Millions of people in England will soon have a better way of judging the quality of care services they or their relatives and friends rely on. New star ratings (1-4) for all 28,000 care providers in England will let the public see at a glance whether care providers are excellent, good, adequate or poor.  Paying for a place in a care home can cost as much as £31,000 a year, sometimes more. The new ratings system will allow the public and local councils to see whether the fees charged by care providers match the quality of services they provide.

Lancashire County Council have come under fire for running care homes “on the cheap”. New statistics show the authority pays just £395 per person a week for adults in care homes – making it the third worst payer in the North West and close to the bottom of the national payment league. County hall officials have questioned the figures but said they were examining ways to improve funding. The GMB trade union today accused the authority of underfunding care for elderly people in council-run home and private homes, which partly paid for by the council. Nationally, Lancashire comes 153rd in a league of 173 authorities with the highest-paying shelling out £743 and the lowest paying just £311. The national average for England is £488.

Manchester is set to host the first in a series of 10 regional conferences highlighting how the public, private and voluntary sectors can work together to improve the quality of life in the communities they serve. With 350 delegates from local authorities, social enterprises, charities, community groups, CVS networks, government bodies and regeneration organisations, the ‘3rd Sector 1st’ conference is taking place at the University of Manchester on 12 September 2006.

Sixteen- and 17-year-olds are not having their mental health needs met, according to the latest mapping study. Findings from the Summary of National Trends 2005, produced by Durham University for the Department of Health and the Department for Education and Skills, revealed that only 17 per cent of councils have fully comprehensive child and adolescent mental health service (CAMHS) provision for 16- and 17-year-olds across their council area.

Cindy Peacock, 31, is losing her vision through retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive degenerative illness. She has neither a guide dog nor a white cane, but when, 18 months ago, she lost her bearings on her way to pick up her son from school in Dagenham, Essex, and suffered a panic attack, she realised she needed support. As someone who values her independence, Peacock chose to use Barking and Dagenham council’s direct payments system so that she could manage her own support.

The number of Black groups with  “service user experience” has dramatically diminished according to a new report. The study from the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) and REU (formerly race equality unit) found that despite service user involvement advancing steadily in the past 20 years, black and minority ethnic groups are still lagging behind. Entitled Doing it for themselves: participation and black and minority ethnic service users , the report claims that policy makers and practioners frequently consult with black professionals and community leaders rather than directly involving service users themselves.

Elderly people living in care in Hartlepool receive one of the lowest council financial contributions in the North-East. But council chiefs today said the figures are misleading and do not take a number of factors into account. Hartlepool came third from bottom in a league table published by the general union (the GMB), which shows the average weekly cost per person for intensive social care spent by councils – the town’s council only paying more than Darlington and North Tyneside. The figures, provided by the Audit Commission, show that Hartlepool Borough Council pays an average weekly cost of £351 per person for those receiving care compared to Gateshead, which pays the highest amount at £485.

A 14-year-old registered blind boy was locked away for up to five hours at a time in a children’s home run by Wakefield Council. The punishment regime – which was known by staff as “lockdown” – was illegal and very similar to the notorious “pindown” technique uncovered at children’s homes in the 1980s which prompted a public inquiry and new legal safeguards for children in care. On one occasion, the boy, who came from a tragically abusive background, was locked up for hours without food or drink after staff at the Langthwaite children’s home forgot to provide him with any.

Cherie Blair is vowing to fight a council threatening to take a multiple sclerosis sufferer away from her husband and put her in a home. The council, cutting dozens of services after a £10.8million overspend, told Mary McGee, 61, it was slashing her care to save cash and warned she could be put in residential care. Husband and carer James, 62, wrote to barrister Mrs Blair pleading for help.

It was the day widow Dorothy Humphry never thought she would see, and she was trying very hard not to cry with pride and happiness. Her son Alan and his fiance Justine Brown had just got married to cheers and applause from 43 friends and family. As the newlyweds emerged from Ferndown Register Office, Alan, 41, looked dignified in his smart suit while Justine, 38, was simply radiant in her ivory satin dress with beaded bodice and jacket. The couple exchanged kisses in the sunshine and said: “We’re very happy.”