A doctor accused of failing to spot that Baby Peter had a broken back and was being abused did not appear before a disciplinary hearing yesterday.

Poll reveals that social workers feel that new recruits are not properly prepared for the challenges of the job.

Nottingham City Council has moved to reassure the parents and carers of people with learning disabilities about future services.

THE disparity in contracts awarded to Island and mainland companies is disgraceful, it has been claimed. It has emerged the Isle of Wight Council awarded two social care contracts, together worth around £3.8million, to Island company Wight Home Care and Essex-based Two Counties — paying the companies very different hourly rates for providing the same service.

HUNDREDS of vulnerable adults have suffered abuse or neglect in Sefton, it has been alleged. Sefton Council has begun investigations into 559 complaints of sexual, physiological, physical, financial, discriminatory, and institutional abuse and neglect made by those accessing adult social care in Sefton.

The government is under pressure to back a compulsory fee to pay for social care in England. The Department of Health is currently hosting a meeting of charities, council chiefs and care providers in a bid to achieve a consensus on reforming care.

Graduates in England will receive at least £15,000 to retrain as children’s social workers under a new government-funded scheme.

The council that pioneered Gordon Brown’s policy of free personal care for the elderly is planning to axe support for other vulnerable groups to meet its spiralling costs.

Plans for a compulsory ‘death tax’ to fund free care for the elderly would unfairly punish 700,000 carers who look after older relatives, the Tories said yesterday.

A CONTROVERSIAL plan to replace a popular old people’s home with a new ‘care village’ has been given the go-ahead.