The State has failed to protect six vulnerable children who suffered at the hands of parents, the Children’s Minister has admitted.

The chancellor’s announcement of a 6.9% cut in funding for Northern Ireland, announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review last week, has been criticised by the Northern Ireland Association of Social Workers (NIASW), which has called on the Northern Ireland government to do everything it can to protect services for vulnerable adults and children.

Last year 800 children in Ireland sought emergency accommodation. Two-hundred of these children were under the ago of 12.

Social workers who forcibly removed three children from their mother acted unlawfully, the High Court has ruled.

An investigation into the case handling of two notorious paedophile brothers has been passed to independent experts, the health minister has announced.

The Northern Ireland Association of Social Workers (NIASW) has written to the Stormont government to offer a stark warning that ‘if further cuts are made to frontline social work services the most vulnerable people in our society will suffer and some will die’.

UK parents with autistic children are missing out on the support they are required to receive from social services, it has been claimed.

SOCIAL workers who handled the case of two paedophile brothers who controversially returned to live in the village where they committed abuse should not be “hung out to dry”, the health minister insisted yesterday.

Autism carers are at “breaking point,” a leading charity says, calling on a Department of Health audit of families who are waiting for a carer’s assessment.

Health Minister Michael McGimpsey today officially opened the new premises for the National Autistic Society (NAS) Northern Ireland and launched their Family Support Programmes 2010-2011.