Cancer services in England are in need of further reform in order to deliver better patient care, the government’s cancer tsar has said. Professor Mike Richards said simple tests and treatments should be made available closer to patients’ homes.

Three years ago the Audit Commission pointed to an overemphasis on treating drug addiction, coupled with a lack of emphasis on providing the support needed to bring order to the often chaotic lives of drug users.

An £8bn increase in NHS spending in England this year will buy 390,000 extra operations, 400,000 more outpatient appointments and a new outreach service to help thousands of vulnerable people with long-term medical conditions such as diabetes and asthma, Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, said yesterday.

Nannies who can speak a second language, play the violin or cook like Jamie Oliver are commanding record salaries in the childcare market, driven by the desires of ambitious parents to give their children a head start.

A social worker drowned his disabled baby son in a bath because he could not cope with the pain that the child was suffering, a court was told. Andreas Milakovic, a German national who is deaf and cannot speak, wept in the dock as the story of his “mercy killing” was told at Sheffield Crown Court.

Town hall chiefs have rejected official immigration figures which they say grossly underestimate the real numbers. The revolt came after the latest count claimed there were 60,000 fewer immigrants living in London than previously estimated.

Almost 17,000 children face the daily strain of caring for a mentally- ill parent, it was revealed yesterday. With little or no help from the state, many have to administer medicine to their mother or father as well as providing crucial emotional support.

More than half of children in the UK using the internet have had an “unwanted experience”, a poll suggests. The NSPCC found 50.4% of 2,053 children had experienced problems such as bullying, being threatened or sexually harassed while online.

{mosimage}It is concerned about the popularity of social networking sites such as Bebo or MySpace, which it says 52% of children aged 11-16 use once a day. The NSPCC says these could heighten children’s exposure to abusive people. The survey indicated most young people logged onto such websites to make new friends and link up with people they already knew. But it also suggests that almost 60 per cent of children used the websites to help combat loneliness, while 53 per cent used them to share their problems.

The findings were revealed as the charity launches this year’s Don’t Hide It campaign. The campaign aims to encourage children to speak out about all forms of abuse carried out on social networking websites.

Cancer doctors have told the BBC they fear the NHS will not be able to afford the new generation of cancer drugs. Specialists are already arguing that patients may have to pay for more drugs themselves, with the issue becoming pressing as new drugs are developed.

A new method of calculating the number of migrants entering the UK has been challenged by local authority leaders. In a letter to the Treasury seen by the BBC, four leaders say the numbers in their areas have been underestimated, meaning public services will be hit.