Computer-based therapy for milder mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety should be made available to any patients in England who could benefit from it.

An investigation is continuing into a serious sex attack on an elderly, bed-ridden stroke victim in her care home. A member of staff was carrying out routine checks at around 5.20am yesterday when she found a naked man “apparently raping” the 82-year-old woman, police said.

The Commission for Social Care Inspection today set out its ambitious plans for the two years from April 2007 to March 2009. After then an expected merger with the Healthcare Commission and Mental Health Act Commission will create a new health and adult social care regulator.
{mosimage}CSCI Chair Dame Denise Platt said: “At its best social care transforms lives. Disabled people can be supported to hold down jobs; older people can receive services – in their own homes or a growing range of residential settings – which maintain their health, well-being and overall quality of life; parents suffering from substance misuse or mental ill-health can be helped so their problems do not impact adversely on their children; and those who care for others can obtain invaluable respite and support.

“Many social care services deliver these outcomes but there are still areas of poor performance and sub standard services. Inspection and assessment, delivered well and economically, are vital components of the Government’s reform programme to secure public services which are of high quality and responsive to what people want.

“Rising expectations will quickly make even today’s good services seem inadequate, so the challenge is one of continuous improvement – with the regulator, CSCI, informing the public and assessing, encouraging and sometimes formally holding to account those who hold the keys to higher quality services, primarily those who run and provide them and those who commission them.”

Children who catch a heavy cold at key moments during their first year of life are at greater risk of developing asthma, researchers have found.

Jessica is just 11 but she has to cook, clean and care for her paralysed mother. And she’s not alone. There are more than 175,000 children who act as chief carers for their ill or disabled parents. Demands are growing for a public inquiry into why they get so little support.

The “great majority” of hospitals which were in serious deficit last year have improved their position, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt says. She told Sky’s Sunday Live that fewer than 10% of hospitals still had serious debts and the NHS overall would be “in balance”.