A Belfast home help firm has been acquired by one of the UK’s biggest domiciliary care businesses.

Northern Ireland health minister Michael McGimpsey has appointed Elizabeth Kerr as chair of the Northern Ireland Social Care Council (NISCC).

Michael McGimpsey has backed a senior health official’s view that up to 4,000 jobs would go in the health service if Stormont’s draft budget is approved.

More than 100 people are awaiting home care in the Western Health Trust area.

The National Lottery has donated £10m to help fight alcohol abuse in Northern Ireland.

All social care workers in Northern Ireland will have to be registered according to new plans outlined by Social Services Minister, Michael McGimpsey.

At least ten vulnerable children – some of them babies – known to social services have died in Northern Ireland since 2003.

Autism services in Northern Ireland are to receive a £100,000 funding boost, the Health Minister has announced.

An east Belfast housing scheme for people with dementia has won an international award for the quality of its services.

Absenteeism within Northern Ireland councils is costing more than £16 million a year. The average employee is off for more than 12 days a year on top of holidays, with almost 122,000 working days lost across the region’s 26 councils due to sickness, stress, depression and a range of other personal problems.