A devoted wife and mother left with profound brain damage following a tragic holiday accident four years ago has been given the “right to die” with dignity by a senior High Court judge.

A health trust has saved a couple from taking the agonising decision of which one of them should go blind. It agreed yesterday agreed to fund treatment for one of the pensioners following claims that the availability of sight-saving drugs on the NHS was a postcode lottery.

A housing service is looking for residents to give vulnerable adults a home. The Bromley Scheme for Adult Placements houses people who have learning or physical disabilities or mental health needs.

A unique, UK wide ICM survey for SmartJustice shows that most people do not agree with sending women to prison for non-violent offences. This is the first time the public have been asked how to reduce crime committed by women.

Family doctors will be allowed to use NHS money to prescribe social care support such as home helps and respite breaks for carers under plans to be announced by the government today. GPs will also be encouraged to spend NHS funds on home aids or adaptations such as grab rails or even relaying carpets where an elderly or disabled person may be at risk of falling or tripping – avoiding a large health service bill for emergency hospital treatment.

{mosimage}The proposals, which will be announced today by the health secretary, Patricia Hewitt, represent the biggest shakeup of the rules governing commissioning of health and social services since the health service was set up after the second world war. Ms Hewitt will set out the government’s consultative proposals for a commissioning framework for health and wellbeing, which have been drawn up jointly with communities and the local government secretary Ruth Kelly, at a Guardian conference on integrated health, social care and housing services.

Some GPs are already commissioning services imaginatively within the rules, Ms Hewitt will say. They prescribe exercise for patients who are overweight, supply self-monitoring equipment and make available social work, counselling and occupational therapy services.

But there is a need now to go further, the minister will add, by giving GPs and their primary-care colleagues reassurance that they will not be stepping beyond legal limits if, by agreement with their local authority and NHS primary care trust, they decide to use health money to buy social care services.

GPs could prescribe air conditioning and child anger management classes under an £8.9m government scheme. Under the plans, the NHS could pay for air conditioning to be fitted to the homes of people with lung disease to improve their health in hot weather. And anger management classes would be given to children with behavioural problems.

Most foster carers in the UK are receiving either no payment at all or less than the minimum wage in return for caring for damaged and vulnerable young people, according to a survey out today.

Gordon Lishman, Director General of Age Concern, said: “We welcome today’s statement by Patricia Hewitt and Ruth Kelly. It is certainly a step in the right direction. Focusing on prevention, looking at the entire needs of older people and improved coordination between social services and the NHS is the only way forward for care.

The maximum wait for NHS hearing tests is to be slashed from more than two years to less than two months, as new technology is introduced to accelerate fitting of digital aids for hundreds of thousands of older people, the government said yesterday.

The Department of Health is today launching a campaign to boost the number of people taking up a career in social care. The new campaign aims to attract applicants to the social care sector, which needs to attract thousands of new recruits each year.