A Taskforce devoted to looking at issues surrounding asylum seekers on behalf of Directors of Children’s Services has welcomed publication of the Home Office consultation document “Planning Better Outcomes and Support for Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children.”

Sex offenders are among 15 long-serving prisoners who were freed from prison this week after a House of Lords ruling. The Home Secretary, John Reid, had challenged an Appeal Court ruling that an arsonist, Paul Stellato, was entitled to unconditional release under 1991 legislation after serving three quarters of a 10-year sentence.

A mother is distraught after a House of Lords ruling led to a drug dealer who sexually assaulted her son being set free. Gary Afflick has been released from jail two years early as a result of a Law Lords ruling that he and 15 other prisoners had been sent back inside illegally after breaching the terms of their parole while out on licence.

The burden of diabetes is growing much faster than health planners anticipated because of the epidemic in obesity in Western countries, scientists say today. In one country the increase in Type 2 diabetes in a decade has already overtaken an international prediction for 2030.

A decision over plans to privatise home care for adults in the city has been sent back to the councillors who originally agreed for it to go ahead. Hundreds of protesters packed the chamber at the Council House last night for a meeting to decide whether a decision by the ruling cabinet should be sent back, following concerns from care workers and two Labour councillors over the future of care in the city.

More than £500,000 of Health Service money could be spent defending the decision to deny drugs to thousands of Alzheimer’s sufferers – enough to fund treatment for all those who need it.

The professional development journal of the Royal College of Psychiatry has commissioned New Zealand psychologist, Dr John Read, to describe a training programme on asking about childhood trauma. The article, ‘Why, when and how to ask about childhood abuse’, appears in the March edition of Advances in Psychiatric Treatment.

Migrant workers who come to Britain as cooks, cleaners and nannies could become virtual slaves in their employers’ homes under new immigration rules, campaigners are warning. Ministers faced charges of hypocrisy as Labour campaigned on the issue in opposition, highlighting accusations of sexual abuse, physical assault and poverty pay regularly faced by foreign domestic staff.

Sniffer Dogs trained to find illegal drugs are being used in a mental health unit in Highgate. The dogs were used in 16 police searches of nine wards run by the Camden and Islington Mental Health Trust (CIMHT) over 12 months. Officers found two crack pipes and two cannabis joints.

Birmingham’s embattled Tory leader Mike Whitby was under fire today amid accusations he poked fun at mentally ill people.The city council leader accused his Labour rivals of “suffering from schizophrenia” during a heated debate on the council tax.