The absence of laws to allow the sharing of “soft information” on paedophiles is severely hampering child protection, the country’s top children’s watchdog has warned.

Abbeyfield Ballycastle, which is part of the Abbeyfield UK (NI) group that was recently voted one of the UK’s best sheltered housing schemes, has received planning approval for its £500,000 refurbishment plan.

A teenager from NI who abused other children has been treated at a specialist treatment centre in the UK at a cost of £1.5m.

There is a 9% greater need for health and social care services in Northern Ireland than in England, according to a review carried out by Professor John Appleby, who has identified a £1 billion shortfall in funding to meet the population’s needs. The figure excludes the impact of current spending cuts in Northern Ireland.

Social care for the elderly in Northern Ireland is “creaking at the seams” because not enough money has been devoted to it, campaigners said.

Election candidates are to be lobbied over the care provided in residential and nursing homes.

Counselling agency for victims of paedophile priests to receive donation as church leaders attempt to ‘repair breach of trust’

Public opinion is often more sympathetic to the challenges facing social workers than the media negativity suggests, the Northern Ireland Association of Social Workers (NIASW) World Social Work Day conference in Belfast heard.

A public inquiry into the deaths of four children in hospitals in Northern Ireland is to resume after a two year recess.

New plans for the minimum price of alcohol in Northern Ireland are to be unveiled on Monday.