A jury will resume its deliberations today in the trial of a former care home manager accused of murdering two elderly residents.

The Conservatives will repeal legislation to remove the obligation for local areas to set up children’s trusts and publish children and young people’s plans if they win the election, CYP Now can reveal.

The government has issued guidance to clarify the roles housing departments and social services should play in helping homeless 16 and 17-year-olds.

Palliative care for terminally ill children in England will get a £30m increase, the government has said. Half of the cash will help children’s hospices offer outreach services while the rest will go to the NHS, with a focus on providing community nurses.

A social worker who covered up a criminal conviction has escaped being struck off the social care register.

The owner of a Silloth care home has apologised to his elderly residents after inspectors said the care they were being given was not good enough.

Documents released by the courts have revealed that changes were made to an Ofsted report on the council at the centre of the Baby Peter case.

Martin Narey is not a man to shy away from controversy. The Whitehall mandarin turned charity chief has brought just as much blunt speaking to the issue of children in the care system as he did to prisons when he was head of that service in the 1990s.

She may have been sacked 16 months ago, but Sharon Shoesmith is not going to go without a fight. The former head of children’s services at Haringey Council is not only using the employment tribunal system to seek financial redress, but also the High Court to seek a judicial review on what she sees as the unfairness of her dismissal.

Sixteen people were abused or neglected in Cumbria’s old folks’ homes and day centres in the past year, The Cumberland News can reveal.