The number of “bed blocking” patients in the Lothians fell marginally in July, according to new figures. There were 141 elderly patients stuck in hospital wards with nowhere else to go – down from 150 in June. However, this was still much higher than in April, when figures reached an all-time low of 89.
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Private care home providers in Aberdeen last night accused the council of putting dementia sufferers “in jeopardy” by refusing to reinstate essential funding.
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The man suspected of shooting his wife before turning the gun on himself at their home near Newry was a respected youth co-ordinator.
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A drive to recruit thousands more child carers and classroom assistants in Wales is to be launched. Children’s minister Jane Hutt said current staff would also be helped to improve skills and qualifications.
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A man was given an Asbo after he faked drug overdoses to stay in hospital, government fraud investigators say. Mark Smith, 33, from Newtown, Powys, is banned from hospitals except in a real emergency or with written permission.
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Daycare standards in England improved slightly over the past year, according to inspectors, but more than four in 10 children were still in childcare settings that were no better than satisfactory.
{mosimage}An Ofsted report published today reveals 57% of childcare providers inspected in 2006-7 were judged good or outstanding. It means that, of about half a million children being cared for in the places inspected, 285,000 received good or outstanding childcare, but for 215,000 care was only satisfactory or inadequate.
Inadequate providers are revisited by Ofsted inspectors, but satisfactory ones are also expected to improve. The proportion of providers overall found to be inadequate was 4%, the same as in 2005-6.
The education and care watchdog also identified a 6% rise in the proportion of providers offering good or outstanding early education, though the proportion of childminders judged to be good or better was lower by 6% than the previous year – a slide inspectors suggested could reflect the number of new, less experienced childminders visited in 2006-7.
Where establishments were providing government-funded early education for children aged three to four, 60% were judged good or outstanding.
The education offered in nurseries will be reviewed after a study by Durham University suggesting the government’s overhaul of early years education has made no difference to youngsters’ development and skills at the start of school.
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More than half of nurses would not report the abuse of an elderly person in their care, according to a survey published today.
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Thousands of prison officers in England and Wales have begun a strike in a protest over pay, the association representing them has said.
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It is one of the most natural actions in the world – a mother scoops up a baby to hold and comfort it in her arms. But, according to new research, cradling could help identify stress that may lead to postnatal depression.
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A nurse from Par has been struck off the nursing register, after admitting shutting a care home resident in her bedroom after she had been burned by a fire in the cushion of her electric chair.
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