Downing Street is backing plans for an overhaul of the welfare state which would force single parents back into work much earlier than at present and make English lessons compulsory for people who cannot get jobs because they struggle with the language.

Social workers came under fire yesterday after an investigation into the abuse of a disabled four-year-old girl described by a detective as “one of the worst cases” he had seen.

The Government should consider stockpiling two types of antiviral drugs to treat people in the event of a bird flu pandemic, according to experts. There are fears that humans could catch the flu from close contact with birds infected with the H5N1 virus and trigger a pandemic.

A leading doctor has questioned the government’s policy of not offering routine flu jabs for the under-twos. Dr George Kassianos, the Royal College of General Practitioners’ immunisation expert, argues vaccinating infants would prevent illness and save lives.

{mosimage}The US already offers the jab to children aged six months to five years and introduced this on the assumption that it will reduce flu transmission and cases in both children and adults. But UK government advisers said it was unclear if a similar policy would cut the flu burden enough, given the cost of a vaccination campaign. In the UK, those hit hardest by flu – people aged over 65 and those, including infants and children, with other health problems are already offered free jabs.

But the expert advisory body, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), has so far rejected the idea of giving the jab to all children. However Dr Kassianos said routine childhood immunisation should be considered. “Children do fall ill with influenza and some even die as a result.” And he added: “Young children bring flu home from school and playgroup. That is why the US has introduced the vaccine universally.”

Allowing Muslim girls to wear full-face veils to school could make Dunblane-style massacres more common, a judge suggested. Judge Stephen Silber was hearing a case brought by a 12-year-old Muslim girl against her headmistress’s ban on her veil.

Small Supporting People providers fear a further round of cuts and closures if the government reduces funding to the programme in this year’s comprehensive spending review.

Women under 25 could be at greater risk of developing cervical cancer because they are not offered smear tests, experts say. A change of policy in 2004 means women are now invited for their first smear test at 25 instead of 20.

St Helens’ plans to redevelop a Larchfield Elderly Persons Home into a state-of-the-art site for independent living received a boost with news that a bid for £5.3 million of grant support has been given the go-ahead by the Department of Health.

Drinking three cups of a coffee a day can significantly reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, research suggests. People getting their regular caffeine fix have half the mental decline of those who do not touch coffee, it shows. But drinking more than three cups does not seem to have a greater protective effect.

Researchers think caffeine may trigger a chain reaction in the brain that counters damage done by Alzheimer’s. But they stress coffee contains other substances that might be of benefit, such as antioxidants. In a report on their findings, they suggested that doctors may one day recommend coffee to the elderly.

“Drinking three cups a day was associated with the smallest cognitive decline,” they told the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. “Because of the worldwide use of coffee and ageing populations, these results could have important public health implications.”

Standards of care are under threat from under-qualified nurses and health workers, experts say. Two leading nurse academics told the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine that NHS care would be better if more nurses had degrees.

{mosimage}Professors Linda Shields and Roger Watson said care was also threatened by the use of poorly qualified staff such as healthcare assistants.

But nursing leaders said the profession was highly skilled and vibrant.

The experts from Hull and Sheffield universities said: “Educating nurses to the highest standards is better for the health of all, and is cost effective.

“The consequences of poor education and mistakes are deaths, so the imperative to educate nurses to the highest standard, to provide them with ways to access the best evidence, the critical thinking skills to use that evidence safely and the skills to generate their own knowledge is mandatory.”

Latest statistics show that just 4% of the nursing workforce have degrees. The professors also argued that nurses were being replaced by less qualified staff. While medicine without nursing was “an untenable concept”, things were heading that way.