As Suffolk battles to shed millions pounds from its social care budget by asking charities to take over the workload, the county council has been accused of making late payments to the volunteer groups and putting them into financial difficulties.

The English Community Care Association (ECCA) has welcomed the research by Professor Ron Brookmeyer from the Bloomberg School of Public Health in Maryland which clearly identifies that the growth in the older population will require more residential care if we are to support people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.

The English Community Care Association (ECCA), the leading representative body for independent care homes, is pleased that the Government has listened to the sector and delayed its plans to extend the second phase of annual leave entitlement to 2009.

All of those who receive day care services from Herefordshire Council will be given an opportunity to comment on proposals to change charges. At last week’s meeting of Cabinet, councillors agreed to proposals for a number of changes in charging for services to adults needing non-residential social care.

Westminster Council is calling on carers across the country to get help from a network of support. Over 12,500 people in Westminster care for a loved one with a disability with 88% of those not benefiting from the support and assistance on offer from a ‘family’ of carers.

A Government report due out this week is to call for youth services to get more involved in community cohesion and integration work. The Communities and Local Government study, produced by the Commission on Integration and Cohesion, is expected to say services need to increase their focus on the area.

The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) has added its support to this year’s Carers Week, ‘My Life As a Carer’ (11-17 June). Paul Snell, CSCI’s Chief Inspector, said:

Plans to offer more “chemical castrations” to serious sex offenders will be among a raft of measures set to be unveiled by the government. Increasing provision of libido-reducing treatments forms part of a crackdown on paedophiles, sources told the BBC.

NHS Direct is referring on too many patients to GPs and emergency services, putting strain on the system, doctors and ambulance crews say. They claim to get urgent referrals when patients have minor problems, such as sprains and high temperatures, and have called for an inquiry into the service.

More than 150 children placed in care in the South East have vanished in the last three years. According to figures obtained by BBC South East Today 65 children who arrived at Gatwick Airport in Sussex on their own since 2004 have disappeared.

{mosimage}The figures released after a Freedom of Information request also show that 69 vanished from Kent and 27 from Surrey. Social workers say they are doing all they can but campaigners say they fear the children are being trafficked. They said more must be done to stop the missing youngsters being forced into domestic slavery and prostitution.

Some genuinely want to claim asylum but it is thought that many others have been forced to come to the UK from Africa, and increasingly China. The children are put on planes by one set of traffickers who arrange for them to be picked up at Gatwick Airport by another set who then take them away, Sussex Police believe. Prostitution is a likely occupation. Social workers at Gatwick often spot the victims before the traffickers do and are able to place them into care in Sussex. However the authorities also fear that many of these youngsters are later snatched back by the slavers.

Unaccompanied children that are picked up at Gatwick are currently looked after by foster carers or placed in hostels. But for five years there was a safe house in the county, where youngsters could be hidden. It was closed by West Sussex County Council in 2003.