Mental health system under stress

System under stress

In the last 10 years, funding for mental health services has risen sharply. But a new report from the King’s Fund today concludes that if the government doesn’t rethink the way services are delivered and focus more resources on prevention, it will be unable to meet soaring future demand.

Read more on this story in Society Guardian

David Brindle: We need to know more about disability

In a report today from the Centre for Disability Research (CDR), the country’s top experts admit: “It is not possible to estimate the numbers of adults with learning disabilities in England either from information held by central government departments or from large-scale, population-based surveys.”
Read more on this story in Society Guardian

Social workers’ failings ‘put children in divorce cases at risk of abuse’

Children in divorce and separation cases are being left at risk of abuse because of serious failings by social workers dealing with their cases, according to a watchdog.

An Ofsted inspection of the service, set up to to ensure that children’s views were represented in family courts, uncovered a catalogue of failings in the South East region.

Read more on this story in The Times

Child pornography laws to be tightened

Possessing cartoons, computer generated images and drawings of child sexual abuse is to be made illegal under new government proposals.

Police believe paedophiles are circulating the images as a way of by-passing current laws which impose jail terms for having pornographic photographs of children
Read more on this story in The Daily Telegraph

Riot warning as prison numbers swell

The Prison Officers’ Association warned that suspected criminals might be going free because there are not enough cells to house them while prisons watchdog Anne Owers also said that conditions in jails were the worst she had known in eight years, with evidence of low level unrest in some prisons.

Read more on this story in The Daily Telegraph

Repossessions crisis ‘could be worse than 1992’

More homebuyers are at risk of losing their homes than during the property bust of 1992, new research says.

A report published by insurance giant AXA yesterday said as many as 1.8million buyers will be struggling to cover monthly repayments by the end of this year.

Read more on this story in The Daily Mail