Health and social care services in North Somerset are to be integrated to contain costs and improve efficiency.

Hundreds of thousands of elderly and disabled people face cuts to their support and assistance this year as councils struggle to find new savings of £1bn from social-care budgets, an investigation by The Independent has established.

In many ways, this is perhaps the worst possible time to be a director of adult social care. For one thing, councils are having to bear the brunt of the government’s spending cuts.

There will be no “pot of gold” to answer the prayers of councils struggling to look after the elderly, according to social care chiefs.

With a record 40,000 people taking the apprenticeship route into adult social care last year, it’s now a serious career path option

There has been a 60 per cent increase in the number of children put on the child protection register in England since 2006.