£5.4 Million Allocated For Troubled Teen Unit Planned For Plymouth
Children’s social and mental health services in Plymouth are to receive a £5.4million cash boost from two pioneering Government projects.
Read MoreChildren’s social and mental health services in Plymouth are to receive a £5.4million cash boost from two pioneering Government projects.
Read MoreA dramatic plan to slash the number of prison officers and streamline courts in England and Wales is being drawn up by the government in an attempt to deliver £1bn in savings.
{mosimage}A leaked internal document from the Ministry of Justice, obtained by The Observer, warns that jobs across the criminal justice system will be lost as it complies with Treasury-imposed ‘efficiency savings’ of 3 per cent a year.
‘The efficiency challenge for [the Ministry of Justice] is substantial,’ the document says. ‘Identifying and delivering 3 per cent value-for-money savings will be a big challenge for us.’
Prison managers believe that jail wings will have to close to cope with an estimated £180m in cuts imposed in last month’s spending review. Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the probation union, Napo, said: ‘Cutting probation and prison budgets can only be achieved through cutting staff. This will lead to more crime, more victims and public protection being compromised.’
The government declined to comment last night. Senior ministry officials are to hold a seminar on imposing the savings. A similar meeting last month produced the document leaked to The Observer. The savings will bite across the criminal justice system:
Read MoreMore than a third of older people have put a friend or relative into residential care, but nearly half failed to get any advice when they did so, a survey has showed.
Read MoreA total of 11.3m people tuned in to support Friday night’s star-studded BBC Children in Need show, which raised almost £20 million, the broadcaster has announced.
Read MoreA walkout by Manchester psychiatric nurses could spread regionwide if bosses go ahead with plans to use neighbouring trusts’ staff to care for affected patients.
Read MoreA council chief has pledged that people using a York day care centre will not receive a lower level of service when it shuts down next year.
Read MorePolice have launched an investigation into the death of a pensioner in a care home. The probe is under way following a suspected mix-up in medication given to John Gallagher.
Read MoreA care home providing respite breaks for adults with learning difficulties is to close – because health chiefs say it is too expensive to renovate.
Read MoreA peer and neuroscientist will call on ministers to examine how attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is diagnosed and treated in the UK.
{mosimage}Independent peer Baroness Susan Greenfield will raise the issue in the House of Lords on Wednesday.
Her intervention follows a BBC Panorama programme which highlighted US research suggesting drugs are no better than therapy for ADHD in the long-term. There was also evidence that their use may stunt child growth.
The Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD by the University of Buffalo has been monitoring the treatment of 600 children across the US since the 1990s.
Most of the estimated 500,000 children in Britain with ADHD receive no treatment at all. But of those that do, most – about 55,000 last year – are prescribed stimulants like Ritalin and Concerta.
Baroness Greenfield will call for a wide-ranging inquiry into the huge increase in ADHD diagnoses.
She said: “As well as assessing ADHD drugs themselves, we also need to find out urgently why there has been such a remarkable increase in the numbers of children being diagnosed with ADHD in the last 20 years or so.
“Could the changes to our ways of living be contributing to this increase?
Read MoreCampaigners for parents of disabled children have this week launched a two-pronged drive to secure their right to claim respite care.
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