A dramatic increase in mental illness cases among cannabis users has intensified pressure on Labour to end its “soft” drugs policy.

Drug treatment in Swindon is undergoing an overhaul after the service failed national standards. Swindon Council has sacked former drug service suppliers while two new contractors have been brought in.

A Forest of Dean social worker who molested a teenage girl has been spared a prison sentence so he can care for his bedridden young wife.

Planning consent for a new care home to be built in Middlesbrough has been granted.

Kate McCann intends to quit her job as a GP and take up a new career in child welfare, it has emerged.

A care worker was stabbed to death doing a routine visit to a paranoid schizophrenic who just weeks earlier had turned up at Buckingham Palace to kill the Queen.

Four care agencies were reprimanded and their contracts put on hold by Notts County Council. The move meant no new work was offered to the private agencies, though they continued to work with existing clients.

More than 1,000 prison officers in England and Wales were found guilty of misconduct between 2000 and 2006 for offences including improper sexual relationships and endangering the safety of their jails, figures obtained by the Guardian reveal.

Two private equity firms are believed to be looking to dispose of controversial investments in children’s care homes.