Tens of thousands of migrants are working with vulnerable elderly people in care homes without undergoing full criminal record checks, The Times has learnt.

Senior police officers have alerted Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, to the scale of the problem in a report detailing the impact on the UK of migration from Eastern Europe. The introduction of a watchdog next year to vet care workers will not address the problem, they add.

It is estimated that about 400,000 elderly people are being looked after in care homes. This figure is expected to reach 750,000 by 2031 as more and more people live longer. Many of the homes would be unable to operate without employing foreign workers, as British workers are unwilling to take the jobs.

Ms Smith has been told that tens of thousands of migrants are being employed in care homes and other areas of social care without being fully checked because the authorities cannot access foreign criminal records.

The mother of Victoria Climbie, who was tortured and murdered in 2000, says she is “shocked” that lessons from the case have still not been learned.

The cost of caring for people with mental health disorders is expected to spiral, a report says. This is due to a predicted rise in the number of people in England with dementia, the King’s Fund study argues.

Children in divorce and separation cases are being left at risk of abuse because of serious failings by social workers dealing with their cases, according to a watchdog.

A report seen by The Times discloses how a backlog of cases is leaving children vulnerable, particularly in family breakdowns involving domestic violence and abuse.

An Ofsted inspection of the service, set up to to ensure that children’s views were represented in family courts, uncovered a catalogue of failings in the South East region. It found a waiting list of 150 cases, delays of six months for some families, inadequate assessments of the impact of domestic violence in most cases and a failure to refer cases to local authorities where there were concerns for the child’s welfare.

A separate report identified “serious failings” in another part of the Children and Family Court Advisory Support Service (Cafcass) in the East Midlands region in February.

People of South Asian origin with mental health problems are missing out on treatment, the BBC has been told. Experts warn it is contributing to the high suicide rate among Asian women.

The chairman of one NHS Trust says he blames “institutional racism” for the “lack of engagement” with the South Asian community. And Lord Kamlesh Patel, of the Mental Health Act Commission, warned the “hidden plague” would grow if the problem was not tackled urgently.

Antony Sheehan, chief executive of Leicestershire NHS Trust, said government attempts to improve mental health services for the South Asian community had not worked.

He added: “We really should acknowledge the impact of institutional racism in mental health and wider health and social care services, in the same way it is recognised in the criminal justice system.

There are now so many Muslims at one of Britain’s top-security jails that religious extremists have been able to form gangs inside that staff are ill-equipped to deal with, according to a confidential report.