Downing Street is pushing for Louise Casey, Tony Blair’s “respect tsar”, to take over the job of chair of the youth justice board left vacant last month by the resignation of Rod Morgan.

A woman of 85 was left to die after falling down a flight of stairs at a care home because staff were banned from dialling 999. Mary Carty fractured her spine and suffered a serious head wound when she tumbled down a staircase at a private residential home.

Victims of domestic violence will be able to flee to a haven in their own homes under plans to fit them with safe rooms. The government has told all local authorities they must arrange for one room in the family home to be fitted with reinforced doors, mortice locks and alarms which link straight to the police if victims ask for it.

Children want a good home that is safe and to be treated as individuals, not as ‘children in care’, according to a report out today. In his consultation about the Government’s proposals in the Green Paper ‘Care Matters’, the Children’s Rights Director for England was told that the top promise children want councils to make to them is that they will have a good and safe home.

Newly qualified nurses desperate for a job are working for less than the minimum wage, it emerged today. The County Durham and Darlington NHS foundation trust and North Tees and the Hartlepool NHS trust are offering “honorary” training contracts to some nurses unable to secure other work.

Older people were put at risk in two substandard nursing homes, according to the regulator for homes in England. A whistleblower who worked at Laurel Bank Home in Halifax, has told Panorama of the “mental torture” and “abuse” of residents she witnessed.

{mosimage}The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) says Laurel Bank is now “significantly improved”. But it wants to shut a second home in Halifax, The Haven, which remains open as its owners appeal against closure. A former care worker at Laurel Bank, who was employed between 2002 and 2003, told Panorama that staff humiliated some residents.

She said relatives were unaware of what was happening: “They only saw what they were supposed to see. People were fed when relatives were there and not when they weren’t. They were left to do it on their own.”

The forerunner of the CSCI, the National Care Standards Commission, has admitted that it took too long to deal with the problems at Laurel Bank. They made 21 visits in one year to intensively monitor standards at the home. Panorama questioned how effective the visits had been in bringing about improvements.

Thousands of elderly and disabled people in Northumberland face rises in charges they pay for care to help the county council tackle a potential £2m budget shortfall. The maximum weekly charge for home care – paid by 675 people – is set to go up from £45 to £60 in April.

A Lincolnshire school has banned physical playground games because pupils were copying violent computer games, making playtime too rough. The ban has been introduced at St John’s Primary at Bracebridge Heath near Lincoln.

In a recent live webchat, health secretary Patricia Hewitt spoke of her concerns and beliefs about the government’s future plans when it comes to the UK’s ageing population and elderly care.

Government cutbacks on NHS staff have been felt heavily by qualified nurses looking to obtain positions within the health service. However, new independent research carried out with the elderly may hold out a ray of hope for frustrated and skilled nurses who are currently out of the employment loop.