Nurses caused a stir in Manchester when 100 health workers drove through city centre streets protesting against mental health care changes which they say will mean cuts. The vehicles were driven by occupational therapists, support workers, therapists and nurses working for Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust.

In a move to sustain the call for equity in the treatment of black patients using mental health services,  the human right campaigning group Black Mental Health UK held a symposium hosted in association with the Kensington and Chelsea Carers Association at Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall for Black History Month.

Perceived ‘stranger danger’ and lack of green spaces put off children from walking more, suggests research published ahead of print in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. The research team surveyed six primary schools in Birmingham, UK, located in a cross section of areas in and around the city. In all, the responses of 473 children between the ages of 9 and 11 were collected on the grounds that lifelong patterns of physical activity are established at around this age.

Knife amnesties have no real impact on reducing knife crime, according to a Metropolitan Police report. An eight-week Met Police amnesty over the summer showed that, after a slight dip in knife-related crime, levels were back to normal within weeks, it said. Pre-amnesty there were an average of 34.9 daily knife offences in London, dropping to 31 in the amnesty. Six weeks later, that figure was 34.2.

Brain scans could help predict schizophrenia, research suggests. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans have revealed key changes in the brain’s grey matter in a small group before they developed symptoms. The finding suggests tracking these changes over time, combined with traditional assessments, could help doctors to predict illness. The research, published in BioMed Central Medicine, was carried out by the University of Edinburgh.

Homemade chocolate bars each containing cannabis with a street value of around £20 were supplied by post to multiple sclerosis sufferers for pain relief, a court heard today. Gift shop manager Mark Gibson, 42, and his wife Lezley, 42, who has MS, both from Alston, Cumbria, and Marcus Davies, 36, from St Ives, Cambridgeshire, “made no secret” of their involvement in such activity to police, Carlisle Crown Court was told.

A girl who was raped by a man who was on the sex offenders’ register was “failed” by procedures designed to supervise him, an inquiry has found. BBC News has seen a report prepared by the Brighton and Hove Safeguarding Children Board into Kevin Hazelwood.

Killers and rapists given ‘life’ sentences by the courts are walking free after an average of only six years behind bars, it emerged last night. The length of punishment has fallen by more than half since Labour came to power. In 1998, convicts given non-mandatory life terms – reserved for murderers – spent 14 years locked-up.

Criminals under the supervision of the probation service have been convicted of nearly 100 murders and more than 500 other serious violent and sexual offences, including rape, over the past two years, according to official figures out yesterday.

High Street pharmacy Lloyds has reached over the counter and joined forces with Arthritis Care to help raise awareness of arthritis and how it affects the daily lives of millions of people. The partnership means that during December free information about arthritis is available in some 1,400 Lloyds stores throughout England and Wales.