A Conduct Committee of the General Social Care Council (GSCC) on 24 August 2007 decided the case of a social worker from Portsmouth who was alleged to have breached the Code of Practice for Social Care Workers.

Government guidance for councils on assessing the cost of free nursery places could expose the funding gaps in system, childcare providers said last week. Providers have welcomed the guidance but warn the process may highlight the gulf between funding allocated and the actual costs to providers.

Daycare standards in England improved slightly over the past year, according to inspectors, but more than four in 10 children were still in childcare settings that were no better than satisfactory.

{mosimage}An Ofsted report published today reveals 57% of childcare providers inspected in 2006-7 were judged good or outstanding. It means that, of about half a million children being cared for in the places inspected, 285,000 received good or outstanding childcare, but for 215,000 care was only satisfactory or inadequate.

Inadequate providers are revisited by Ofsted inspectors, but satisfactory ones are also expected to improve. The proportion of providers overall found to be inadequate was 4%, the same as in 2005-6.

The education and care watchdog also identified a 6% rise in the proportion of providers offering good or outstanding early education, though the proportion of childminders judged to be good or better was lower by 6% than the previous year – a slide inspectors suggested could reflect the number of new, less experienced childminders visited in 2006-7.

Where establishments were providing government-funded early education for children aged three to four, 60% were judged good or outstanding.

The education offered in nurseries will be reviewed after a study by Durham University suggesting the government’s overhaul of early years education has made no difference to youngsters’ development and skills at the start of school.

More than half of nurses would not report the abuse of an elderly person in their care, according to a survey published today.

Thousands of prison officers in England and Wales have begun a strike in a protest over pay, the association representing them has said.

It is one of the most natural actions in the world – a mother scoops up a baby to hold and comfort it in her arms. But, according to new research, cradling could help identify stress that may lead to postnatal depression.

A nurse from Par has been struck off the nursing register, after admitting shutting a care home resident in her bedroom after she had been burned by a fire in the cushion of her electric chair.

Mental health services in Plymouth have been praised for improvements made after ‘serious concerns’ were raised for the safety of patients in the city.

Mental health patients are to attend special sessions aimed at preventing them from committing crimes. Around 500 violent crimes are carried out by people with mental health problems in Lincolnshire each year.

Earlier this year the Government gave Cornwall County Council a £740,000 grant to allocate to care homes in the county to improve the quality of life and dignity of the residents.