FRONTLINE social care staff in Wales will be among the first people to be offered the new swine flu jab.

NEARLY £1m is being pumped into projects in North Wales and Powys by the Big Lottery. The Fund’s People and Places grants will put £472,738 of cash into the Citizens Advice Bureau in Newtown to increase the provision of face-to-face general and specialist advice.

A RESIDENTIAL home will be forced to close next  month with the loss of 17 jobs. The owners of Dwynfa Residential Care Home in Bontnewydd has informed its 12 residents and their families of the imminent closure and handed out redundancy notices to staff.

A REPORT by Wrexham’s Social Services department says it has made positive progress this year. The unit published its first annual performance report on Friday.

SWEEPING spending cuts of at least £10m are to be imposed on public services in the Vale of Glamorgan. Council leaders meet tonight to agree a draft medium-term plan which will set the financial direction for the authority’s budgets and spending until 2013.

A SOUTH Wales local authority facing a budget crisis is planning to hand over £220m a year of its spending to private companies to save cash.

PLANS for wholesale changes to the care of elderly people in the city have been unveiled by Cardiff council.

Who’s caring for Wales, asks Older People’s Commissioner Ruth Marks.

Deputy Minister for Social Services Gwenda Thomas, looks at the funding of long-term care.

Two teams in Wales set up to improve services for people with eating disorders are to benefit from the skills of specially trained doctors.