Staff suspended from a Castlebeck care unit after footage shows patients being kicked, slapped and drenched with cold water

Social care minister asks regulator to investigate after BBC programme revealed systematic abuse at Winterbourne View unit in Bristol

Experts warn that care home provider could soon collapse into administration

The government has pledged to ensure “effective protection” is in place for residents of UK’s biggest care home provider, Southern Cross.

Directors of children’s services have called for the government to clarify the future of their role, in light of the Baby P Appeal Court case and many councils’ plans to merge the post with others.

The Government has ordered an urgent review into the “inhumane” abuse of people with learning disabilities at a residential hospital.

Frail elderly people will be left to suffer unless David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband can put aside their political differences to agree urgent reforms to the care system, an alliance of charities, think tanks and councils warns today.

Children will be endangered unless vetting and barring rules ensure that all adults in contact with them are checked whether they are supervised or not, a leading charity has warned.

Government proposals to transfer responsibility for commissioning health services for young people in secure children’s homes and secure training centres to the NHS have raised concerns.

Care services for adults and the elderly are at breaking point, various bodies have said in an open letter to the leaders of the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats.