More needs to be done to protect vulnerable adults in Cornwall, according to a draft report. The findings by the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) follow an abuse scandal at Budock Hospital and the murder of Steven Hoskin in 2006.

CSCI said while Cornwall County Council had made some improvements, there remained a number of areas of concern, including assessments of need.

The council has refused to comment on the findings.

Mencap spokesman Reg Broad said the inspectors’ findings were fair but also devastating.

“I’m sad, because it’s a fair length of time since the last CSCI report and I’d hoped we would have moved on,” he told BBC News.

A serious case review by the Cornwall Adult Protection Committee in December said Mr Hoskin had been failed by every part of the social system.

A robotic dog could be the answer to staving off loneliness for people in care homes who can not have a real pet, new research has shown.

Police have discovered a third “cellar of torture” at the Jersey care home where children are said to have been abused and raped.

Grandparents are to be given help to care for the offspring of their drug-addicted children as part of the Government’s ten-year drug strategy announced yesterday.