Older people and the vulnerable are being promised better social care and shorter waiting times following a raft of changes which will overhaul the way assessments are carried out and save £1.2m.

A CARE home where residents had to eat cold meals and walk through food left on the floor has been threatened with enforcement action.

More than 4,000 children aged five and under were suspended from primary schools in England last year, prompting calls for teachers to have greater powers of restraint over violent and disruptive pupils, including toddlers in nursery classes.

The chair of a new “super charity” has called on managers to forge closer links with social services to ensure older people stay in hospital for the right length of time.

The Audit Commission has published a report into the impact that childrens’ trusts have had on child protection. The trusts were set up in the wake of Lord Laming’s report on the death of Victoria Climbie with the aim co-ordinating childrens’ services.

AN extra £2.5million is set to be pumped into the fostering system across Lancashire as part of a bid to bounce back from 12 months ago when the service was judged to be ‘failing’.

Tributes have been paid to the director of children’s services at North East Lincolnshire after his body was discovered in a stream. Police have launched an investigation into the death of Andy Sampson, 54, which they believe to have occurred late on Friday night.

A NEW approach to providing adult social services has been criticised by opponents of the ruling Conservative group on Essex County Council.

EIGHT members of staff were being paid by both Torbay Council and Torbay Care Trust at the same time, it has been revealed. The Herald Express reported yesterday three workers had been sacked from Torbay Care Trust after receiving double pay packets.

AN MP has demanded assurances from Southampton City Council over sweeping changes to home care contracts, starting today. As revealed by the Daily Echo, as many as 1,200 elderly and disabled residents in Southampton face the daunting prospect of having new carers coming into their lives this week. Some have already changed.