A judge has been accused of giving paedophiles a licence to offend after he refused to send a serial child sex attacker to jail. Michael Porter, 38, used his trusted position as a ministerial servant in the Jehovah’s Witnesses to prey on young boys in Clevedon, Somerset, over a 14-year period.

Gordon Brown has promised “intensive” action to tackle gang violence involving guns and knives. The prime minister said there would be “tougher enforcement” of the law in areas with a gang violence problem.

Housing associations are making full use of their tools and powers in responding to anti-social behaviour (ASB), according to new Housing Corporation research.

The UK needs to boost stroke services quickly – or remain the worst in western Europe, says a leading doctor. Professor Hugh Markus, of London’s St George’s Medical School, said care was poorly organised, the British Medical Journal reported.

Two teenage boys have been arrested on suspicion of the murder of an 11-year-old boy who was shot dead on his way home from playing football.

We have lift off! For the first time in England a picture of employment in the social care sector, taking in workforce development, skills training and qualifications, funding and career pathways, is obtainable online to the industry.

Record numbers of young children are being removed from their parents and adopted unjustly because of government targets and the “secrecy” of the family courts, it has been claimed. Campaigners say there are now more than 100 cases of possible miscarriages of justice where children have been forcibly adopted.

{mosimage}The figures, revealed in BBC Radio 4’s Face the Facts programme, claims the number of parents in England who have had to give up their children, despite insufficient evidence they were causing them harm, has now hit record levels. It says 1,300 babies under a month old are being adopted every year, up from 500 when the government came into power in 1997.

Social workers told the BBC programme that they were being put under immense pressure to meet the government adoption targets set back in 2000. And lawyers have claimed that parents were not being given a proper chance to challenge adoptions because of the time limit placed on appeals and the secrecy within the family courts.

Family law solicitor Sarah Harman said: “Secrecy breeds bad practice, it breeds suspicion. It feeds parents’ sense of injustice when they have their children removed that they’re not able to talk about it. They’re not able to air their grievances. Children have been removed from their families unjustly. There’s no two ways about that.”

A social work manager with 25 years’ experience in child protection said parents had little chance of getting a hearing and overturning a decision made by the authorities. The manager told the BBC: “People will find that their children have been removed and freed for adoption without them having had a proper chance to defend themselves and their families and their children.”

A girl who suffers from cerebral palsy has been left heartbroken after being promised she would be taken to a christening – only for her care provider to cancel due to staffing issues.

David Cameron called yesterday for action to confront the growing “anarchy in parts of the UK” and for magistrates’ maximum sentencing powers to be doubled to 12 months.

{mosimage}In a wide-ranging speech, made only hours before an 11-year-old was shot dead while playing football outside a Liverpool pub by what appeared to be a youth on a BMX bike, the Conservative leader decried the “rising tide of youth violence and antisocial behaviour”.

He said he wanted to see a wider use of the power that courts already have to ban young offenders from holding or applying for a driving licence.

“Common sense suggests that with young people you need to hit them where it hurts: in their lifestyle and their aspirations…I want to see this measure more widely used – and I don’t believe it should only be targeted at driving-related offences, as the government guidance suggests,” said Mr Cameron.

“I’d like to see judges and magistrates tell a 15-year-old boy convicted of buying alcohol or causing a disturbance that the next time he appears in court he’ll have his driving licence delayed. And then I’d like that boy to tell his friends what the judge said.”

Some older people are being stranded in their homes where they are unable to perform basic tasks and look after themselves, a charity has warned today. Help the Aged claims some elderly people cannot bathe properly, putting their health and wellbeing at risk.

{mosimage}Its research revealed that one in ten older people find it difficult to have a bath or shower in their own home and one in five struggles to use their stairs.

The charity is calling on the government to help older generations lead a more integrated approach to providing social care services and low level housing support.

An improved national network of ‘handyperson’ services could ensure people are able to remain in their homes for longer by installing items such as rails in their showers.

At present over 200 handyperson services operate in the whole of England. If steps are not taken to help older people, the Help the Aged believes the NHS will face a greater burden on its services.

“When older people struggle with bathing it can have a detrimental effect on their health and wellbeing, putting additional pressure on an already creaking health and care system,” said Joe Oldman, senior housing policy adviser at Help the Aged.