Care workers are expected to walk out on strike today after talks failed to resolve a row over pay. Bolton Council is to hold last-ditch negotiations aimed at averting the action over its plans to stop paying workers sleep-in allowances when they are on holiday or sick.

Two members of staff from Field House in Shepton Mallet were among Somerset Care staff honoured at a ceremony recognising long service, effort and commitment.

Care workers are to stage a 48-hour walk-out in a row over payments. More than 300 Unison members working with Bolton Council’s residential services unit, which looks after mentally ill or disabled people, are expected to go on strike from noon on Monday.

A multi-billion pound government organisation to prevent criminals re-offending and to protect the public is to be scrapped three years after it started. It is part of a shake-up at the Ministry of Justice aimed at preventing the new department gaining a reputation as a failure.

{mosimage}The proposals are in a “classified” document seen by The Times containing recommendations from an organisational review. Under the proposed new structure the National Offender Management Service (Noms) ceases to exist. Since 2004, the service has spent £2.6 billion. In the past two years it spent more than £5 million on consultants. One Whitehall source said: “God knows where all the money has gone.”

Last month it emerged that there was a £33 million cash shortfall on a Noms computer system after £155 million had been spent and that ministers had halted work pending an emergency review. The system was to underpin the strategy of managing offenders from conviction through prison sentence to supervision by the probation service on their release.

It would have brought together more than 200 disparate databases to allow staff to share records. The project was a radical attempt to reduce stubbornly high reoffending rates.

Under the system, a probation officer would have responsibility for the rehabilitation needs of offenders such as drug treatment or skills training, irrespective of whether the offender was in jail or on a community punishment.

Tens of thousands of patients with MS could benefit from the revolutionary treatment if the tests taking place at the Frenchay hospital, near Bristol, are successful.

Immigration from Eastern Europe has brought a supply of women deceived into thinking good jobs await them. Instead they are sold to vice gangs for £500 and forced into prostitution. An investigation by The Times has found that one rural force has identified 80 brothels this year

Health inspectors are to mount spot checks on NHS hospitals after finding hundreds of older people being treated without dignity or adequate privacy on wards across England.

The former children’s minister Margaret Hodge told a jury yesterday that she was “shocked and distressed” when two members of Fathers4Justice handcuffed her as she spoke at a conference in Manchester.

The collapse of state-subsidised home help has pushed up the number of people going into care homes, figures revealed yesterday.

{mosimage}And the withdrawal of free mealsonwheels and help with washing, dressing and shopping means the trend will accelerate, says an expert report.

The projections from care industry analysts Laing and Buisson back widespread predictions that many more people will be unable to escape ending their lives in care homes. Help the Aged spokesman Annie Stevenson said: “We and a lot of other people have been predicting this for a long time. The crisis is now upon us.

“People need to think now about how they are going to pay for help in their old age.

“Otherwise they will be living in care homes and likely to have to sell their own homes to pay the bills.’ Gordon Lishman of Age Concern said: “Failure to invest in social care services is short-sighted.

“Without practical help older people can end up needing higher levels of care – including going into a care home.”

Hospitals and care homes are to face a major inquiry into the way frail elderly people are allowed to go hungry.