A committee of MPs has warned of possible “pitfalls” in government plans to replace the Child Support Agency. The Work and Pensions Select Committee welcomed the decision to scrap the CSA, but warned of a return of the problems it was set up to solve 14 years ago.

Parents will be encouraged to spend more time reading to their children under a new Government “parenting strategy”. Education Secretary Alan Johnson will set out the Government’s thinking on how to help parents become more involved in their children’s schooling.

The Government has been attacked for cutting jobs and pay of public sector workers, with a warning that services are now under threat. The TUC said job losses were now going “well beyond” recommendations of an official review, while staging pay rises meant workers would receive below-inflation wage increases.

Childminders this afternoon backed government proposals granting them a statutory duty to monitor child development – on condition they do not have to pay for their own training to implement the changes.

Government statistics published today show that the UK’s NHS workforce fell by 11,000 in the fourth quarter of 2006. Commenting on the figures, BMA Chairman Mr James Johnson, says:

Hospitals in England which currently ban doctors and patients from using mobile phones have no reason to do so, the government has said. Restrictions have been in place in many trusts because of concerns phones could interfere with medical equipment.

A bid to force doctors offering abortion or contraception advice to under-16s to inform the child’s parents has been rejected by MPs. Tory MP Angela Watkinson argued that current sex education encouraged girls to have sex before they were ready.

More and more badly behaved children are being diagnosed with conditions like ADHD. Latest figures show global use of ADHD drugs has nearly tripled since 1993. In England and Wales alone, prescriptions for the standard treatment, a drug called Ritalin, rocketed from just 4,000 in 1994 to 359,000 in 2004.

The next phase of the ‘roles and tasks of social work in England’ project was launched today (14 March 2007) by a project team working with the General Social Care Council (GSCC).

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, Ann Abraham, today reported on the results of her investigation into complaints about the amount of redress received by some elderly and disabled people who had belatedly received NHS funding for their care.