Psychiatric patients are climbing over a security fence to leave an NHS mental health unit, it was claimed today. A television documentary filmed patients scaling the 20ft-high fence at the Royal South Hants Hospital, Southampton, on five different days.

{mosimage} Employers are far less likely to employ people with mental illnesses than those with physical ailments, a report shows. Just 20% of those with severe mental health problems have jobs, compared with 65% who have physical problems. The government is launching an initiative urging employers to improve conditions for people with a mental health problem.

A spokesman for the Confederation of British Industry said the majority of businesses offered staff support. It is estimated one in four people will suffer a mental illness at some point in their lives. And even for those with more common types of mental illness, such as depression, only about half are competitively employed. However, up to 90% of people with mental health problems want to work, compared to 52% of disabled people generally.

The voluntary standards, launched to coincide with World Mental Health Day, will also be used by public sector organisations, including local councils, government departments and hospitals.

The Mental Health Foundation has been awarded a contract to work with the Strategic Network for Mental Health to develop recovery focused practice within its mental health services. Over the next two years the Recovery in Action project will enable the Strategic Network for Mental Health to develop best practice about ways to support people with mental health problems.

An east London teenager who became a drug dealer and a knife-wielding member of a street gang lays the blame on the transformation of his neighbourhood into an ethnic minority “ghetto” where turf warfare flourishes.

Sweeping reforms to improve the life chances of children in care were proposed by the education secretary, Alan Johnson, yesterday as he outlined plans to improve their emotional and financial security. He said it was “inexcusable and shameful” that the state as proxy parent “seems too often to reinforce” early disadvantages.

A sweeping range of incentives to persuade foreign prisoners to go home was unveiled last night by John Reid, the home secretary, in an attempt to defuse the jail overcrowding crisis.

Children in care will be forced to undergo drug tests from the age of ten under radical plans unveiled by the Government yesterday. All 61,000 youngsters currently in the care system would be given compulsory mouth swabs to test for cannabis, Ecstasy and cocaine every year until the age of 16.

The London Assembly has announced an investigation into community-based mental health services provided by the NHS in the capital and is asking Londoners to come forward with their views.

Schools are struggling to cope with increasing numbers of pupils with mental health problems, a study says. The survey commissioned by the NASUWT teachers’ union found teachers often had difficulty identifying pupils with problems like anxiety and depression.

Councils would have a duty to place children in their care in the best local schools, under government plans. A Green Paper on children in care in England is expected to beef up the admissions rules and oblige schools to take the youngsters if told to do so.