A new national voluntary sector umbrella body that claims it will be the biggest representative of users of health and social care services across the UK held its inaugural conference this week in a bid to sign up members and decide which issues to address.

The struggle for funding facing charities working with vulnerable and disenfranchised women speaks volumes about the crisis facing hundreds of thousands of single-issue voluntary groups working with those falling through the gaps in social care provision across the UK.

The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and the Department of Health have endorsed a new guide aimed at helping Local Authorities boost their overall performance in the care of blind and partially sighted adults.

STAFF have been suspended and an investigation launched at a Fylde coast care home. Police and council bosses are probing allegations about standards of care at the council-run Milbanke Care Home, in Station Road, Kirkham.

A pensioner killed his wife of almost 60 years in an act of mercy after social services abandoned him to care for her alone, a court heard yesterday.

Local authorities must appoint specific teams to help adults with autism, a major charity will demand.

England’s director of mental health care today called for tougher standards for secure hospitals after it emerged that at least 116 mentally ill criminals escaped last year, more than 20 times the rate of escapes by offenders held in prison.