A SHOPAHOLIC charity boss has been struck off the social care register after stealing almost £53,000 to spend on clothes and shoes.

Campaigners have called for a strategy to tackle the ‘woeful’ number of people with autism in unemployment, claiming the Government and Jobcentre Plus have ‘condemned’ people with the condition to a life of financial hardship.

Kent County Council is turning to America and Europe to recruit social workers and fill vacancies for key frontline jobs. The council has recently offered positions in its social services department to 19 American social workers following a recruitment drive in Boston in September.

VOLUNTEERS, politicians and the community are united in their fight to try to stop the proposed closure of a vital Whitehaven lifeline for abused children.

More than half of social workers believe that parents’ drinking puts children at risk of harm in most child protection cases. Figures released today by Alcohol Concern, also show the majority feel their social work qualification training was inadequate in terms of alcohol abuse in families.

Children’s services are being undermined by “simplistic, process-driven” inspection and monitoring, the head of the body that represents senior children’s social work managers claimed today.

A HIGH Court judge has refused a last ditch attempt to save two care homes in Southampton. Families of elderly residents living at Birch Lawn in Sholing and Whitehaven Lodge in Millbrook have branded the decision a “death sentence”.

The National Information Governance Board has instructed all local authorities to provide patients with secure, online access to social care records.

Children’s services in Cornwall have been condemned as “inadequate” in a detailed report drawn up after an unannounced visit by Ofsted.

Councils will have a duty to provide specific care for autism sufferers after a new law was passed by the House of Lords. The Autism Bill will become the first ever disability specific law after it was passed yesterday.