). “Financially it is a sensible thing to do,” he says.

A day centre offering specialist dementia care has closed. The Hillings day care centre, part of The Hillings Care Home in Grenville Way, Eaton Socon, St Neots, shut its doors yesterday after HealthCare Homes, which runs the centre, decided not to renew its contract with Cambridgeshire County Council.