Childcare providers are calling for the continuation of funding for the Neighbourhood Nurseries Initiative after a report has proved its effectiveness. The initiative aims to expand daycare services in the most deprived 20 per cent of areas in England.

Parents are being asked to stay alert after a batch of potentially fatal prescription drugs shaped like lollipops were stolen. Officers are particularly concerned in case the drugs, stolen from a house on Salisbury Street, Southport, end up in the hands of children.

One of the biggest legal aid providers in London is among a number of law firms that have refused to sign a contract which alters pay by hourly rates to a system of fixed fees.

From 1 April 2007, responsibility for the regulation and inspection of most children’s social care services in England moved from the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) to the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills – the new Ofsted. 

With Easter just a few days away, The Stroke Association has good news for all chocolate lovers – a few squares of dark chocolate can help to reduce the risk of stroke.

Vulnerable patients could ‘slip through the net’ if district nursing numbers continue to fall, nursing unions have claimed. The warning comes in light of a Local Government Association survey of 95 councils, which revealed more than one in five had seen a reduction in district nursing capacity.