Advisory body the Children and Family Court Advisory and Support Service (Cafcass) has become bogged down by red tape and is “lurching from crisis to crisis”, according to damning evidence presented to the National Audit Office.

Patients will be given cash to purchase their own NHS care for the first time under a new Government scheme.

An adviser to Lord Laming during the Victoria Climbié inquiry has been appointed to lead Leeds City Council’s under-fire children’s services department.

Young people in care have a “high level of fatalism” and believe they have little control over their lives, according to a new Department for Education report.

The chair of the education and children’s social services inspectorate Ofsted Zenna Atkins has resigned, fuelling speculation that ministers plan significant changes at the organisation.

A survey by Laing & Buisson published today claims that local councils in England will provide care homes with on average just 0.5% more funding than last year. This is despite care home costs rising by an estimated 2.1%.

Council-run adoption services have been criticised for a series of blunders and delays in matching looked-after children with families.

The children’s minister Tim Loughton has told BASW he will press the Treasury to fund existing child protection services and any measures to emerge from Professor Eileen Munro’s review of child protection social work.