SOCIAL services workers in Liverpool took a total of 78 years off work sick in just the first nine months of 2009. Staff sickness totalled 28,727 days off between January and September, according to a Freedom of Information request submitted to Liverpool council.

A £1.1 million boost will fund new social workers and improve vital systems needed to protect the borough’s most vulnerable children. Wokingham Borough Council’s children’s services department is to receive a one-off £1.1 million investment.

AS adult social services come under scrutiny in Tower Hamlets residents are being asked their views. The Care Quality Commission will undertake a service inspection of adult social care services in the borough from November 11-20.

A SHEFFIELD social worker, who had helped a client through detox, offered to buy him a drink in a pub, a misconduct hearing was told today.

The General Social Care Council’s (GSCC) handling of misconduct cases has been severely criticised in a damning Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence (CHRE) review.

As the Baby P case showed, there is adesperate need to attract high-quality staff into social work. Steve McCormack reports on a new recruitment campaign

Hounslow Council has stopped paying the company that runs the care home that was shut down when Legionnaires bacteria was found in the water supply.

CARERS have accused the council of “abdicating responsibility” of the elderly in the adult social services shake-up. Despite the council’s consultation process carers and residents at Pensall House say they feel they have been left out.

Complaints of misconduct against social workers were shelved to save money, after the profession’s regulatory body had its budget cut, an inquiry reports today.

On paper, it made sense to set up a common register for every paid worker in social care, says David Brindle