A district councillor has criticised planning colleagues for approving an extension of a Donington care home when they did not have the full case history. Coun Fred Fretwell said that South Holland District Council’s planners had “lost” a file relating to Matthew Flinders Residential Home but went on to give the plans the go-ahead. At a recent meeting of Donington Parish Council he claimed that the action was one of “bad practice” and said he would pursue it.

Carers of people with Alzheimer’s disease have attacked “outrageous” plans to move a day centre to another part of Hull. Hull Council wants to move people who use the day centre in Bellfield Avenue in east Hull, to the Fernleigh centre, on Waterloo Street, in west Hull. The council say they can no longer use Bellfield as it also houses a residential unit for children.

{mosimage}A powerful committee of MPs and Peers is urging the Government to tackle the “extremely worrying” growth of people trafficking into the UK. Unpublished Government research shows there were an estimated 4,000 victims of trafficking for prostitution in 2003 at any one time, according to an inquiry report published by the Joint Committee on Human Rights. No reliable estimates exist for the number of children or adult men who have been trafficked into the country for labour exploitation purposes. The MPs and peers describe the problem as “one of the most serious human rights issues in the modern world” and call for action. Their report highlights confusion over official statistics which they say give widely varying figures. In 2000 Home Office figures gave a range of between 142 and 1,420 women trafficked into the UK in 1998.

A new web-based service to help people to find nursing or residential care is now available in Cheshire. Cheshire County Council’s online Care Homes Directory enables people to access all the information they require at the click of a mouse. Users can search through a comprehensive database of all care homes in the Cheshire local authority area to find the one which best meets their requirements.

A council home for the elderly in Berkshire is to be closed because it no longer meets modern standards. The 35 residents at Waring House, Thatcham, are to be offered places at a new home to be opened in Newbury next spring. West Berkshire Council spokesman Keith Ulyatt said the council had entered into a partnership with A2 Housing Association and Care UK to open Birchwood, a 60-bed care home in April 2007.

{mosimage} More than 1,000 crimes have been committed by offenders released from jail early on an electronic tag, it has been revealed. There have been four manslaughters, one murder, 56 woundings and more than 700 assaults since “Home Detention Curfew” came into force in 1999.

There were also 100 cases of possessing an offensive weapon, one incident of causing death by reckless driving, 100 of obstructing a police officer and 16 other violent attacks.

A report from the Commons’ all-party Public Accounts Committee (PAC) disclosed the figures as it examined the success of the Government’s tagging programme.

It warned that there was “insufficient evidence” that tagging helped to reduce reoffending or rehabilitate criminals. MPs also expressed concern that prison governors – who are responsible for deciding whether to release inmates on HDC – get no feedback on whether the offenders complete the curfew or not.

{mosimage}More than half of NHS bodies in England need to improve the quality of their services or their financial management, a standards watchdog has found. Only two of 570 bodies assessed, both of them hospitals, were ranked as excellent in both categories. The Healthcare Commission said its “broad and tough” analysis showed the NHS needed to “raise its game”. The body representing NHS managers said underperforming trusts could now focus on areas where improvement was needed. The “health check”, which uses patient reports and hospital self-assessments as well as other financial and quality data to compile its rankings, replaces the discredited hotel-style “star ratings”.

Trailblazing social enterprise schemes are to get financial support this year to explore innovative ways of providing health and social care, in addition to the investment already promised from April 2007. Announcing investment of £1m for this year at a speech to NHS Networks, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said:

The number of alcoholics and drug addicts claiming incapacity benefit has doubled since Labour came to power. New figures show that the situation has got worse this year, despite the Government’s claim to be getting to grips with Britain’s “sick note” culture.

Plans are being unveiled this week for a new £1.8 million centre in Devon to provide new opportunities for adults with learning and other disabilities. The Bubbly Project stems from the belief that services, facilities and support for these people are diminishing and that improvements are badly needed. A five-acre greenfield site has been earmarked for a centre that would provide services for some 450 North Devon families.