News round up: Care bill; child death probe; domestic violence

November 25, 2009 in Adults, Child safeguarding, Children, Domiciliary care, Mental Health, Older people, Social care leaders, Youth justice

Cancer research at risk in scramble for care funds

Research into cancer and dementia will come under threat from government plans to fund social care, experts warned last night.

Andy Burnham, the Health Secretary, told The Times that millions of pounds would be “reprioritised” from health research and development to pay the costs of the Social Care Bill, published today.

Read more on this story in The Times

Labour regains trust on public services

Confidence in Labour’s stewardship of the public services is starting to recover and is almost back to where it was when Gordon Brown became prime minister, poll findings today suggest.

Although voters still think a Conservative government would get better value from public spending, the Ipsos Mori poll suggests that the gap between the two parties is narrowing appreciably.

Domestic violence victims need targeted support

Ahead of the publication of the government’s domestic violence strategy today, a groundbreaking report has called for much more specialised support for victims of domestic violence.

A study by the Hestia Fund, a women’s charity, of 2,500 women facing the most severe forms of domestic abuse found that more than 60% had been strangled or choked, 44% said they feared they would be killed and more than one in 10 said their abuser had threatened to kill the children.
Read more on this story in The Guardian

Three-year-old found stabbed to death in south London flat

Detectives have launched an inquiry after a three-year-old boy was found stabbed to death at his home.

Officers discovered the child’s body when they were called to an incident at a flat in Southwark, south-east London, yesterday evening. Neighbours dialled 999 after hearing a furious row at a flat in Southwark, south east London, at about 6pm yesterday.

Fuel bills blamed for 50% rise in deaths

The number of deaths during the coldest three months of the year were up almost 50 per cent on the previous year to 36,700, sending an extra 10,000 pensioners to early graves, new figures showed yesterday.

The rise in “excess winter mortality” for England and Wales for the three months to February was the biggest for years and the highest total in a decade, sparking fresh calls for ministers to combat high energy prices.

MPs back calls to scrap short prison terms for young adults

Politicians from across the parties have backed a call from the charity Transition to Adulthood Alliance (T2A) to scrap six month terms for offenders aged 18 to 24.

Research for the organisation claims £1 billion could be saved over the next two Parliaments if young adults were given community penalties instead and predicts reoffending would be cut by 30 per cent as a result.