The world’s first non-surgical diagnostic test for Alzheimer’s disease is to be unveiled in Edinburgh next month. Nymox, a Canadian company, is poised to market the urine-based test – which is designed for physicians to administer – in the UK but concern has been raised it could be a precursor to the development of a DIY dementia test.

Cuts in social services are starting to take their toll on the elderly and infirm as help with shopping, housework and cooking is scrapped. Cash-strapped Wiltshire county council is reviewing the care packages of all its service users and many vulnerable adults have already been told that the amount of help they will receive from home carers will be significantly reduced. In a bid to save £2 million, the council has announced that only “substantial or critical needs” will be met and that elderly and disabled people may have to pay for private services or rely on help from family and friends if they need assistance with buying groceries or looking after their houses.

Plans by Leeds social services bosses to farm out more home care work to the private sector have angered council staff. Unison, the public service trade union, has pledged to campaign against the privatisation which it fears will put jobs at risk and damage the standard of care people receive. Some housekeeping home care – which includes cleaning and shopping – has already been handed to the private and voluntary sector. The latest proposed changes affect community support home care, which includes long-term personal care such as bathing and dressing provided to elderly and disabled people.

{mosimage} Children in council care should get money to pay for after-school activities, a think tank has suggested. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) has drawn attention to the dire educational prospects for looked-after children in England. It said that if councils put aside £20 a month for children in their care, it would cost taxpayers £1.32 a year. The money could then be spent on after-school activities associated with better educational achievement. Councils would make an initial deposit of £200 to open the account, then £20 a month with a £500 lump sum at the age of 16. The IPPR put the total annual running costs at £27.4m. It suggested that access to the special accounts should have to be via a “gatekeeper” care worker who, it said, would stop the money being used for drink and drugs. Any that was not spent would accumulate interest and serve as a nest egg for adult life.

About 27,000 people joined a march on Sunday protesting at hospital cuts in Cornwall, campaigners have said. The one-and-a-half mile march through the centre of Hayle started at St Michael’s Hospital at 1700 BST, and was described as good-natured.The hospital is threatened with closure as the Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust tries to make savings because of a forecast deficit of £31m. The trust says it is looking at several options to reduce the debt.

Homophobic bullying is an “effective and powerful” form of abuse and a growing cause of concern for youngsters, according to research due to be published this week by the NSPCC children’s charity. Calls about homophobic bullying accounted for 27% of the April 2006 calls relating to sexual orientation issues to the NSPCC’s child protection helpline, ChildLine, the report reveals. The charity’s analysis of the calls represents what it claims to be the first detailed insight into the extent of homophobic bullying based on the recent experiences of teenagers.

Croydon Council is presently constructing a £1million centre on the site of a disused car park and will provide a base for people with learning disabilities from Monday to Friday from 9am until 6pm each week.  The building will then be available for community use in the evenings and weekends. The Whitehorse Road Resource Base, due to open in late spring 2007, forms an integral part of the modernization of the learning disability day services in the borough, as well as offering new facilities to the local community for the development of group activities.

A service providing residential support for adults with learning disabilities has been given the highest possible rating by Government inspectors. The Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) visited the supported living house at King’s Hedges, Cambridge, and gave it an “excellent” rating – the highest CSCI award. The three residents receive personal care and support from staff provided by the Cambridgeshire County Council’s environment and community services office. Inspectors found that residents fully participate in running their home and make everyday choices and decisions.

Children’s social care teams in Preston are to be relocated to the Red Rose Hub to improve communication and save cash. The decision was taken by County Coun Marcus Johnstone, who said that centralising staff will lead to a cash saving which can be channelled towards front line services. The decision comes two months after Coun Johnstone ditched a consultation to close the Maplewood House respite unit in Bamber Bridge – a front line service for severely disabled children and their families.

A carer has spoken out about the “culture of neglect” experienced by patients in private care homes. For more than 10 years, Lisa-Jane Dunn, 36, from Champion Hill in Camberwell, worked in a range of care facilities including homes for the elderly, mentally ill, adults with behavioural and learning difficulties and people with degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.