Care funding row, NSPCC centre closures

Can Saga take care of you?

The company is to roll-out the first national network of private at-home care assistants. Patrick Collinson examines the deal and what state help you can get.

Read more on this story in The Guardian

NSPCC to shut local centres under restructuring plan

The NSPCC, Britain’s biggest children’s charity, is to shut dozens of its local centres providing services to vulnerable children across the country.

Tories eye private route for inmates

The private sector would be handed a far bigger slice of the £3.2bn prisons and probation market as part of plans being drawn up by the Conservative party to overhaul the criminal justice system, the Financial Times has learned.

Read more on this story in The Financial Times

Cross-party deal on elderly care in tatters after three parties engage in row live on TV

Health secretary Andy Burnham and the Liberal Democrats’ Norman Lamb clashed with the Tories’ Andrew Lansley, accusing him of wrecking plans for a cross party consensus on how to pay for the ageing population.

Tories leave cross-party talks on care for elderly in doubt

The prospect of reviving cross-party talks on the future of care for the elderly looked poor today as the Tories signalled they were unlikely to attend a conference being held by the health secretary this week.

Labour accused of planning ‘secret 10% death tax’ in new row over elderly care

The Tories have stepped up their onslaught on Labour over social care, claiming that the Government was secretly planning to charge a £50,000 inheritance tax levy on people with estates of £500,000. 

Read more on this story in The Daily Mail

Charities demand an end to political point-scoring as care crisis looms

The elderly will start to be deprived of essential care in less than seven years unless politicians can agree on how to tackle the issue, charities will warn this week.