A mental health charity has welcomed the publication of a report which is expected to criticise the care of psychopath Michael Stone. The report is expected to say Stone was free to kill Lin and Megan Russell because those supervising him were unable to agree on how he should be treated.

Young people are getting a raw deal in the workplace, just before new age discrimination laws come into effect. Contrary to popular belief, a survey from The Employers Forum on Age (EFA) shows that ageism works in both directions – with younger people affected as well as older employees.

A model which highlights the physical and emotional needs of stroke victims and their carers has been specifically devised for use in primary care. Published in the October issue of the British Journal of General Practice (BJGP) the model draws on the experience of a group of doctors in Bradford who have been researching the needs of stroke patients and their carers for several years. The first pilot study showed that the model helped health and social care professionals to systematically identify patient and carer problems and that three months after the assessment 75% of these problems had been resolved.

Health chiefs face tough questions on their plans to “turn around” Cambridge’s ailing care services. They face a grilling from councillors on the impact of reducing work given to Addenbrooke’s Hospital, whether caring for people in the community rather than in hospital really will save cash, whether treatments deemed to be “low priority” will be offered, the risks of the financial situation at Hinchingbrooke, plans for the Brookfields site and what will happen if the Arthur Rank Hospice at Home service is no longer funded.

Jobs could be lost at Oxford Brookes University as it faces funding cuts and dwindling student numbers in some subjects. The university has announced it is planning to make savings in the technology school and the school of health and social care, which offers courses in nursing, midwifery, occupational therapy and physiotherapy. Oxford Brookes receives about £8m from the NHS to fund these courses, but has been warned to expect cuts of at least 10 per cent over the next three years, as the NHS takes steps to tackle overspending.

Elderly parents receive £33bn in unpaid care and assistance each year, according to research by Liverpool Victoria. Children spend on average more than 10 hours a week visiting and running errands for parents, with a quarter (27%) spending more than 16 hours a week caring for their parents. The survey of 3,000 people by the UK’s largest friendly society shows that adult children give up more than 45 hours each month, the equivalent to an extra full-time working week, at an unpaid annual cost of £4,076. This equates to 540 unpaid hours in care every year.

A report into the care and treatment of Michael Stone, who murdered Lin Russell and her six-year-old daughter Megan, is due to be published. Stone was given three life sentences in 2001 for killing Dr Russell, 45, and her daughter, and the attempted murder of Megan’s sister Josie, then nine, in Chillenden, Kent, in 1996. An independent inquiry report into Stone’s treatment by mental health, probation and social workers before the attack was completed in 2000 and an addendum added two years later but it was not published at the time because he was launching an appeal against his conviction.

The age at which children who commit crimes can be held accountable for their actions should be raised from 10 to 14, a youth justice expert is proposing. In a report published by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King’s College, London, Rob Allen calls for major changes in the way youth offending is tackled. He says that Government policies are demonising young people rather than addressing the reasons for their behaviour.

The mother of murdered toddler James Bulger voiced outrage last night over proposals to raise the age of criminal responsibility from ten to 14 years. A senior Government advisor on youth crime claims thousands of young teenage offenders should be spared jail and instead be offered counselling and placed in the care of social services, without being labelled as criminals.

A police force has admitted illegally rejecting 108 potential recruits because they were white men. In an attempt to boost its number of ethnic and women recruits, Gloucestershire Police “randomly deselected” the 108 white men, a tribunal heard. But one of the rejected men, Matt Powell, 30, from Gloucester, took action against the force, taking it to the tribunal on the grounds he had been discriminated against, according to newspaper reports.