Urgent improvements have been called for at a Merstham nursing home after a watchdog uncovered failings there including residents wearing dirty clothes, having unwashed hair and long, dirty fingernails.

MORE needs to be done to protect former Winterbourne View residents, the government was told yesterday.

A CARE home for elderly people with learning difficulties near Winchester is to close. Compton House, in Otterbourne Road, Compton, will shut later this month after decades of service.

FORMAL complaints about the standard of care provided to vulnerable and elderly residents have increased by seven per cent in a year – but the true number of concerns is still likely to be “much higher.”

Health minister Norman Lamb has said there is “no excuse” for the further mistreatment of patients moved from failed care home Winterbourne View.

A new day centre for adults with learning disabilities is opening in Lincoln. Busy Days is being set up by Pat Andrewartha, 58, of Lincoln after her sister, who attended Ancaster Day Centre, in Boundary Street, Lincoln, lost her day care.

Ed Miliband is expected to announce he is launching a mental health taskforce today and call for more integration between health and social care.

The Winterbourne View scandal has shown the need for a new offence of “corporate wilful neglect” to prosecute care home-owners for allowing abuse to go on behind closed doors, the former care minister has said.

In the wake of the Jimmy Savile case and other ‘household names’ being investigated for alleged sexual abuse, the Education Secretary Michael Gove has said that he wants the brightest graduates to go into social services.

TWENTY-FIVE new social workers will be recruited by Worcestershire County Council as part of the biggest ever shake-up of children’s services.