{mosimage} The private healthcare giant Bupa will be sentenced at Southwark crown court in London tomorrow after admitting a serious lapse in safety standards that contributed to the death of a 95-year-old woman at one of its care homes in Kent. Charlotte Wood fell while being hoisted into the bath by an inadequately-trained care worker who was using equipment for the first time and did not know the correct procedure. Mrs Wood died four days later after contracting pneumonia in hospital and a postmortem examination concluded that the fall was a secondary cause of death.The case was a serious blow to the reputation of Bupa, one of the largest care home operators in Britain. It runs 298 homes, providing care for 21,000 residents, carrying out 51m lifts and hoists a year. Bupa is likely to receive a hefty fine.

Police today declared “psychological war” on car-jackers who break into Midland homes and terrorise occupants before stealing their vehicles. Organised gangs are resorting to extreme measures to steal luxury cars because new security has put the brakes on them hot-wiring parked cars. But incidents in recent years have left a trail of tragedy. Heart fm presenter Tushar died after he tried to tackle a gang of thugs who kicked their way into his Castle Bromwich home for the keys to his BMW.

Older fathers are far more likely to have autistic children, experts have warned. Children born to fathers aged 40 and over are around six times more likely to suffer from autism compared to those born to fathers under 30, they said. But the researchers, including a team from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, could find no link between a mother’s advancing age and autism.

Details of the government’s plan to improve the “life chances” of problem families are to be revealed. In a speech, Tony Blair will set out a scheme to intervene before children are even born to stop them turning into troublemakers later. He is expected to give more details of the idea, which critics say sounds too much like “eugenics”. The prime minister’s speech comes during a two-day regional tour which follows his summer visit to Balmoral.

Home Office ministers should be removed from any involvement in official crime statistics to restore public confidence in their accuracy, Whitehall’s statistics watchdog said yesterday. The Statistics Commission said it did not believe public trust could be restored while ministers, their advisers and senior officials were directly involved in both publishing crime figures and setting out the official response to them.

In response to the Howard League report ‘Chaos, Neglect and Abuse’, Cllr Les Lawrence, the Local Government Association’s (LGA) spokesperson on Children and Young People, says: “Councils take their responsibilities for vulnerable children incredibly seriously and in complex circumstances do all they can to ensure that young people coming out of custody receive the support they need. However, an explosion in the child prison population over the last decade has placed an intolerable burden on councils in an area where resources are already stretched and difficult decisions need to be made.”

An overhaul of specialist care spanning the next decade is being undertaken in York to cope with the dramatically increasing number of elderly people among the city’s population. York Council has drawn up a series of proposals as it faces critical decisions in ensuring that health provision is adequate to cope with the changing age profile in the city, which is a prime retirement location. The number of York residents aged over 85 is expected to increase by 77 per cent in the next 20 years and the number of older people with dementia is predicted to rise by 36 per cent in the next decade.

{mosimage} Soham killer Ian Huntley has been found unconscious in his cell at Wakefield Prison after taking a suspected overdose, the Prison Service has said. He was discovered in the early hours of Tuesday morning and prison staff resuscitated him, a spokeswoman said. The killer, who has taken an overdose before, is now under heavy sedation at an unnamed hospital, she added. Huntley, 32, received two life terms for the 2002 murders of Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells in Soham, Cambs. While awaiting trial for the murder of the two 10-year-old schoolgirls, the former school caretaker saved up 29 anti-depressant pills in a box of teabags and was found suffering a fit on the floor of his cell at Woodhill Prison, near Milton Keynes.

{mosimage}The government has chosen Trevor Phillips to be the head of a new human rights and equalities body, the Guardian has learned. Mr Phillips, head of the Commission for Racial Equality, met officials last Thursday from the Department for Communities and Local government, which will oversee the new body. He saw Peter Housden and officials involved in the new Commission for Equalities and Human Rights, to learn of the work they have done so far to establish the body.

The announcement of the government’s choice to head the new commission has been delayed several times. The plan is to announce the choice of Mr Phillips next Wednesday. But while ministers regard the former broadcaster as a safe pair of hands, their choice will be opposed by activists who have been conducting a campaign to ensure he does not get the job.

The minister in charge of a plan to identify potential troublemakers even before birth has defended the move, saying state intervention “can work”. Social exclusion minister Hilary Armstrong spoke out as ex-MP Tony Benn likened the plan to “eugenics, the sort of thing Hitler talked about”. Ms Armstrong says the government has to intervene earlier to prevent problems developing when children are older. Tony Blair will outline the strategy in a speech in the regions on Tuesday.