{mosimage} People with long term health and social care needs will be able to assess their own support needs and apply directly for services to help them, thanks to 11 new pilots announced by Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis. The ground breaking new projects will explore the scope for enabling people to self assess their need for support from a range of services, such as equipment, home care, standard housing adaptations and low-level preventative services. This could, for example, involve using the internet, or approaching a third sector organisation for help with filling in an online form. The outcome of an assessment could be receiving reliable information about equipment and services, or result in them receiving a piece of equipment directly, rather than being assessed by social services.

Toni-Ann Byfield was shot so she could not identify her drug-dealing father’s killer, a man who has now been convicted of the two murders. But how did a young girl come to be placed at the centre of such violent criminal circles? Toni-Ann had made it clear she had a strong relationship with Bertram Byfield, the man she believed to be her father. The “bright, lively” seven-year-old looked forward to her weekend visits to his north-west London home.

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has been given a wake-up call by community health watchdogs demanding to know what she will do about proposed mental health cuts. Cambridgeshire County Council wants the Government to stop dragging its feet over the £3 million cuts which include scrapping the young people’s service and closing hospital beds and day centre services. It asked the Government to respond five months ago and now councillors have written to Ms Hewitt demanding an answer.

With four children, six dogs and a full time job running a shop, the O’Neills already had a hectic life. Then they added foster kids into the mix. Heather, 38 and 47-year-old Dave took the life changing step of welcoming their first foster child into their home 12 months ago and have cared for six children since then. There have been tears and tantrums along the way, sibling rivalry and moments of doubt and frustration, but they say it is all worth it.

Anxious staff at a West Cumberland Hospital are facing an uncertain future and some may lose their jobs. The wards are combining to care for people of all ages and a range of mental health problems. The new unit is based at Yewdale Ward until a new multi-million pound facility is built. But staff – who say they are having to reapply for their own jobs as a result – say the move to combine the wards is “unsafe”. They say that people aged 65 and over will be moved on to a ward with people of all ages, some of whom may be drug users and violent.

Mental health bosses are hoping to take over the power to run services locally as a Foundation Trust. The North Cumbria Mental Health & Learning Disabilities NHS Trust is moving ahead with its application. NHS Foundation Trusts are “independent public benefit corporations, modelled on co-operative and mutual traditions”. It means that whilst remaining part of the NHS, power is devolved to locally run services with the freedom to innovate and improve care for patients. Local people, service users, carers and staff become ‘members’ and governors of the trust and have a real say in the running of their local services.

Many employers are paying workers with learning disabilities less than the minimum wage, according to a report. A “worrying” number of employers – especially local authorities and those in the voluntary sector – are defying National Minimum Wage (NMW) rules by under-paying staff with learning disabilities.

The government has won the right to deport failed asylum seekers back to Zimbabwe. The asylum and immigration tribunal ruling means up to 7,000 people who fled Robert Mugabe’s regime could be returned against their will. The tribunal reversed its decision of last year and yesterday ruled that failed asylum seekers would not automatically face persecution if returned to Zimbabwe. Last October the tribunal ruled against the policy after a failed asylum seeker, AA, won his appeal against the decision to deport him. That caused ministers to halt the forced removals.

Care for the elderly in Waltham Forest has improved, according to a new report. The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) said progress is being made in Waltham Forest Council’s social care services for older people, and that most people using it received a good standard of care. Although the report also said the council can do still more to improve care for older people, the verdict was a significant step up from the “poor” rating the department received in 2002.

{mosimage} Nursery staff who dress inappropriately and discuss their hangovers in front of children are at risk of creating a generation of “Vicky Pollards”, a teachers’ leader warned yesterday. Growing numbers of staff do not have a good grasp of language and spelling and many go to work with long nails and “chunky” shoes, according to Deborah Lawson, chairman of the Professional Association of Teachers. She believes such bad examples risk creating toddlers who resemble the delinquent teenager from the BBC television comedy Little Britain, who smokes in the swimming pool and famously swapped her baby for a Westlife CD.

Ms Lawson, 49, who has nearly 30 years’ experience working in education, including inspecting playgroups and nurseries, said: “I don’t want to trivialise this in any way, but we don’t want a future generation of Vicky Pollards.