Updated safety advice will boost informed patient choice, says Arthritis Care, welcoming  the new instruction by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA) for pharmaceutical manufacturers to update information on the risks and benefits of recently-reviewed drugs. The order from the government’s drug watchdog follows a European review of the safety of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

{mosimage} The number of young people in custody in England and Wales has reached a record high, prompting warnings of a youth justice system “crisis”. The Youth Justice Board, which administers the system, said 3,350 youngsters were being held and action was needed to stop a “meltdown”.

Only a handful of beds were free, and children were being held hundreds of miles from their families, it said. The Home Office said the use of custody for those under 18 was a last resort.

{mosimage} The Youth Justice Board said the rise in numbers had caused an increased risk of self-harm and suicide by youngsters. It meant difficulties in running crime reduction courses aimed at preventing re-offending.

It also meant increasing numbers were being forced to share cells and youngsters were being transported around the country. Dozens of children and youngsters from London were held as far afield as South Yorkshire and the Scottish borders, said the board.

The NHS was blamed yesterday for the death of a mental health patient who was held face down on the floor of a Portsmouth hospital for 25 minutes until he turned blue and stopped breathing.

The “polarised” debate over Muslim women covering their faces could trigger riots, the head of Britain’s race relations watchdog warned yesterday.

Hooded silhouettes lingering in shop doorways and beneath bus shelters carry a potent message of menace for most adults. For Britain has become a place increasingly fearful of its teenage population, a forthcoming report will warn.

The expulsion of five-year-old Tamara Howard from a Manchester school has been slammed by a leading expert on children’s behaviour. Professor Peter Farrell, an education psychologist at Manchester University, said he was “surprised” she was thrown out after attacking teachers.

Statistics released by the Home Office show that the number of registered sex offenders in England and Wales has increased by nearly 4%. The latest figures show there were 29,973 people on the sex offenders register last year.

An independent Conduct Committee of the General Social Care Council (GSCC) has decided the case of a social worker from Bracknell who was alleged to have breached the codes of practice by failing to disclose information relating to his employment history. Misconduct was found against the registrant, Lamin Gbanabom Sankoh, and he was admonished, with a record of the admonishment to be placed on Mr Sankoh’s entry in the Social Care Register for a period of one year.

An abandoned children’s home in Bolton is to be reopened as a rehabilitation house for people with mental heath problems. The former children’s home was closed six years ago following a campaign by residents, many of them elderly, who claimed they were being terrorised by the children placed there. The home was used as a crisis and respite centre for nine to 16-year-olds. Bolton Council decided to close it and replace the unit with facilities elsewhere. Since then, the home has remained empty and has become a target for vandals.

A disabled man is angry after Kirklees Council said it was ending his home care service. Wheelchair-bound Colin Tucker, 63, from Longwood Edge, Longwood, received a letter from Kirklees Social Services on October 5 telling him 13 years of home care was to end. Mr Tucker lost a leg many years ago and has arthritis in major joints. His condition forced him to retire 13 years ago from his job as manager of a vehicle hire company.