Police officers could face public disciplinary hearings in “exceptional circumstances” where there are accusations of serious incompetence or neglect. Under powers held by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), officers accused of serious failings could be compelled to attend tribunals open to victims, relatives and the media.

A man who was forced to sell his mother’s home to pay for her nursing-home care yesterday won back more than £50,000 from a health trust in a landmark case. Mike Pearce sold his mother Ruby’s home to meet bills so she could receive round-the-clock care after she was diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s.

Mentally ill patients are being paid by the NHS to take their drugs in a radical experiment to improve compliance. Four patients suffering from schizophrenia are receiving between £5 and £15 each time they have a “depot” injection – a long acting drug which is normally given once a month.

{mosimage}The payments handed out by the Newham Centre for Mental Health in London have dramatically improved the patients’ adherence to treatment and reduced the time they spend in hospital suffering relapses, problems with neighbours and the police. But the scheme has been attacked by mental health managers who say it is unethical, coercive and could have a negative effect on the therapeutic relationship. Persuading mentally ill patients to take their drugs is one of the big challenges in psychiatry, with non-adherence rates ranging from 20 to 50 per cent.

In the US, financial incentives have been used to persuade other types of patient to take regular treatment, specially where it has unpleasant side effects or involves pain or effort. Findings from 10 of 11 studies found offering payments from $5 (£2.50) to $1,000 produced favourable results.

The Care Regulators Association (CRA), the professional membership body for inspection staff working with the Care Commissions in the UK has merged with Social Care Association as from the 1st January 2007.

The owner of a violent pit-bull terrier which mauled a five-year-old girl to death was formally warned about his pet’s aggressive behaviour seven months ago. Ellie Lawrenson was savagely attacked in the living room at the home of her grandmother, Jackie Simpson.

{mosimage} Mrs Simpson, 45, was also badly bitten while attempting to pull the crazed pet off her granddaughter.

The killer dog – a chestnut pit-bull called Reuben – was so out of control that it had to be shot dead by police marksmen after being cornered in the garden.

It belonged to the dead girl’s 23-year-old uncle, Kiel Simpson, who was warned by his local council last June after it attacked another dog.

But nothing was done and the animal was left free to attack and kill little Ellie in the early hours of New Year’s Day at her grandmother’s house in Eccleston, St Helens, Merseyside.

Last night St Helens council confirmed Mr Simpson was sent a warning letter after a neighbour complained the animal had attacked his dog.

A 48-year-old man accused of the murder of five women who worked as prostitutes in Ipswich has appeared before a crown court judge in the Suffolk town.  Steven Wright is charged with the murders of Gemma Adams, 25, Anneli Alderton, 24, Tania Nicol, 19, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29.

Hundreds of prisoners, including murderers and paedophiles, who have been assessed as posing a serious threat to the public, are being transferred to open prisons. The Observer has obtained an extensive dossier of case studies involving more than 50 prisoners recently transferred to ‘soft jails’.

The Royal Air Force has called in a gay pressure group to help solve its recruitment crisis. The Service will take advice from Stonewall on how to make itself more attractive to homosexual and bisexual men and women, and is aiming to spend tens of thousands of pounds on advertising in the “pink” media.

The Government has been accused of “selling off” the NHS brand, after it emerged that a German parcel company has been given the right to use the blue and white logo. A private consortium, headed by DHL, the delivery company, now holds a licence “for use of the NHS marks”.

Britons are incapable of emulating the European drinking culture because they “enjoy getting drunk,” says Labour Chairman Hazel Blears. She told the Sunday Times people enjoyed “risk-taking” and “want to push the limits of danger”. She adds that “maybe it’s our Anglo-Saxon mentality” and that there are no “easy answers”.