Planning consent for a new care home to be built in Middlesbrough has been granted.

Kate McCann intends to quit her job as a GP and take up a new career in child welfare, it has emerged.

A care worker was stabbed to death doing a routine visit to a paranoid schizophrenic who just weeks earlier had turned up at Buckingham Palace to kill the Queen.

Four care agencies were reprimanded and their contracts put on hold by Notts County Council. The move meant no new work was offered to the private agencies, though they continued to work with existing clients.

More than 1,000 prison officers in England and Wales were found guilty of misconduct between 2000 and 2006 for offences including improper sexual relationships and endangering the safety of their jails, figures obtained by the Guardian reveal.

Two private equity firms are believed to be looking to dispose of controversial investments in children’s care homes.

A charity worker who was part of a fraud ring swindling £800,000 from a disabled children’s charity has won the first stage of an appeal battle to cut her sentence.

The family of an 89-year-old woman who died in a care home fire is considering legal action following their disappointment at a coroner’s decision at her inquest.

Child abuse has gone unchecked in the Church of England for decades amid a cover up by bishops, secret papers have revealed.

{mosimage}Information that could have prevented abuse has been “lost or damaged”, concerns about individuals have been ignored and allegations have not been recorded. It means that the Church has no idea how many paedophiles are in its midst. Lawyers warned last night that the Church faces a crisis as catastrophic as the one that engulfed the Roman Catholic Church and cost it millions of pounds in damages.

Richard Scorer, a solicitor who has specialised in child abuse cases, said that the Church of England’s mistakes amounted to “an appalling, shocking level of negligence” that is likely to leave it open to claims from victims who have been too afraid to speak out in the past. The Church is to launch an urgent investigation on an unprecedented scale.

It will look at the records of thousands of clergy – including those who have retired – church employees, lay workers and volunteers dating back decades in an attempt to expose those who have previously escaped prosecution and identify those who pose “current risks”.

Dioceses will appoint independent reviewers with access to all of their personnel files. These are due to be examined over an 18-month period.

However, the internal Church documents – leaked to The Sunday Telegraph – show that even if churchwardens, who are lay officials, are found to have previous allegations against them, the Church has no power to suspend them.

A care home’s assistant manager stole £106,000 from a frail 93-year-old resident and also forged her will.