Dementia sufferers across North Yorkshire are predicted to soar in numbers by 50 per cent over the next 14 years, according to new figures. Research by the Alzheimer’s Society has suggested that by 2021, there will be 12,699 people across the county with this kind of illness – a huge rise from the 8,456 in estimated sufferers today.

Community treatment orders (CTOs) do little to reduce arrests, hospital readmission rates or bed days in patients with mental illness, research has shown.

The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) is calling for an urgent closing of a legal loophole which fails to offer adequate human rights protection to disabled or older people if their local authority places them in a privately owned care home.

The English Community Care Association (ECCA), the leading representative body for independent care homes, has responded to the House of Lords ruling on human rights for older people. Martin Green, Chief Executive of ECCA, says:

Campaigners are challenging the nation to “dare to care” for millions of children living in poverty in the UK as part of a major volunteer recruitment drive. A coalition of more than 70 organisations, headed by the Campaign to End Child Poverty and volunteering charity CSV, aims to sign up 35,000 people to work with vulnerable youngsters from deprived backgrounds.

The Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) has welcomed the publication of the DfES’ Care Matters White Paper which focuses on improving the lives of children in care. Michael Leadbetter, Chair of the CWDC, comments:

Foster carers who smoke will be banned from looking after children under the age of five, a charity has proposed. The UK’s leading fostering group is advising local authorities to introduce the policy on the day the English smoking ban comes into force on 1 July.