British scientists are to launch the world’s first clinical trials of a controversial gene therapy to cure childhood blindness.

MPs are to debate growing concerns over failings in NHS maternity services. It comes ahead of a BBC Panorama programme which shows the pressure hospitals are under and claims wards are buckling under a midwife shortage.

A new report shows that up to 2.4 million people with diabetes are at risk of dying of cardiovascular disease (CVD), such as heart disease or stroke, if nothing is done to improve awareness, prevention and treatment.

Independent inspectors have praised Haringey Council’s “rapid progress” in improving services. Michael Haworth-Maden, of the Audit Commission, presented the local government watchdog’s annual summary of its assessment of the council at a meeting of the executive committee.

A top councillor has hit back at an opposition leader’s claims of a cover-up over a damning report on Bromley’s youth offenders team. Inspectors from the Government’s social care inspectorate and the Probation Service spent October and November of last year looking at the team’s work before a report was published on March 7.

Local voluntary and community organisations in England with plans to involve volunteers in the delivery of health and social care projects could benefit from the latest funding round from the Opportunities for Volunteering Scheme (OFV), a DoH initiative that provides grants to local health and social care organisations in England.

The Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) has announced that following the success of last year’s Occupational Group Funding initiative, it is making a new batch of funding available to support training and development in the children and young people’s sector during 2007-08.

Care workers trusted to handle money belonging to the people they care for must keep scrupulous records. A bulletin published by social care watchdog the Commission for Social Care Inspection shows that, while many services have improved the way they handle people’s money, there are examples of bad practice.

The Churches Child Protection Advisory Service (CCPAS) says it “was very pleased” to see the “timely” statement made by The Archbishop of Canterbury in which he expressed his “deep sorrow over the suffering experienced in child abuse cases involving the church”.

A team at London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital has made the world’s first attempt to treat a sight disorder using gene therapy. They operated on Robert Johnson, a UK man born with a sight disorder which deteriorates with age.