The government’s new programme of personalised public services could see NHS patients being given a budget to buy their own care and parents the money to hire their own teachers.

The boss of the Jersey care “home of horror” was a paedophile who raped his own foster daughter, according to sensational new claims.

More than 78,000 prisoners in the last four years have been freed without a home to go to, figures show.

Adults with learning difficulties are subjected to “abusive and degrading treatment”, neglect and carelessness in healthcare centres and residential homes in the UK, a report has warned.

Sheltered accommodation could soon be built on the site of a care home set for closure.

A High Court judge who condemned Nottingham City Council for unlawfully taking a teenage mother’s newborn baby from her has called for an urgent review of training and management of social workers and hospital staff.

Police are investigating almost 1,400 sex offenders living within a 20-mile radius of the home of missing schoolgirl Shannon Matthews as her mother insists she is still alive.

Karen Matthews today denied that her daughter had run away and said something “sinister” must have happened to her to prevent her returning home.

The nine-year-old vanished more than a fortnight ago, but a huge police search has failed to find any trace of her.

Detectives have now turned their attention to the 1,387 convicted sex offenders who live within half an hour’s drive of the family home in Dewsbury Moor, West Yorkshire.

Hundreds have already been questioned, but police have admitted they have few leads to go on.

Mrs Matthews, however, told GMTV that she remained “convinced” her daughter was still alive.

She said: “Wherever she is she has to be frightened. It’s breaking everyone’s hearts in the streets. They want her back in her own environment.

“I don’t think she has run away, I think something sinister has happened. I’m convinced she is still alive. I know she is.”