SOCIAL services did everything possible to help a mother and her severely disabled daughter found dead at their Wheathampstead home at the weekend, Hertfordshire County Council has insisted.

A nursing home worker stole £50,000 from elderly residents to fund his cocaine habit. Jaspal Sandhar, 25, also spent the cash on hiring flash cars, buying designer clothes and gambling at casinos.

Social workers should work in pairs on child protection cases to prevent a repeat of the Baby Peter and Khyra Ishaq cases, says public sector union Unison.

The steep decline in public sector jobs is now clearly apparent in the Reed Job Index which reveals that it has the lowest index number of all the sectors.

Two women found dead at their Hertfordshire home on Saturday have been named as mother Stephania Wolf and daughter Sam Wolf as social services reveal they had turned down help.

The NSPCC is concerned that an extension of the Child Sex Offender Disclosure Scheme, known as Sarah’s Law, will drive paedophiles underground and lead to an increase in vigilante attacks.

An alliance of 18 senior family lawyers, unions, children’s charities and health organisations is calling for an urgent overhaul of the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass).

The government has announced an independent commission into early intervention to ensure that children with multiple disadvantages get the best start in life.

BASW has today slammed the current situation in child protection as a national scandal in the Association’s submission to Professor Munro’s independent review of child protection.

Hopes have been raised that a care home under threat of closure could remain open after a buyer came forward.