The Child Support Agency (CSA) could be axed, while absent fathers face being electronically tagged, under plans to be announced by the government. Parents will be encouraged to make their own arrangements over child maintenance, with a new agency focusing on parents who refuse to co-operate. New powers would prevent absent fathers from going out after work and allow passports to be confiscated.

The devastating shortfall in care for young people with mental health problems is revealed today in a leaked government document showing that thousands of families are being left without the support they need. A letter sent from the Department of Health to senior NHS officials shows that the government will fail to meet its three key targets for children and young people’s access to psychiatric care by its deadline of December.

Skills for Care is now the lead agency, working jointly with the department of Health’s Valuing People Support Team, on the development of new Learning Disability Award Framework (LDAF) materials for workers supporting people with learning disabilities.  Since April 2006, Skills for Care has taken over from the Department of Health in developing a new Learning Disability Awards Framework (LDAF) for workers who support people who have learning disabilities. 

Two sets of regulations regarding the procedural rules of the Care Standards Tribunal have been laid before parliament today. A public consultation was held on the draft versions of these regulations, which sought views on how to enable the CST to consider applications for review or revocation of a disqualification order.

A village-based charity has won the regional round of a competition acknowledged by Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown as Britain’s business Oscars. The White Horse Care Trust, which houses and cares for 73 adults with severe learning difficulties, achieved top place in the Wales and West Country section of the National Business Awards health and safety category. Its offices are in the village of Wroughton in Swindon.

An elderly carer has warned that a massive hike of more than 900 per cent in some social care bills in West Sussex could force vulnerable people to cancel the help they desperately need. Sid Ward, a 73-year-old pensioner from Haywards Heath who is a full time carer to his disabled wife Kathleen, said: “For the last two years I have been paying £111.72p a month for two or sometimes one person to come in the morning and at night to help me. “But now I’ve received a letter from West Sussex County Council’s Financial Services Department telling me the cost will go up to £1084.20p a month – that’s £250.20 a week. I’m cancelling the help I get because I can’t afford it.”

{mosimage} A Hospital for people with learning disabilities, at the centre of an investigation into patient abuse, will close. The Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust, which runs Budock Hospital, near Falmouth, was criticised in a report for “widespread institutional abuse” of patients. The report, part of an inquiry by the Healthcare Commission and the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI), was published this month, describing years of abusive practices, “underlying problems that have never been addressed” and the failure of senior trust executives to face up to concerns.

Multiple sclerosis sufferers have been offered hope of a normal life after doctors pioneered a wonder drug treatment. A five-year study, due to be published in August’s Journal of Neurology, found that patients with the aggressive form of MS had a reduced relapse rate of 90% under the regime. The drastic reduction means that patients who would have faced bedridden lives will now be able to work and raise families uninterrupted.

Oxfordshire’s social services are creaking at the seams because of the NHS funding crisis, councillors claim. Conservative county councillors are set to complain to the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust that changes to its services are putting the social care department under extreme pressure. On Tuesday, members of the Tory-run council’s cabinet called for a halt to cuts in community-based NHS services. They were told that the knock-on effects meant the council had already spent £250,000 more on social care at this stage of the financial year than projected. It is almost certain this figure will more than double by the end of March next year as demand for council-run services grows due to NHS cuts.

John Reid wants to call in the army to deal with young offenders to “provide structure to their lives”, according to leaked internal Home Office emails. He also believes that offenders sentenced to community punishments should demonstrate their “penance and contrition” and be put in uniform so they can be seen to be repaying the community. The leaked emails reveal the new home secretary’s highly punitive agenda and the fact that he wants to go even further than the 24-point “get tough” criminal justice package he unveiled on Thursday.