Knowsley Safeguarding Children Board has launched an information campaign to highlight the issue of ‘private fostering’ and identify where these arrangements are taking place. Anyone who is looking after a child when they are not a close relative or legal guardian is legally required to let their local Children and Families social work team know.

A Conduct Committee of the General Social Care Council (GSCC) has decided the case of a social worker from Barrow-in-Furness who was alleged to have breached the code of practice for social care workers by failing to declare previous criminal convictions and a police caution when completing the Application Form for Qualified Social Workers for registration with the GSCC.

The Prime Minister has been tackled in the Commons over the possible closure of local authority residential care homes for the elderly in Staffordshire. Lichfield’s Tory MP Michael Fabricant said many old people were worried over the change and urged that it be phased in over time.

Children in care in England still lag way behind their peers, despite new figures showing a slight improvement in their performance. A third of looked after children reached age 16 in 2006 without any qualifications compared to only 2% of all children that age.

Social Care Minister Ivan Lewis today announced a five-point plan to put excellence at the heart of the government’s vision for twenty first century social care. The measures follow a report commissioned by Mr Lewis from Dame Denise Platt on the state of social care.

{mosimage}The centre piece of the package will be a skills academy ‘SocialCare21’ focussed on developing world class leadership and commissioning in the public, private and voluntary sectors. The Minister has also announced that SCIE has been asked to create a new system by the end of the year for identifying and disseminating best practice in the sector.

The Government is to open discussions with publishers to create a high prestige social care journal of a similar nature to the Lancet in health. Academics, practitioners and uniquely people who use services and their families will have a platform to stimulate debate, identifying future challenges and comment on the statue of social care.

A new national social care board is to be established which will seek a greater level of coherence across social care and directly advise ministers.

The Department of Health is to work with existing award schemes to build on their recognition of excellence and innovation on the front line of social care.Ivan Lewis said: “Dame Denise is right to challenge the sector to raise its game and demonstrate a clear and ambitious vision for the future.

The General Social Care Council (GSCC) has welcomed Dame Denise Platt’s report ‘The Status of Social Care – A Review 2007’. Rodney Brooke, GSCC Chair said: “Dame Denise has made a typically acute diagnosis.

The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) welcomes the challenges outlined by Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Care Services, Ivan Lewis, following publication of the Status of Social Care Services – A Review 2007.

Toddlers found to have autism who undergo intensive teaching programmes from the age of 3 can raise their IQ by as much as 40 points, according to a three-year study.

Autistic children who receive intensive one-to-one tutoring for two years when very young have shown dramatic increases in IQ levels which can allow them to go to mainstream schools, according to research published yesterday.

The Department of Health last night named 17 NHS hospital trusts across England which are mired in debts worth hundreds of millions of pounds and cannot survive without a fundamental reorganisation.