A high-level council report into the care of the elderly and their possessions has admitted ‘weaknesses’ in the system – but claims the overall procedures are sound, and stops short of calling in police.

A social worker and a mental health patient were found tied up and stabbed to death in a flat yesterday. Cops discovered the bloody scene when local authority officials reported the social worker missing.

Eighteen of Burnley’s most anti-social families are to be given intensive help in a bid to stop them causing misery in communities in the area. The Family Intervention Programme, which makes up part of the Home Office-funded Respect scheme, works with families on the verge of being made homeless because of their behaviour.

Three care home staff subjected patients to “cruel and systematic ill-treatment”, a court has heard. Disabled patients were provoked into attacking each other while racial abuse was incited among other patients, Snaresbrook Crown Court was told.

A coroner has voiced concerns over the funding for alcohol services in Cheshire following the suicide of a young Crewe alcoholic. At an inquest this week into the death of Oliver Dixon, aged 26, one health professional branded the funding to tackle alcohol problems as absolutely appalling’.

A fifth of private care homes in Norfolk are failing to meet hygiene standards, prompting calls for the Government to ensure standards are improved. Although improvements have been made to hygiene and infection control standards at care homes, there are still 337 in the East of England which have failed to make the grade.

Social care for vulnerable people is being squeezed as a result of NHS deficits, according to the Local Government Association. The LGA says costs are being shunted to social services departments as the NHS in England aims to balance its books. A survey of 95 councils which run social services found two thirds say NHS debts are affecting them.

{mosimage}The Department of Health said the NHS and local authorities had to work together for patients’ benefit. Forty per cent of the councils surveyed by the LGA said the knock on effect of the financial pressure in the NHS was worse than in previous years.

When the organisations were asked what the NHS had done in their area to affect them, half said beds had been closed, and a quarter said there had been a reduction in district nurse numbers. Another 14% said there were increased waiting times for NHS services, such as admission to hospital while 13% said community hospitals had been closed.

In addition, more than a third of the councils in the LGA survey say they are having to take responsibility for more cases normally dealt with by the NHS. The continuing care of elderly patients is the main area where responsibilities overlap.

Almost a quarter (24%) say the local NHS is failing to fund agreed or joint services. This might involve cuts to nursing services, meaning home helps have to take on tasks such as changing wound dressings or checking insulin levels. Funding disputes have increased, the councils reported.

The LGA says there is deep concern on the ground about the trend towards cost-shunting and its impact on already stretched council social care services. Sandy Bruce-Lockhart, chairman of the LGA, said councils did not want to start a war of words with the NHS. But he added: “There are grave financial pressures on both councils and the NHS that are starting to impact on the quality of service.”

In response to the report in today’s Guardian announcing the first trials of the NHS electronic summary care record, Dr Richard Vautrey, deputy chair of the BMA’s IT committee said:

There is a major breakthrough in reducing waiting times and creating choice in the NHS with the opening today by the Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, of the first Independent Sector Treatment Centre in London.

The government is launching a plan to tackle obesity by helping parents recognise the warning signs that their children are overweight. It follows a claim by the Medical Research Council that many people do not know their children are overweight.

{mosimage}The Department of Health has pledged to do more in the next year to support parents in encouraging healthy eating and physical activity.

But critics said the government had not acted quickly enough to tackle obesity. The government has set a target of halting the yearly rise in rates of obesity in the under-11s by 2010.

But Dr Susan Jebb and colleagues from the Human Nutrition Research unit at the MRC found several major barriers were preventing families from adopting healthy lifestyles even though they knew the importance of a healthy diet and exercise.

Their review of the evidence showed people have a poor perception of their own weight status and are even worse at spotting when their child is overweight or obese. Busy lifestyles, irregular working hours and fears that having a healthy lifestyle is too difficult to achieve also put people off healthy choices.