{mosimage}More than half of NHS bodies in England need to improve the quality of their services or their financial management, a standards watchdog has found. Only two of 570 bodies assessed, both of them hospitals, were ranked as excellent in both categories. The Healthcare Commission said its “broad and tough” analysis showed the NHS needed to “raise its game”. The body representing NHS managers said underperforming trusts could now focus on areas where improvement was needed. The “health check”, which uses patient reports and hospital self-assessments as well as other financial and quality data to compile its rankings, replaces the discredited hotel-style “star ratings”.

Trailblazing social enterprise schemes are to get financial support this year to explore innovative ways of providing health and social care, in addition to the investment already promised from April 2007. Announcing investment of £1m for this year at a speech to NHS Networks, Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said:

The number of alcoholics and drug addicts claiming incapacity benefit has doubled since Labour came to power. New figures show that the situation has got worse this year, despite the Government’s claim to be getting to grips with Britain’s “sick note” culture.

Plans are being unveiled this week for a new £1.8 million centre in Devon to provide new opportunities for adults with learning and other disabilities. The Bubbly Project stems from the belief that services, facilities and support for these people are diminishing and that improvements are badly needed. A five-acre greenfield site has been earmarked for a centre that would provide services for some 450 North Devon families.

The level of alcohol-fuelled crime has soared after the introduction of controversial late-night drinking laws, shocking Home Office figures reveal for the first time.

The number of children able to buy alcohol in supermarkets across England and Wales has gone up, figures from a government scheme have revealed. Supermarket chain Kwik Save had the highest failure rate at 26%, Somerfield was 22% while Sainsbury’s and Morrisons both scored 20%, the results showed. Overall, the failure rate for chains has risen from 17% to 18%. The government said it was disappointed but industry bodies insisted that progress was being made on the issue.

Ethnic quotas should be introduced to the admissions criteria of state schools, according to the head of the Local Government Association. The Times reports Lord Bruce-Lockhart as saying that Britain would never achieve integration and full social cohesion while neighbouring schools were divided along ethnic lines. He described it as unacceptable that non-white pupils should form 90% of the population of one school, when white pupils formed 90% of a neighbouring school.

Mental health charity Rethink is calling on the government to use both a ‘carrot and stick’ approach with employers to tackle mental health stigma, following the launch of a national initiative that will provide guidance, advice and support to employers. The Department of Health initiative Action on Stigma includes a network of nine regional employment support teams to help support organisations.

Disability charity MOVE Europe has unveiled its new Charter urging government to recognise the huge health and social benefits its unique mobility programme can deliver. The MOVE Programme has been has been shown to reduce the financial pressures on social care agencies and health services. Yet despite being available in this country for almost ten years now, only 1.5 per cent of the UK’s 110,000 severely disabled children are able to access the scheme.

A charity has been criticised for a leaflet which claimed people with brown eyes were “more likely to die young”. Save the Children’s mailing could distress youngsters who saw it, the Advertising Standards Authority said.