Children in care will be forced to undergo drug tests from the age of ten under radical plans unveiled by the Government yesterday. All 61,000 youngsters currently in the care system would be given compulsory mouth swabs to test for cannabis, Ecstasy and cocaine every year until the age of 16.

The London Assembly has announced an investigation into community-based mental health services provided by the NHS in the capital and is asking Londoners to come forward with their views.

Psychiatric patients are climbing over a security fence to leave an NHS mental health unit, it was claimed today. A television documentary filmed patients scaling the 20ft-high fence at the Royal South Hants Hospital, Southampton, on five different days.

Directors of Children’s Services have welcomed many aspects of the government’s Green Paper on children in care published today. And, speaking as their statutory, corporate parents, said they are `delighted’ to share the government’s ambitious aims and objectives for the children concerned.

Members of the children’s interagency group (IAG)* have welcomed today’s publication of Care Matters – a government Green Paper concerning children in care. It also welcomes the opportunity to engage in considering the future provision for children in care during the further consultation process to come.

As plans get under way to improve the system for children in care and ensure they receive the best possible education, Karen Spencer can say has seen the situation from both sides of the fence.

{mosimage}Emergency measures to deal with severe overcrowding in English and Welsh prisons are expected to be unveiled in the next few days. John Reid will decide if police cells can be used to house inmates. The Home Secretary is also looking at transferring foreign prisoners facing deportation to immigration centres and moving some inmates to open prisons.

Attorney General Lord Goldsmith has promised the policy will not expose the public to more dangerous criminals. It is appearing increasingly likely that Operation Safeguard – the contingency plan for the co-ordinated use of police cells – will be activated in the near future.

A Home Office spokeswoman confirmed Mr Reid would make a statement “within the next few days”. The prison population reached a record 79,843 this weekend, and in theory there are just 125 more spaces available. Prisoner numbers have risen by more than 600 in the past six weeks, and are likely to continue going up until Christmas.

Wide-ranging proposals to improve the lives of some of society’s most vulnerable children are set to be announced by the Government. Education Secretary Alan Johnson is expected to say the state must focus on becoming a better proxy parent to the youngsters it is looking after when he launches the green paper Children in Care.

Schools are struggling to cope with increasing numbers of pupils with mental health problems, a study says. The survey commissioned by the NASUWT teachers’ union found teachers often had difficulty identifying pupils with problems like anxiety and depression.

Councils would have a duty to place children in their care in the best local schools, under government plans. A Green Paper on children in care in England is expected to beef up the admissions rules and oblige schools to take the youngsters if told to do so.