Almost a third of nurses – some 4,000 – had not found jobs six months after qualifying last year, according to official statistics.

{mosimage}More than half of physiotherapists and one in five midwives were also still unemployed half a year after completing their studies, the Department of Health admits.

Professional bodies claimed taxpayers’ money is being wasted on training staff who then cannot find work in the NHS, and blamed Government squeezes on funding which lead to local healthcare trusts cutting junior healthcare positions.

At least 12,000 nurses qualified in May or September last year. But the Department of Health has admitted that only 69% had found jobs by March this year. Among physiotherapists, only 48 per cent managed to find jobs after finishing their training.

The Royal College of Midwives estimates 3,000 more midwives are needed but about 20% of newly qualified midwives failed to find work last year.

A Royal College of Nursing spokesman said: “It is a big problem. Entry-level jobs, for which newly qualified nurses apply, have been frozen because trusts have been told to reduce their deficits. “We think trusts need to be given more time and flexibility to manage their deficits as otherwise it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

An NHS manager was given a payoff of £480,000 because he could not find another job after a government-ordered reorganisation.

The parents of a 16-month-old girl who choked to death announced plans to sue the owners of her nursery yesterday after an inquest found the child was the victim there of “unlawful killing by gross negligence manslaughter”.

Local safeguarding children boards across England are playing an operational rather than strategic role, according to a Government report. The Department for Education and Skills’ report Local Safeguarding Children Boards: A Review of Progress, examines how the boards progressed between September and December 2006.

The Government has missed an historic opportunity to achieve a modern and humane new Mental Health Act, but has made important concessions to protect patients and their families from abuse and neglect, the Mental Health Alliance has said.

Health minister Ivan Lewis has pledged that the government will act upon the findings of a highly critical report into dementia care. According to the National Audit Office (NAO), there are “significant gaps” in the way Britain’s health services deal with dementia patients.

The Government has revealed a shake up of the youth justice system to put a greater emphasis on community sentencing. The plans, unveiled last week in the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, include the creation of a youth rehabilitation order, which brings together a number of existing community sentences.

The Government’s commitment to children’s safety is being backed with a grant of £30 million to the NSPCC to make sure every child has someone to call on for help and advice, the newly formed Department for Children, Schools and Families announced today.

{mosimage}The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) will get £30M over the next four years to strengthen its ChildLine Service – the free helpline for children and young people in the UK. As part of the partnership with the Government the NSPCC will also be putting more money into its helplines. The money will also help expand the NSPCC’s other helpline services, including those provided online, and the NSPCC Child Protection Helpline which allows adults to report concerns. In future children will also be able to access services via text message.

Ed Balls, the newly appointed Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, said: “Children are our most precious resource and we want to give them the best possible start in life. We can’t do that unless they are safe.

“One of my priorities as head of the new department for Children, Schools and Families is to make sure we help the most vulnerable – including those whose childhood is being ruined by abuse or bullying. That’s why I’m delighted to say we are putting £30M into the NSPCC’s vital services.”

Beverley Hughes, Minister of State at the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), said: “The money we are announcing today will allow the NSPCC to expand their services significantly and improve them so that more children can be given the advice and help that can be so important. We all know that children are most familiar and comfortable using modern methods of communications – for example on-line or text messages – and this funding will help the NSPCC develop this.”