Social services chiefs in Norfolk last night insisted that home care support for thousands of elderly people is not being run down ahead of controversial privatisation plans. Currently around 6,000 people a week receive a visit from a carer offering a range of help and support from feeding, bathing, dressing and lifting.

Health secretary Patricia Hewitt launched ‘Healthy business: a guide to social enterprise in health and social care’ today, following extensive research by a joint team from the Social Enterprise Coalition and industry legal specialists Hempsons.

The government will probably miss its goal of halving child poverty by 2010, official figures are set to reveal. Statistics are expected to show the aim of reducing the number of children in poverty to 1.5 million will not be met.

{mosimage}The government hopes the launch of a new £150m child poverty strategy, which includes a programme to get parents into employment, will help.
Charity Save the Children said the target is slipping out of reach and wants more urgency from ministers.

There are fears that the target of eradicating child poverty in the UK by 2020 will be unachievable.
Under the “New Deal for Families”, for the first time all applicants at Job Centres will be asked whether or not they have children. The government says advisers can then consider the applicant’s need for help with looking after their family.

In last week’s Budget, Chancellor Gordon Brown announced increases in benefits and tax credits aimed at lifting more than 200,000 children out of poverty. Save the Children’s UK director Colette Marshall said: “This vital target is slipping dangerously out of reach.”

Children with extreme, and sometimes very complex needs are being placed in single-place children’s homes without a clear idea of the impact that these placements have on those individuals, says a new report by CSCI, the social care watchdog for England.

{mosimage}Many of these children may have emotional or behavioural difficulties, learning disabilities and mental health problems. They may display challenging behaviour and may be difficult to control.

The new report: One-person children’s homes: a positive choice or last resort? questions whether local councils have thought enough about the outcomes for children who are placed in these homes.

CSCI Chair Dame Denise Platt said: “We don’t know enough about how children respond to living on their own in these one place children’s homes. While the overall number of these homes is still relatively small, there has been a growth in their number in recent years.

“It may well be convenient for local councils to place children with complex needs in these homes, but the impact on the children who live there is still unclear. These homes can be located a long way away from the child’s home community; and they are extremely expensive to run with fees between £4,000 to £6,000 per week. Are the councils who place children in these homes, or the children themselves, getting a good deal?”

Early surgical abortions could be carried out by nurses, according to a new interpretation of the law. Experts said an analysis of the 1967 Abortion Act and subsequent case law showed it would be legal and would help improve access to abortion services.

Some 20 children in the care of social services in the West Midlands have recently disappeared, probably into the sex trafficking trade, a charity says. The children, in Coventry, Birmingham and Solihull, were among 32 young people identified in a recent count as being potential sex or labour slaves.