A young mum has told how a bogus social worker examined her five-week-old daughter after tricking her way into her home. The mum claims the woman has struck at two houses on the Fern Grove estate, Bury. The woman, described as having “piercing deep blue eyes”, produced a fake, but authentic-looking, ID card on both occasions.

Savings to health care and social care budgets could be made by investing in housing adaptations, and investment in independent living benefits individuals and wider society, according to research published today by the Office for Disability Issues (ODI).

The delivery of the £2.24 million Supporting People programme provided by Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council is ‘good’ and has ‘promising prospects’ to improve, according to an independent report released today by the Audit Commission.

The Department of Health has declared that the talking therapies trialled in Doncaster and Newham were a complete success with 90 per cent of patients reportedly feeling “highly satisfied” with the service.

The mental health charity Mind has urged the government to ensure that wards in NHS hospitals are no longer mixed. It is particularly concerned that mental health wards are sometimes unsafe for patients to be on.

Teenagers who drink alcohol with their parents are less likely to binge drink, according to a survey of 10,000 children which backs the continental style of introducing teenagers to small amounts of alcohol early.

{mosimage}Parents who do not want their children drinking behind their backs should limit their pocket money to less than £10 a week, says the study, carried out by academics and trading standards officers.

It found that teenagers who illegally bought their own alcohol were six times as likely to drink in public, in parks and on the streets, three times as likely to be regular drinkers and twice as likely to be binge drinkers.

Mark Bellis, the lead researcher and director of the public health centre at Liverpool John Moores University, said: “We are too used to handing £10 or £20 to young people without any realisation of where it is being spent. Add to that birthday money and money from part-time jobs – young people have money to spend. Parents need to know more about what their children are spending it on.”

A man who was cleared of rape after a complaint that a judge fell asleep at his trial later raped two other young women, a court heard. Lee Woodward subjected two teenage girls to violent attacks almost identical to that described by the woman he was cleared of raping in 2001.

The UK has one of the worst records over access to cancer drugs as stark inequalities exist across the world, a Swedish study has found. Researchers ranked the UK in the bottom group for its “slow and low” uptake of drugs after analysing the sales of 67 treatments in 25 countries.

The idea of a ‘partnership model’ to improve the lack of funding in social care is being supported by charity for the elderly, Counsel and Care. Caroline Bernard, policy and communications manager for the organisation, said that social care funding “needs to be addressed” and a partnership model is one of the better options.

The chief inspector of prisons warns today that offenders are being forced to “queue” for jail cells despite an assurance yesterday from the new justice minister, Lord Falconer, that the system can cope with the immediate crisis in prisoner numbers.