Although political attitudes to cannabis use have softened over the past decade, more and more evidence has emerged linking the drug to serious mental illnesses.

Downing Street is pushing for Louise Casey, Tony Blair’s “respect tsar”, to take over the job of chair of the youth justice board left vacant last month by the resignation of Rod Morgan.

A woman of 85 was left to die after falling down a flight of stairs at a care home because staff were banned from dialling 999. Mary Carty fractured her spine and suffered a serious head wound when she tumbled down a staircase at a private residential home.

Victims of domestic violence will be able to flee to a haven in their own homes under plans to fit them with safe rooms. The government has told all local authorities they must arrange for one room in the family home to be fitted with reinforced doors, mortice locks and alarms which link straight to the police if victims ask for it.

Children want a good home that is safe and to be treated as individuals, not as ‘children in care’, according to a report out today. In his consultation about the Government’s proposals in the Green Paper ‘Care Matters’, the Children’s Rights Director for England was told that the top promise children want councils to make to them is that they will have a good and safe home.

Newly qualified nurses desperate for a job are working for less than the minimum wage, it emerged today. The County Durham and Darlington NHS foundation trust and North Tees and the Hartlepool NHS trust are offering “honorary” training contracts to some nurses unable to secure other work.

The scale of the cash crisis faced by Wirral’s adult social services department was exposed at a full council meeting this week. Harsh realisations dawned upon councillors who admitted to “rationing resources” in order to cope with steep cuts.

New research published today by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) has revealed that many schools fail to listen to advice from disabled children or their parents about what helps them at school and what helps in accessing the curriculum.