Police have backed a decision not to prosecute the family of a terminally ill man who died in an assisted death at a clinic in Switzerland. Paul Bennett, 47, from Swansea, south Wales, chose to die from lethal injection at the Dignitas clinic in Zurich in May this year.

A Gwent council department which came under fire for failing vulnerable youngsters is no longer the subject of serious concern, it was announced today. The children’s services unit in Blaenau

The row over a Home Office programme to house sex offenders at an open prison in Monmouthshire has been reopened by a leading Labour politician in Wales. Wales’ Social Justice Minister Edwina Hart has again intervened and spoken of her disappointment at the lack of review of the policy. It follows a series of inmates, including child rapists and murderers, absconding from Prescoed jail near Usk.

The largest social services department in Wales is no longer under Welsh Assembly Government scrutiny after improvements were made. Cardiff’s social services had been heavily criticised in the way it dealt with protecting vulnerable children. In 2002, it had one of the worst inspection reports in Wales and England and has since been monitored every three months by an assembly body.

Violent and drunken patients who attack healthcare workers trying to help them are to receive swift justice in a special new court in Swansea. Official figures out today show there were 73 physical and serious verbal attacks on local staff in the last year. Workers at Morriston, Singleton and Cefn Coed hospitals alone have been subjected to 46 incidents since January. They are left battered and bruised just trying to do their job.

Wales’ first specialist domestic violence court programme was launched in Gwent yesterday, in a bid to reduce the number of attacks in the home. The aims of Gwent Specialist Domestic Violence Court Programme are to help improve victim safety and bring more perpetrators to justice. Key players, including the police, probation and the Criminal Prosecution Service, hope it will mean cases can be fast-tracked.

{mosimage} Care Home owners in West Wales have warned that unless funding for the independent sector is increased, widespread closures may occur. According to Care Forum Wales (CFW), the members association for the independent care sector in Wales, increases in fees awarded to independently run homes in Carmarthenshire fall far short of the awards made to council-run care homes. And with rising energy costs, and high standards to maintain, care home owners have said unless increases are made staying open may no longer be viable. At a Carmarthenshire council meeting in July, it was decided that fees awarded to independent care homes would rise by 4% – 2% to be backdated to April, with a further 2% increase being applied to all contracts for service users aged 65 and over from October.

Health Minister Dr Brian Gibbons has said he was concerned about the slow pace of improvement in adult social services in Carmarthenshire and the impact upon vulnerable people who are waiting for services they urgently need. This follows a major report into the way Carmarthenshire County Council provides social services, carried out jointly by the Social Services Inspectorate for Wales and the Wales Audit Office, which found found services to be inconsistent. The Council was judged as being uncertainly placed to sustain and improve services.

Following the publication of the Social Services Inspectorate for Wales’ (SSIW) report of the joint review of Carmarthenshire Council’s social services, the Association of Directors for Social Services have welcomed the finding that services for children and their families are ‘good’ in Carmarthenshire. Responding to the report, Susan Lewis, Joint Chair ADSS Cymru said: “We are pleased to see recognition within the report for the improvements achieved, and especially in delivering an impressive range of services for vulnerable children.

Drug addicts could get Britain’s first vending machine dispensing clean needles – outside a police station. Controversial North Wales Police Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom is backing the scheme to put the £10,000 machine at the back of the station in the resort of Colwyn Bay.