A RESHUFFLE in children’s health services is due to begin in April.

The budget’s package of measures for families and children has been welcomed as a important step towards the government’s 2010 target of halving child poverty. But more investment is vital if that target is to be met, say anti-poverty groups.

Around 20 jobs are up for grabs with a service which is aimed at helping people with learning difficulties live independent lives.The scheme will operate in the Staffordshire Moorlands and Newcastle areas and could literally change the lives of those involved.

Two council care homes for elderly residents are to be closed within the next four months. Kniveden Hall, in Leek, and Lightwood, in Cheadle, are closing as part of the county council’s Changing Lives programme.

A SHELTERED housing boss has admitted conning a disabled resident out of thousands of pounds.

Young people are unlikely to benefit from a big inheritance from their parents who will need the money to pay for care in their old age, research showed today.

Two care workers have been suspended after being accused of falsely logging reports that they visited an 83-year-old woman at home – when she was said to be in hospital.

Britain’s 190,000 registered charities were thrown a £90m-a-year lifeline thanks to the chancellor’s last-minute decision to maintain current rates of tax relief on Gift Aid donations.

These will be maintained for at least the next three years, instead of being cut in line with the new lower basic rate of tax.

Gift Aid boosts charitable donations because the government adds back the basic rate of income tax paid by donors.

Charities had braced themselves for a loss in revenue. With a 22% rate, each £100 donated becomes £128, but with a 20% rate, £100 becomes £125.

The chancellor says charities can claim “transitional relief” for three years, allowing them to retain the 22% relief rate.

John Low, chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, which helps individuals donate in a tax-efficient way, said: “This is fantastic news for charities. It is a huge relief as we feared charities were going to lose in excess of £90m a year when the basic rate of tax comes down next month.

Carers faked a log claiming they had continued to check an elderly woman in her home for a week after she had been admitted to hospital, it was alleged yesterday.

Wilhelmina Dart, 83, was rushed to hospital by her daughter after she found her on the floor having suffered a stroke.

Not realising Dart was in hospital, carers, who were paid to spend half an hour with her on weekdays, let themselves into her home and signed the log saying they had seen and checked her, it was claimed. Had they gone upstairs they would have realised she was not there.

Dart’s daughter, Patricia Handford, said yesterday that had she not visited her mother, Dart could have lain on the floor for more than a week. “It is disgraceful,” she said. “I wonder how often this has happened all around the country?”

Two carers have been suspended while the Devon agency that employs them, 1st React Healthcare, investigates. Devon county council and the Commission for Social Care Inspection have been informed.

The hardest part of caring for loved ones with dementia is not the everyday practical challenge, but rather the emotional impact of losing the patients’ support and companionship as the disease robs them of their faculties, according to new research.