More than 150 children placed in care in the South East have vanished in the last three years. According to figures obtained by BBC South East Today 65 children who arrived at Gatwick Airport in Sussex on their own since 2004 have disappeared.

{mosimage}The figures released after a Freedom of Information request also show that 69 vanished from Kent and 27 from Surrey. Social workers say they are doing all they can but campaigners say they fear the children are being trafficked. They said more must be done to stop the missing youngsters being forced into domestic slavery and prostitution.

Some genuinely want to claim asylum but it is thought that many others have been forced to come to the UK from Africa, and increasingly China. The children are put on planes by one set of traffickers who arrange for them to be picked up at Gatwick Airport by another set who then take them away, Sussex Police believe. Prostitution is a likely occupation. Social workers at Gatwick often spot the victims before the traffickers do and are able to place them into care in Sussex. However the authorities also fear that many of these youngsters are later snatched back by the slavers.

Unaccompanied children that are picked up at Gatwick are currently looked after by foster carers or placed in hostels. But for five years there was a safe house in the county, where youngsters could be hidden. It was closed by West Sussex County Council in 2003.

The Children’s Workforce Network (CWN) has announced that it is hosting its first ever conference to bring together its Reference Group to network and contribute to the ‘Refresh’ of the Government’s Children’s Workforce Strategy.

Ministers have made some concessions to campaigners over the planned changes to mental heath laws. Health Minister Rosie Winterton has set a two-year target to ensure children are no longer treated in adult wards.

{mosimage}She has also said doctors will be given tight rules over the use of orders to force patients to take medicine and place them under detention if required.

Campaigners said the moves were welcome, but they still had some concerns. The bill, which amends the 1983 Act, has been designed to introduce powers in England and Wales to detain people with serious personality disorders even if they have not committed a crime.

The shake-up in the law has been driven by Michael Stone’s 1998 conviction for the brutal murders of Lin and Megan Russell. Stone was regarded as a dangerous psychopath but, because his condition was untreatable, he could not be held under mental health powers.

Concern had been raised that the bill would allow patients under 18 to be held in adult wards. The government has now said the bill will contain a clause saying they will be required to be treated in “age-appropriate settings”.

People detained under the mental health laws will also be given access to advocacy services to champion their rights. And the victims of mental health offenders will be given the chance to make representations over their proposed release.

Ministers have also made concessions over the most sensitive aspect of the bill – community treatment orders. Doctors will be told they can only impose the orders if they are aimed at preventing harm to the individual’s health or safety or protecting the public.

In a new report the British Medical Association is calling on its members to help break down barriers to improve the healthcare outcomes for disabled patients. The report, ‘Disability equality within healthcare’1, is jointly produced by the BMA’s Equal Opportunities Committed [EOC] and its Patient Liaison Group [PLG].

More ex-servicemen can now get free mental health assessments, the Ministry of Defence has announced. Veterans Minister Derek Twigg will announce an expansion of the Medical Assessment Programme (MAP). The programme was set up in 1993 to help servicemen returning from the first Gulf War.

The second of three exhumations by police investigating seven suspicious deaths at a care home is to take place. Grandmother Marion Alder, 79, died in July last year at the Parkfield residential home in Butleigh, Somerset.

{mosimage}The body of Nellie “Mary” Pickford, 89, was exhumed last Wednesday. A re-burial was performed the following day.

Former managers Rachel and Lee Baker were arrested by police after Lucy Cox, 97, died on New Year’s Day. Both were bailed without charge until September. Ms Alder, who was married to a pharmacist, Roy, moved to Butleigh in 1987. Once her body is exhumed, it will be examined by forensic officers checking the body for traces of drugs.

Her family released a statement which read: “Marion, who died aged 79, was a proud grandmother-of-four and mother to a son and daughter.

“As a family we miss her greatly and would ask we be left alone by the media at this difficult time.”

A final exhumation will take place in Somerton, Somerset, in the coming weeks. The exhumation of Ms Pickford was the first carried out in Avon and Somerset police’s history.

The cemetery will be cordoned off as the exhumation and re-internment take place over the next three days. Police have said it will be some weeks before the results of the tests are announced.

The government breached anti-discrimination laws after controversial changes to its immigration programme for highly-skilled workers, the Commission for Racial Equality believes.

Police are failing to protect young women at risk of being murdered by their families in so-called “honour” killings, despite a high-profile prevention scheme set up four years ago, senior officers have told the Guardian.

Rodney Brooke, Chair of the General Social Care Council (GSCC), announced today that Lynne Berry will be leaving the GSCC in September to take up the post of Chief Executive of the WRVS.

A scheme assisting vulnerable witnesses to access the criminal justice process will be rolled out nationally, following an announcement by Minister for Justice, Gerry Sutcliffe.  {mosimage}Professional intermediaries help children and