‘Nurses in England have earned the right to a fair pay deal,’ insists the Royal College of Nursing. Pressure has increased for English nurses to be given their pay award in full after politicians in Northern Ireland opted to give their nurses the entire 2.5%.

New evidence published on bmj.com today confirms that hormone replacement therapy (HRT) should not be prescribed to older women who are many years past menopause to help prevent chronic conditions such as heart disease.

A hearing into the conduct of a Registered Social Worker from Taunton will be held from 17 to 19 July 2007 by the social care workforce regulator for England, the General Social Care Council (GSCC).

The Methodist Church in Britain is seeking to offer help with the often hidden mental health issues and problems faced within society at large – and not least within the churches. Its concern is for carers as well as suffers.

Most parents in the UK are struggling to find affordable childcare for the summer break, according to a new survey which shows average costs are still rising. The national childcare charity Daycare Trust wants extra funding to subsidise childcare in the summer break.

Leading social care organisation Turning Point has condemned new Tory policy group proposals as simplistic. The proposals come as one of the first of David Cameron’s policy groups reports back to the party with a set of 200 proposals to combat social and familial breakdown.

YMCA England is to launch six pilot projects examining a range of techniques to tackle youth homelessness this autumn. Communities and Local Government is funding the £450,000 scheme as part of its national youth homelessness strategy.

A third body is to be exhumed by police investigating seven suspicious deaths at a care home in Somerset. Fred Green, 81, who is buried at Kingweston Cemetery, had been resident at Parkfields home in Butleigh, near Glastonbury, which was closed in March.

Mental health charity Mind have expressed deep concern that public attitudes to mental ill health have deteriorated further, with people now more likely to wrongly associate mental distress and violence.

A Conduct Committee of the General Social Care Council (GSCC) has decided the case of a social worker from Newcastle-upon-Tyne who was alleged to have breached the code of practice for social care workers.