Career opportunities are expanding as social services heads into the new century, finds Debbie Andalo.

The government has dismissed calls for a new charity inspectorate to scrutinise the performance and effectiveness of charities.

{mosimage}The call came from Martin Brookes, the director of research at New Philanthropy Capital (NPC), which advises wealthy donors on which causes to support.

He said charities are failing to “adequately record and monitor” the impact of donations. The effect, Brookes said earlier this week, was that millions of pounds a year in public donations to good causes may be going to waste.

What is needed, he said, is a new body running in parallel with the Charity Commission, to produce performance data and rank charities by the value for money they deliver from donations.

But a spokesman for Phil Hope, the cabinet office minister responsible for charities, said the proposal would result in “unacceptable red tape” and insisted that efficiency and effectiveness is already being sufficiently studied by the Charity Commission.

“The government doesn’t believe that a new institution to assess and improve the performance of charities is neccesary or the right way forward,” the Cabinet Office spokesman said.

Children’s social and mental health services in Plymouth are to receive a £5.4million cash boost from two pioneering Government projects.

Mental health hospitals in Leicestershire are set to receive a £3 million revamp, it emerged today.

A doctor in the United States has been charged with causing the death of a five-year-old boy from Plymouth after he gave him a controversial chemical treatment for autism.

More than 9,000 were sent on courses to try to curb the drug abuse that led them into crime and anti-social behaviour.

A 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:

More 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.

A 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.

A walkout by Manchester psychiatric nurses could spread regionwide if bosses go ahead with plans to use neighbouring trusts’ staff to care for affected patients.