Bradford is winning its battle to cut the number of schoolgirl mums. The district’s pregnancy rate for under-18s has dropped by 22.9 per cent, according to new figures. Bradford is the second most improved out of the 15 Yorkshire and Humber regions – beaten only by North Yorkshire – and 15th best out of 129 English regions, it has been revealed. The number of teenage conceptions in the district has fallen from 57.2 out of 1,000 to 44.1. The figures were based on the numbers of birth registrations and abortions in under-18s at Bradford’s four Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) in 2004. The results were compared to the same data collected in 1998.

In response to the ‘Choosing Health: Supporting the physical health needs of people with severe mental illness’ guidance published by the Department of Health, Andrew McCulloch, Chief Executive of the Mental Health Foundation, said: “This is a welcome step in the right direction. We know that exercise and a balanced diet can maintain mental well-being. Good physical health is also important for people with severe mental health problems as they are more likely to develop serious physical ailments such as diabetes or heart disease.

Inspectors in Halifax have ordered the closure of a nursing home where rap music was blasted into elderly residents’ rooms. They also found meals were often cold, rooms shabby and The Haven Nursing Home was not managed properly, according to the social services experts. They have now demanded the home, which they described as poor, to be shut down. Inspectors found the building dilapidated, staff not properly trained or recruited and the residents needs were not being met. “This is a poor home,” says the Commission for Social Care Inspection in its latest report.

{mosimage}Thousands of children are ending up in court because teachers and care home workers are afraid to discipline them for bad behaviour, the head of the Government’s youth justice quango has said. The police are increasingly being called in to deal with behaviour that only a few years ago would have been handled by staff in schools or residential care homes. Rod Morgan, chairman of the Youth Justice Board, says that it is time to confront the political correctness in schools that prevents teachers from disciplining pupils in the way that they used to – in part because they fear that parents will challenge them and even take legal action. Mr Morgan goes on to give warning that the consequences of lone-parent families and the absence of male role models are increasing the number of young children who no longer know how to behave.
“What many young children lack are any sort of boundaries being set to their behaviour so that literally they don’t know how to behave properly. There has not been a role model to explain things and to set boundaries.

Elderly and vulnerable people in a Suffolk town have been left without social services carers for almost a month as a care crisis grips the county. As Suffolk County Council announced it is to cut around 200 care jobs, it has emerged at least four people in Hadleigh are believed to be without help because there are not enough carers to look after them. The problem began when the council-funded agency that was providing care withdrew from the town. Margaret Davey, 50, is registered blind but has been looking after her 88-year-old father Sid Brown since his carers stopped visiting him at the end of July.

A funding crisis has struck an Essex care centre for the elderly just two years after it was opened. Sydenham House, in Harlow, was built to ease pressure on hospital bed numbers but has hit hard times as a result of funding cuts for one of its units. Harlow Primary Care Trust may have to close the top floor of the centre due to the loss of financial support from Essex and Hertfordshire county councils. The trust said the 20-bed Edith Summerskill Unit, which provides care for elderly people in rehabilitation, has not been cost-effective since contracts with both councils ended in April.

{mosimage}People should have equal access to care services whatever their gender, age, sexual orientation, race, belief or disability, according to the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI). Launching the Commission’s Equalities and Diversity Strategy, CSCI Chair Dame Denise Platt said: “Social care services must provide for people in a way that meets their individual needs. People tell us they want to live as independent citizens, making their own choices and taking their own risks. Services should be culturally sensitive, inclusive and accessible, if they are to make a positive difference to people’s lives that support the outcomes they want. People also need to be able to obtain information in an accessible form to help them make choices about their care.

Worried families have launched a petition to stop a mental health care home next to a school. Residents from Temple Avenue, Dagenham, are objecting to the plans, which would see a five-bedroom residential care home placed just yards away from All Saints Comprehensive School. The petition has more than 100 signatures already, and organisers are hoping for many more before the deadline for logging objections passe.

Young children have been put at risk in “inadequate” nurseries, childminders’ homes and creches, the education watchdog Ofsted has said. A total of 1,000 failed to look after children properly. Ofsted received nearly 2,000 complaints about safety and well-being including concerns about smacking and other mistreatment, and staff failing to stop youngsters being bullied or not properly recording accidents. There were reports about untidy and insecure premises, with one parent complaining that she found her three-year daughter on the path outside her nursery.

An expert involved in Tony Blair’s plans to transform the youth justice system has branded the policy a shameful failure. Instead of tackling the causes of youth crime, it was ‘demonising’ and ‘criminalising’ vulnerable young people. The damning verdict by Rob Allen, who has been a member of the Youth Justice Board (YJB) since it was set up a year after Blair’s 1997 election victory, comes in a report seen by The Observer to be published next month. Allen, who heads the International Centre for Prison Studies at King’s College, London, is stepping down after his maximum of two four-year terms on the board.