{mosimage}The trauma of being forced to leave home is fast becoming one of the main causes of homelessness for young people in Britain. Suddenly, teenagers with limited life experience can face being forced to sleep on sofas or the even more unforgiving environment of living on the streets. However, some organisations do offer schemes specifically designed to help these young people either return home or make positive steps in their lives.

The government is backing supported lodging schemes as well as family mediation services as it bids to reduce the numbers of homeless young people. The Foyer Federation helps more than 10,000 homeless 16 to 25 year-olds each year, including 19-year-old Amarah Miah who described the work done by the group as “overwhelming”.

Commissioning of NHS services must remain a core function of the NHS. Any attempt to privatise commissioning will put at risk the central ethos of the NHS, the British Medical Association (BMA) warns. Government plans to change how NHS services are commissioned will only succeed if there is proper clinical engagement in both primary and secondary care, and a meaningful dialogue with patients, the BMA says in its response to the Department of Health’s commissioning framework for England.

New research has indicated that those who leave a legacy to a charity in their last Will and Testament will live longer than those who do not. The research, undertaken by the Fire Services National Benevolent Fund, shows that, on average, those who leave a charitable donation in their Will can expect to live for an extra three years compared to the national average.

Britain’s social work labour force is a ‘demographic time bomb’ according to a Social Work subject leader at Sheffield Hallam University. Experienced and qualified social workers may soon be a rarity as existing employees reach retirement age, unless new blood is encouraged into the work force, according to Jane McLenachan of Sheffield Hallam University. The warning comes during a national recruitment drive by the Department of Health to encourage people of all ages and backgrounds to consider a career in social work.

Traumatic incidents in the workplace, particularly suicide or sudden death of work colleagues, can have a dramatic effect on the work group, its morale, productivity and overall well-being.  This conference highlights what has been an untouchable yet devastating issue in the workplace.  – Professor Cary L Cooper, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health and President of the BACP.

{mosimage} The Church of England has broken with tradition dogma by calling for doctors to be allowed to let sick newborn babies die. Christians have long argued that life should preserved at all costs – but a bishop representing the national church has now sparked controversy by arguing that there are occasions when it is compassionate to leave a severely disabled child to die.

And the Bishop of Southwark, Tom Butler, who is the vice chair of the Church of England’s Mission and Public Affairs Council, has also argued that the high financial cost of keeping desperately ill babies alive should be a factor in life or death decisions.

The shock new policy from the church has caused outrage among the disabled. A spokeswoman for the UK Disabled People’s Council, which represents tens of thousands of members in 140 different organisations, said: “How can the Church of England say that Christian compassion includes killing of disabled babies either through the withdrawing or withholding of treatment or by active euthanasia? “It is not for doctors or indeed anyone else to determine whether a baby’s life is worthwhile simply on the grounds of impairment or health condition.”

High Profile criminal trials are to be shown on British television for the first time under plans to throw court-room doors open to the cameras. The proposals by the Lord Chancellor to bring the workings of the legal system into the living room are expected to be outlined by the end of the year.

Teachers are to be warned that bullying prompted by Islamophobia is on the rise in schools across the country. Schools minister Jim Knight will also remind teachers, at a conference, of new ways to deal with bullying through the internet and mobile phones.

Prisoners are poised to win undisclosed pay-outs after suing the Home Office because they were forced to stop taking drugs in jail, it was revealed. Drugs charity DrugScope said the group of six inmates and former inmates who used heroin and other opiates were on the verge of settling out of court with the Prison Service.

More than 160 prison officers were involved in inflicting and covering up a regime of torture which saw savage beatings, death threats and sexual assault inflicted on inmates, a secret report reveals today.