Ministers were today urged to investigate the slaying of mental health charity worker Ashleigh Ewing.

As devoted foster parents, Vincent and Pauline Matherick have provided a stable family home for almost 30 vulnerable children.

Children as young as eight are to be protected from online sexual abuse in a new initiative by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).

As many as one in twenty people sees child sexual abuse images while surfing the internet, with more than a third of all sites showing the most extreme images, according to a report published today.

We constantly hear reports of poor quality social care in the UK, but when Harry Ferguson’s mother was terminally ill he was astonished by the compassion and professionalism of her nurses and social workers

The General Social Care Council’s statement of roles and tasks is the first official report on social work in England for nearly a generation. The 1983 Barclay Report couldn’t reach agreement and was largely ignored.

London will lose nearly £420m for social services under a government funding proposal, according to the organisation London Councils.

{mosimage}It said the government was considering scrapping a protection called damping, which keeps funding above a set level.

It said the cut would hit provision for young adults in areas such as mental health and helping the disabled.

A government spokesperson said it was consulting on phasing out damping and a decision will be made later this year.

London Councils said the fall in funding would hit 90% of London’s 32 boroughs and would mean the city would receive funding for just 68% of its social care expenditure.

It claims a collection of authorities in the North West, West Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber that are set to benefit from the scrapping of damping, were putting pressure on government to remove it.

London Councils chairman, Councillor Merrick Cockell, said: ‘If the government bows down to pressure and applies the raw funding formula without funding protection, it could have serious long-term implications for the future provision of social services for vulnerable adults throughout the capital.”

People who work with drug users are being given a helping hand through an online drugs awareness training programme.