Children as young as eight or nine are using cannabis, experts warn. Drugs charities are increasingly starting up children’s units – but have been shocked to find users of primary-school age. One even treated a child of six.

MPs and pressure groups yesterday rounded on ITV after it issued a “clarification” over a landmark documentary in which a man with Alzheimer’s was filmed as he supposedly passed away.

{mosimage}In fact, the network admitted yesterday that the man died two and a half days later, and not while the cameras were still rolling.

Paul Watson, the acclaimed documentary maker at the centre of the latest row, last night defended the film, saying he never intended to imply the footage portrayed the exact moment of death. But ITV’s admission was immediately seized on as further evidence that TV must get its house in order.

“We are very disappointed to learn that yet another documentary appears to have been doctored,” said the shadow culture minister, Ed Vaizey. “I hope this is now the final lesson to be learned by production companies who often make good programmes that are undermined by misleading publicity campaigns.”

With broadcasters having declared zero tolerance on misleading viewers in the wake of the row over publicity footage for BBC1’s A Year with the Queen and a series of other incidents, ITV’s “clarification” was the latest example of their jittery disposition.

Last week, the broadcaster faced criticism for proposing to show the final moments of Alzheimer’s sufferer Malcolm Pointon as part of a moving documentary by Watson that tracks the debilitating effect of the disease over 11 years.

It defended scenes in which Mr Pointon is surrounded by his family as he slowly loses consciousness. His widow, Barbara Pointon, also appeared on the radio and in newspapers including the Guardian defending the decision.

Children born with the help of donated sperm or eggs should have the fact recorded on their birth certificates, a group of MPs and peers has suggested.

Mental health patients’ care is being threatened by nursing staff shortages, nurses say. A poll of 600 mental health nurses by the Royal College of Nursing found nearly half thought low staffing compromised care once a week.

Conservative leader David Cameron has attacked the “pupil referral units” used to teach disruptive youngsters as expensive and ineffective.

Two healthcare watchdogs have praised the improvements in mental healthcare, but call for greater involvement of people who use the services in decisions about their own care. The Healthcare Commission

Awarding body ASET has just added two new NVQs to its rapidly expanding Health & Social Care Portfolio. ASET Level 2 NVQ in Support Services in Health Care and ASET Level 4 NVQ for Registered Managers (Adults) are now available for Centres.

A 17-year-old girl and two men have been jailed for “bullying to death” a vulnerable man in Cornwall. Steven Hoskin, 38, of St Austell, was tortured and then taken to a viaduct and forced to hang from railings.

Drinking just one pint of beer or a large glass of wine every day increases your risk of developing bowel cancer by 10 per cent, experts have said. Those who drink three to four units a day increased their risk of developing bowel cancer by up to a quarter, research has found.

Under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (the DDA) a person has a disability if: “…he has a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long-term effect on his ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.”