More proof is needed that electronic personal health records are safe and effective, some doctors have said. Ministers are pushing ahead with plans to put personal medical records on a national electronic database, which patients can themselves access online.

Trade union bosses have hit out at plans to privatise home care services in Rochdale as the council is looking to employ a private company to provide long-term help to the elderly and infirm. But Unison fears that could put some of the most vulnerable members of the community at risk.

Delays in announcing Comprehensive Spending Review funding could see councils struggling to plan their children’s services. Local authorities had been expecting to find out funding levels for 2008-11 in October, but leaked documents show key areas of Government funding will not be announced until December.

Millions of pounds of lottery funding will be spent on environmental schemes to tackle youth crime and other social problems. The Big Lottery Fund, which distributes lottery cash, has announced £47 million worth of “green” social regeneration projects.

Serious concerns have been raised in a new report into the use of a London court’s cells during the prison overcrowding emergency this summer. The courts and prisons watchdogs criticised the use of “inadequate” cells to hold prisoners.

Older people are being left housebound and disabled by a lack of NHS foot-care services in England, Age Concern says. It cites Office of National Statistics figures from 2001 suggesting a third of over-65s cannot cut their own toe-nails and struggle to access NHS services.

Elderly people could be left without adequate care because changes to migration rules will create a “forced mass exodus” of thousands of overseas workers, an MP has warned. The new points-based system may prevent essential workers from renewing or gaining visas, according to the English Community Care Association, which represents residential homes.

{mosimage}The Philippine embassy has told the government that it will have a particular impact on its nationals, who make up around 25,000 of the senior carers in Britain. Around 10% to 15% of those cannot apply for settlement or permanent residence status because they have been here for less than five years.

Mark Pritchard, the Tory chairman of the all party group for the Philippines, said the changes could force the departure of thousands of Filipino workers. “Their contribution to the care sector is enormous,” he said. “The government have not thought through the consequences of this policy on care homes.

“No one is trying to overrule the government’s new points based system but it is sensible for this major change to be managed in a way that does not cause a staffing crisis. Giving Filipino staff a year’s grace to make arrangements for their return would also allow the care sector valuable time to make alternative staffing arrangements.”

He also questioned the logic of the government giving the Philippine government aid while cutting off remittances – which globally account for 10% of the Philippines’ gross domestic product.

Martin Green, chief executive of the ECCA, said he was “very concerned” by the changes, which will be phased in from early next year. “There is a real issue about getting appropriate staff in the care sector and a lot of shortages are certainly plugged by people from overseas. In the longer term it could mean there was a real problem recruiting staff with the required skills to deal with people who sometimes have very high levels of need,” he said.

The Royal College of Nursing is giving its members in England until mid-September to decide if they want to accept the government’s final pay deal. Some 95% of nurses had voted to go ahead with a ballot on industrial action over the original pay award.

An elderly man who sold his home to pay for a nursing home place is being evicted because his money has run out. Edwin Coglan, 78, of Weston-super-Mare, paid £40,000 in 2000 from the sale of his home to Summer Lane Care which charges £1,000 a month.

Too many people are being diagnosed with depression when all they are is unhappy, a leading psychiatrist says. Professor Gordon Parker claims the threshold for clinical depression is too low and risks treating normal emotional states as illness.