A strategic plan should be developed for addressing the health needs of travellers in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, according to the All Ireland Traveller Health Study published last week.

Social workers are being asked to attend consultation events to consider the merits of the 10 Year Strategy for Social Work In Northern Ireland: 2010 – 2020. Set to be held in Belfast and Derry the events form part of a wider consultation process into the ambitious review of the social work profession.

A local childcare charity has said it is concerned about the use of unregistered childminders. Northern Ireland Childminding Association (NICMA) surveyed more than 200 newly-registered childminders.

More students have been applying for places on healthcare courses in Ireland, such as occupational therapy, it has been revealed.

Derry’s Magee College has received an astonishing 6,000 applications for just 950 university places, figures obtained by the ‘Journal’ reveal.

THE Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety last week published the Children Order Child Protection and Referral Statistics for Quarter ending 30 June 2010. The bulletin is the second reporting of quarterly figures relating to Child Protection in Northern Ireland for the quarter ending 30 June 2010.

There’s to be a major boost for mental heath care in the North West. An £8.5m hospital construction project is moving ahead in Co Londonderry with news that tenders from contractors are now being sought.

TWO brothers at the centre of a child abuse scandal have been admitted to a psychiatric unit in Londonderry.

The Western Health Trust has asked two men who abused children in a Fermanagh village over a 30-year period to admit themselves to hospital for treatment.

Health Service Executive bosses are reeling from the latest damning investigation which said foster care in parts of Dublin was in a state of crisis.