The rise in the number of elderly people is set to create a major demand for care services. North Yorkshire County Council has said older people made up 18% of the population on its patch in 2001, but the figure is set to rise to 25% by 2020.

The head teacher of a Lancashire school has been sacked following allegations she employed a convicted sex offender to work on the school’s website. Kathleen Tyson, who has been the head at Holy Trinity Primary School in Darwen for two years, was suspended in January while an inquiry took place.

Improvements in technology could soon see aspects of social care being performed by robotics within a service user’s home, according to the British Computer Society (BCS).

The number of children aged 11 to 15 who smoked at least one cigarette a week has remained unchanged since 2003. And girls are more likely than boys to be smokers, the research claimed. Government targets aim to reduce smoking among this age group to 9% or less by 2010.

Bedfordshire-based MacIntyre Housing Association has taken over the management of eight small, staffed homes for people with learning disabilities from Buckinghamshire County Council and Buckinghamshire Primary Care Trust.

Intellect, the UK trade association for the IT, telecoms and electronics industries, is calling on the government to remove barriers to joined-up social and health care services, to help practitioners and improve care.

The ill-treatment or wilful neglect by a carer of a person lacking mental capacity will now be a criminal offence under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (the Act), punishable by a fine or a prison sentence of up to five years or both.