TWO social services initiatives in Thurrock have been short listed in the finals of the Skills for Care Accolades.

A Bridgwater care home manager who stole £115,000 from residents has been jailed for two years.

Cumbersome ICT systems are making social work fragmented and bureaucratic, an article in the Journal of Social Policy has said.

PLANS to build a new £28million “care village” for the elderly have been put on hold because of the recession.

Four in 10 social workers feel their caseload is unmanageable and two-thirds say it has increased in the past 12 months, a survey has found.

Nottinghamshire County Council has said it is looking to make about 3,000 redundancies over the next three years.

IT was money that was meant to support vulnerable youngsters at a children’s home in Winchester. But Bronte Smith used it to buy designer clothes, underwear and a widescreen television.

At the Local Government Group annual conference last month, The MJ and iMPOWER gathered a group of chief executives, members and other senior local government officers together to ask them: ‘With the change in the landscape of children’s services, even more pronounced since the Baby P case, where do we go now with children’s social services?’

SOCIAL workers say they did not receive any tip-offs that the little girl was in any danger before she was admitted to hospital.

IF the public are asked to pay more for social care, then a simpler and fairer system is the least they should expect.