There is an urgent need for better care for older people, a national charity has said. Commenting as the appointment of a new care minister was announced by the coalition government, Counsel and Care said there needs to be sweeping reform of the care system.

The new government’s hardliner welfare team strikes fear in mental health service users and disabled people writes Peter Beresford.

Researchers from the University of the West England are calling for changes to the UK residential home care system to ensure older people have a ‘home for life’ and are not pushed out to hospitals or nursing homes unnecessarily.

More than a third of social workers and police officers say they have felt powerless to intervene in suspected cases of child neglect, research reveals

Two social workers who have admitted they failed to protect Baby P from his abusers will be free to work with vulnerable children within months.

Four-year-old twins taken from social workers by their mother have been found safe and well, Lincolnshire police said today.

A social worker who failed to spot the abuse of a toddler at her Carlisle home was not experienced or qualified enough to deal with the case, a report has revealed.