Reservists will qualify for enhanced support for mental health problems under a new programme announced by the Under Secretary of State Derek Twigg.

Motorists who get stopped by the police could have their fingerprints taken at the roadside, under a new plan to help officers check people’s identities. A hand-held device being tested by 10 forces in England and Wales is linked to a database of 6.5m prints. Police say they will save time because people will no longer have to go to the station to prove their identity. Officers promise prints will not be kept on file but concerns have been raised about civil liberties.

Motorists who get stopped by the police could have their fingerprints taken at the roadside, under a new plan to help officers check people’s identities. A hand-held device being tested by 10 forces in England and Wales is linked to a database of 6.5m prints. Police say they will save time because people will no longer have to go to the station to prove their identity. Officers promise prints will not be kept on file but concerns have been raised about civil liberties.

Heroin should be prescribed to drug addicts to curb crime, the deputy chief constable of Nottinghamshire has said at a drugs conference. Howard Roberts told an Association of Chief Police Officers’ conference in Manchester the idea should be assessed. He said the treatment would cost £12,000 a year per addict but added that drug users steal property valued at an average of £45,000 a year. The idea is being piloted in London, the South East and North of England.

The real cost of Herceptin is borne by other patients whose treatment has to be dropped to balance the books, say doctors in the BMJ. New guidance from the National Institute for health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) recommends trastuzumab (Herceptin) in early breast cancer, but it provides no extra funding and does not suggest what cuts should be made to release this extra money. This leaves medical staff with difficult decisions to make.

It is time to protect patients from “vile and cynical exploitation” by the alternative medicines industry, argues a cancer expert in the BMJ. It is estimated that up to 80% of all patients with cancer take a complementary treatment or follow a dietary programme to help treat their cancer, writes Jonathan Waxman, Professor of Oncology at Imperial College London. Yet the rationale for the use of many of these approaches is obtuse – one might even be tempted to write misleading, he says.

The Foundation for People with Learning Disabilities has produced guidance to help child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) meet their targets. CAMHS are supposed to provide comprehensive services for all young people, including those with learning difficulties, by the end of the year. The guidance, ‘This is what we want’, consulted young people with disabilities from London.

A Colchester-based specialist care provider is celebrating an 18% increase in revenue over the past year. Health and social care provider Care UK plc described its progress as “excellent” after it saw its pre-tax profits rise by 5% to £14.2million, and its revenue go up from £169.2million to £199.4million.
Its operating profit went up 8% to £19.5million. All four divisions of the company – residential, community, specialist and clinical care – saw strong growth. The community care division’s revenue grew by 22%, while residential care’s increased by 16% and specialist care by 12%.

Many kids who have been adopted want to know more about their birth parents and why they were put up for adoption. Expert in kids’ rights Dr Roger Morgan said children told him they needed to know where they came from so they could understand themselves better. Another report says half of council-run organisations which help kids get adopted don’t give them enough support. But it wasn’t all bad news – as many kids said that being adopted made them feel happy and settled.

Social and aged care services in Berkshire could suffer if Whitehall does not increase council funding, the Local Government Association has warned. The association’s Autumn Statement said council tax payers would have to spend more to pay for services if the government funding shortfall is not met. Wokingham District Council is one of the worst-off in the UK, funding 80% of its programmes from council tax. The authority already has plans to cut social care and said it needs an extra £2.4 million a year to meet current commitments.