A national strategy is needed to help support the 100,000 children who run away from home every year, the Children’s Society has said. It is calling for a network of crisis accommodation, and measures to help tackle children’s problems at home.

The “biggest change to adult social services” yet was given its final seal of approval yesterday as councillors debated controversial plans to privatise Norfolk’s home care support.

Campaigners say elderly people will deteriorate under council proposals to cut home care, say campaigners, writes Martin Croucher. Bromley council is planning to ‘ration’ home health care for the elderly so that only those with the most serious disabilities will have access to services.

Up to half of all hospital accident and emergency departments face cuts or closure under plans to improve patient care, presenting Gordon Brown with a massive dilemma as he takes over as Prime Minister.

{mosimage}Ninety-two out of 204 A&E departments are under threat if guidance attributed to the Department of Health by NHS trusts is followed, the Conservatives claimed last night. Some NHS organisations are already using the guidance, which calls for A&E departments to serve a minimum population of 450,000 patients, to justify closures in smaller catchment areas.

The average A&E unit currently serves just under 250,000 people. But the plans are proving hugely unpopular, even though they have been promoted as in the interests of patients and NHS staff.

Mr Brown, aware that the closures would come into force around the time of the next election, said last Friday that he would meet front-line NHS staff and patients to discuss health policy.

The Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) has revealed it will be launching the first set of England wide Standards to support the training and development of Foster Carers.

Britain is one of the worst countries in the developed world in which to be a child, the Children’s Commissioner has said. Sir Al Aynsley-Green warned of a “crisis at the heart of our society” in the way children are treated by adults.

A Stockton care home owner accused of the manslaughter of an elderly mental patient allowed a single carer to look after 18 residents despite being told seven years earlier that two staff should work the night shift, a court has heard.

Councillors will be asked next week to consider the impact on the city’s Adult Social Services if plans for a unitary Norwich City Council are given the go ahead.

The Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) has announced that it is again running its practitioner-led research programme and making funding available for up to 100 research projects. 

Campaigners have upped the pressure on ministers to tackle hugely disproportionate detention rates within the mental health system. A letter in the Times, signed by a number of leading figures says the 1983 law that allows doctors to “section” people has led to “a crisis in black mental health.”