The head of children’s services in Suffolk has said vulnerable children are at greater risk because of overburdened social workers and high vacancy rates.

A University of Lincoln expert is helping to shape understanding of social care issues around the world after being selected to serve on the editorial board of an international journal.

Age Concern has demanded that next week’s pre-budget report allocates at least an extra £1billion for social care to help plug the yawning gaps in care home funding.

The government said last night it may send a new management team into Haringey council, to take over the running of social services in the borough where Baby P died at the hands of his mother and two men.

The government is investing £200 million in efforts to end rough sleeping within four years. The Communities and Local Government department has today launched a 15-point strategy to meet its pledge, which is backed by the prime minister Gordon Brown.

The horrific case of Baby P, who died after abuse and neglect in Haringey, north London, has provoked headline-grabbing stories. The newspapers have pored over the gruesome details of his death and called for the sacking of social workers involved in the case.

We are less surprised than many that reforms following the death of Victoria Climbié failed to protect Baby P. Our research, examining everyday frontline practice in children’s social care in five local authorities in England and Wales, raises a number of serious questions about whether well-intentioned, modernised systems may actually have compromised the conditions in which good practice can flourish.

A SENIOR social worker and police called for Baby P to be taken into care before he died, it emerged today. The first call came after the boy was admitted to hospital in December 2006 suffering from bruising that police feared could have been caused by abuse.

SEVERELY handicapped adults are being denied social services care following a dispute between Birmingham City Council and the NHS over who should foot the bill for looking after some of the most vulnerable people in society.

Norfolk Social Services are investigating how a wheelchair-bound widow’s care bill rocketed five fold. West Norfolk pensioner June Dearman, has suffered from Multiple Sclerosis for more than 40 years and was shocked to be told of the vastly increased bill following her annual assessment.