The number of prisoners committing suicide has risen sharply due to record levels of overcrowding in jails in England and Wales, the chief inspector of prisons has said.

The leader of Oxfordshire County Council has branded Gordon Brown’s much heralded housing plans as “simplistic” and says that they will not have the effect of helping people on to the housing ladder.

Staff at one of the country’s best-performing youth services fear its good work could be undone when it switches to an integrated youth support model of working next year.

Partnerships delivering services, such as children’s trusts, often lack effective procedures for service users who want to complain, according to research published this week.

A Devon pensioner who is hoping to represent Britain in the 2008 Paralympics in Beijing is to front a new campaign promoting sheltered housing as an important option for elderly people.

A quarter of young offenders at a troubled privately-run child jail have been moved out and a new director appointed after official concern over the rising use of restraint by staff to control violent teenagers.

The graduates from the University of Southern California, which is based in the heart of Los Angeles, will be practising in the Housing and Community Care Department.

The NHS is failing people with adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, psychiatrists have said. There are only a few clinics across the UK that treat the condition – also known as ADHD – which affects up to 4% of adults.

One North East, a group that helps the children of alcoholics, has won the prestigious Maxie Richards Award.

A simple test to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease could be available within five years, scientists said yesterday.