Every child visiting A&E to be logged in national database from 2015

New £9m child protection system intended to help medical staff spot abuse and avoid cases such as that of Baby Peter.

Every child who visits hospital accident and emergency departments or has out-of-hours GP consultations will be logged in a national database from 2015.

The child protection information system is designed to help doctors and nurses spot children who are suffering from abuse or neglect and avoid cases such as that of Baby Peter, said health services minister Dan Poulter.

Medical staff will be able to see if the children they treat are subject to a child protection plan, meaning they have already been identified as being at risk.

Doctors and nurses will also be able to check if a child has been a frequent visitor to A&E over a period of time – an indication of abuse or neglect.

Poulter said: "Doctors and nurses are often the first people to see children who are victims of abuse.

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Attendance allowance could unlock power of information in social care

If the full potential of online information portals is to be realised, then the government needs to think about the attendance allowance system.

While social care funding reform appears to be stalling, elsewhere in social care policy, new and interesting developments are emerging off the back of the government's white paper.

One of the most exciting is the push toward online information portals for social care, and the development of e-marketplaces in which individuals and families can identify and buy services.

The government wants all local authorities to radically improve their online information and support services, and has promised £32.5m of start-up funding to help them do so.

However, one of the biggest challenges for this agenda will simply be achieving scale. To remain viable, online information portals will require traffic. And with their higher costs, e-marketplaces for care services will even more urgently need visitors and care users to adopt new ways of commissioning and paying for services.

The Department of Health's own figures suggest local authorities fund home care for 532,000 older people and 350,000 working age adults. If half of these individuals and their families were to be successfully nudged by councils into becoming regular users of online care portals, this will still be less than half a million people.

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Special educational needs trial extended

Trials to help children and young adults with special educational needs are being extended by another 18 months.

Edward Timpson, Children and Families Minister, today visited the Bromley and Bexley pathfinder, one of 20 areas where the reforms are being tested before they become law. This area is making good progress in testing the reforms.

Parents of young people aged between 12 months and 24 years in the two boroughs in south-east London have been testing the reforms. Their children have conditions as varied as autism, chronic medical conditions like lung disease and learning disabilities.

The reforms include a single assessment process and an integrated education, health and care plan. This brings together all the support they need in a single place. Parents also have the option of a personal budget, so that they can control their support.

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Mother of man with cerebral palsy sues hospital over son's DNR order

Elaine Winspear seeks to challenge doctor's 'unilateral' order not to resuscitate son Carl, who died at Sunderland Royal hospital.

The mother of a 28-year-old man with cerebral palsy is suing the hospital where he died, alleging its staff failed to consult her on a decision not to attempt resuscitation and did not administer his medication appropriately.

A coroner has raised concerns about the way Carl Winspear received medication in hospital last year, writing an official letter to the Department of Health (DoH) and City Hospitals Sunderland NHS foundation trust over drug procedures at Sunderland Royal hospital.

The legal action by Elaine Winspear comes as a separate case over the use of so-called "do not resuscitate" (DNR) orders begins at the high court in London on Monday. That case has been filed by the family of a woman who died in Addenbrooke's hospital, Cambridge, last year.

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Why the government needs to listen to people with learning disabilities

My name is Shairaz and I am a member of United Response's campaigns panel. We are a group of people with learning disabilities and some family members who want to speak out on issues that are important to us.

United Response asked us to tell them what we thought about the government's plans for social care. The government has put these plans in its white paper and draft care and support bill.

Our opinions have been turned into a report by United Response, published today, called Our future. In the report we tell people about what it is like to have a disability and what we think the government should be doing to make things better for us.

Many of us (two-thirds) had not heard about the changes that the government was going to make to social care, before we took part in the report. Those of us who did know about the changes were worried about our benefits as we knew that funding was being cut.

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Premature deaths of people with learning disabilities blamed on poor hospital care

People with learning disabilities have a high chance of dying prematurely, interim figures from a major government survey suggest - and critics claim hospitals are unable to respond to learning disabled patients' needs.

In January 2009 Tina Papalabropoulos became ill. The 23-year-old, who had profound learning disabilities, had developed aspiration pneumonia - which meant food had got into her lungs.

Despite her mother Christine's repeated requests, it took several days before she was admitted to hospital.

Tina had received good care from Basildon Hospital while she was growing up, but when she had to transfer to the hospital's adult section, her mother was worried about the treatment she might get.

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Short breaks: General article Updated: 19 September 2012

Since April 2011, local authorities have been under a duty to provide a range of short breaks services for disabled children, young people and their families. The new short breaks duty aims to improve and expand short break services, ensuring a wide range of high quality opportunities and providing positive life experiences for children and young people, as well as a break for their parents and carers.

A key part of the short breaks duty is the requirement for all local authorities to prepare a short breaks duty statement, providing details of the local range of services; how services are responding to the needs of local carers; and how services can be accessed, including any eligibility criteria. Local authorities are required to publish statements on their websites and to review them on a regular basis. They must also consider the needs of local parents and carers when preparing and revising their statements.

Over £800 million in non ring-fenced grants is being provided to local authorities for the provision of short breaks between 2011-12 and 2014-15.

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Cuts will limit disabled people's independence

Plans to close the independent living fund will mean severely disabled young people can't fulfil their potential and use their talents to contribute to society.

Media discussion of the crisis in social care focuses on the effects on older people and their families, who bear the brunt of caring when public services let them down. Yes, more older people than disabled people are affected by the social care funding difficulties, but many people don't realise that the life chances of younger disabled people also depend in large part on those same stretched local authority social care budgets.

The government is planning to close the independent living fund (ILF) – which supplements the funding of independent living support for 19,000 of the most severely disabled people – and transfer the money to local authorities, where the needs of older people are already putting services under increasing strain. This combination of challenges to social care services is set to have a catastrophic effect on the ability of severely disabled people to fulfil their potential and use their talents to contribute personally and economically to society.

There are many examples of severely disabled people whose care packages enable them to employ personal assistants of their choosing to maximise their independence, and their ability to participate and make a contribution. To take just a few examples: without extensive support packages, Lady (Jane) Campbell of Surbiton would be unable to fulfil her role in the Lords; Alice Maynard would be unable to run her own consultancy and undertake her duties as chair of Scope; Katherine Araniello would be unable to produce work as an artist and film-maker, and Dr Ian Basnett would be unable to fulfil his role as director of public health for east London and the City.

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Six arrested over alleged mistreatment of elderly care home residents

Arrests follow five-month investigation into alleged incidents at Hillcroft nursing home in Slyne-with-Hest, Lancaster.

Six people have been arrested over alleged mistreatment and neglect of residents in a care home for the elderly. The arrests follow a five-month investigation into a number of reported incidents at Hillcroft nursing home in Slyne-with-Hest, Lancaster. Officers were called to the home in May following a complaint from staff.

The mistreatment is said to have taken place within the home's challenging behaviour unit – which cares for vulnerable adults with advanced Alzheimer's, police said.

Two men, aged 34 and 26, and four women aged 26, 27, 53 and 59 were detained on Wednesday at separate addresses in Lancaster and Morecambe. It is understood that some of those arrested are no longer employed at the nursing home, four are suspended, one has resigned and one has left the profession.

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Independent Living Fund consultation to close

The Independent Living Fund, or ILF, provides financial help so that 19,699 disabled people with complex care needs, can be supported to live at home. A government-run public consultation is currently in place, to get feedback on how ILF users should be supported to live independently beyond 2015, when the fund will cease to exist.

The ILF costs £359m annually and pays out an average of £300 a week per recipient.

The decision to close the fund was made back in 2010, when the government concluded that "given the very different policy context to when the ILF was established in 1988, administering an increasing amount of social care funding outside the mainstream care and support system was no longer appropriate or sustainable". The fund, which was discretionary and managed by trustees, closed to new applications soon afterwards.

On hearing that the ILF was to be phased out, Richard Hawkes, chief executive of disability charity Scope, told BBC News that the decision was "bemusing".

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The course giving service users a say in how social work is taught

Service users and students at South Bank University work alongside each other to debate issues in social work policy and practice.

A class is expectantly listening to professor John MacDonough as he outlines the task to do for today's seminar. When he finishes, they split into groups to discuss the differences between social theory and practice, debate welfare reform and exchange ideas about the impact of different political parties.

However, there's a slight difference between this and any other seminar. In today's class, among the room full of students are also a handful of service users, eager to also debate these issues.

MacDonough is a senior lecturer in social work at London South Bank University, where service user involvement is championed throughout the structure of the three-year BA course: from the interview process to the relationship that the faculty maintains with alumni once they graduate.

Service users – those who receive or are eligible to receive social care services – are playing an increasing role in shaping policy and practice, with organisations such as Think Local Act Personal and Shaping Our Lives giving service users and carers a voice.

From 2002, higher education institutions were required to develop service user and carer involvement throughout the design and delivery of social work courses.

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Liberal Democrat conference: Disabled woman tells party she lives on 50p a day

A disabled woman has told the Liberal Democrat conference how cuts to her benefits have reduced her to living on 50 pence a day and eating at soup kitchens.

Jemma Charlton was one of the disabled party members who spoke in favour of a motion calling for a “full and impartial” review of the impact of the government’s Welfare Reform Act on disabled people. The motion was passed almost unanimously, with just one member voting against.

She told party members that government plans to replace disability living allowance (DLA) with personal independence payment (PIP) would “not take into account people with mental health disabilities or people with hidden disabilities”, and she urged MPs to “fight for those with hidden disabilities who will suffer as a result of these changes”.

Charlton told Disability News Service later that she was now living in a £20-a-night hostel, up three flights of stairs, and sleeping on the middle bunk, despite having a mobility impairment, following her discharge from a mental health centre.

She has lost £500 a month, after seeing her DLA reduced from the higher to the lower rate of the care component, and as a result has also lost her severe disability premium. Click here for more

Parliamentary first for carers in Scotland

Scotland’s first Carers Parliament is being held today (Monday 1 October 2012) in the Scottish Parliament.

A total of 175 carers from 70 of the 73 Scottish Parliamentary constituencies will be attending the parliament – the first ever parliament for carers in the UK. The programme for the day, includes a debate around services and support for carers, a Q&A session with representatives from local and national government and health bodies, and workshops.

The themes for discussion and debate are based on feedback from the 1,000 carers who filled in a survey ahead of the Carers Parliament.

The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Alex Neil MSP will open the Carers Parliament, while Colin Williams, chair of Carers of West Dunbartonshire (a Network Partner of Carers Trust), will sum up the debate in the morning. Click here for more

The fringes of the fringe

The disability News Service ran an article on the 26th September 2012 cleverly entitled “restricting disabled people to the fringes of the fringe”. The writer was attending a fringe meeting at the Liberal Democrat Conference in Brighton, this meeting was organised by the Care and Support Alliance a consortium of 50 organisations that “represent and support disabled people”. The topic for this meeting was health and social care reform, on the panel, were representatives from Mencap (for the alliance), the cancer charity Anthony Nolan, the Royal College of Midwives, and the Medical Protection Society, and ironically those most affected by health and social care reform, service users were not represented.

These organizations were I presume there to represent their own interests, which the writer points out were not always the same as the interests of disabled people and other service users. Disability has become big business and in many cases where money is the driving force the most vulnerable will as in this case be relegated to the fringes of the fringe.

To read the Disabilty News Service Article please click here

GPs do not understand social care services, study shows

Majority of GPs admit they do not understand non-residential care services, and local authorities are not clarifying alternatives.

The majority of GPs admit they do not understand all the social care options available to their patients, a new study reveals.

Just 15% of family doctors who took part in the research said they fully understood all the care services options available.

More than half of the GP respondents admitted they do not understand non-residential care services, and two-thirds said they receive little or no support from local councils, according to a study by independent consultancy Impower.

Director at Impower Jeremy Cooper said that the findings identified a much bigger opportunity to tackle the social care funding crisis.

The research – of more than 100 GPs, 60 social care professionals, and 500 people aged 65 and over – revealed GPs significantly underestimate their influence on social care decision-making. For further reading click here.

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Housing Benefit is changing from 1 April 2013 for people who rent from a social sector landlord.

 The Welfare Reform Act 2012 announced that the current rules for the size of accommodation that Housing Benefit will cover in the private rented sector will be applied to working age tenants renting in the social sector.
From April 2013 all current and future working age tenants renting from a local authority, housing association or other registered social landlord will receive Housing Benefit based on the need of their household.
The size criteria allows one bedroom for each person or couple living as part of the household with the following exceptions:

• Children under 16 of the same gender are expected to share
• Children under 10 are expected to share regardless of gender
• A disabled tenant or partner who needs a non-resident overnight carer will be allowed an extra room.

This means those tenants whose accommodation is larger than they need may lose part of their Housing Benefit. Those with one spare bedroom will lose 14 per cent of their Housing Benefit and those with two or more spare bedrooms will lose 25 per cent. For further information please click here.

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Residential college places for young disabled at risk

New funding rules will make specialist college places for disabled young adults even harder to get, and could threaten the colleges' very existence.

Born with a rare neurological condition, 19-year-old Joe Rae has learning difficulties and problems with speech and motility. He is a student at National Star College in Cheltenham, a specialist residential college for young people with complex physical disabilities, where he has hydrotherapy, physiotherapy, lessons in music, dance and life skills and, in his mother's words, has made "extraordinary" progress. Click here for more

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Government eyes end to benefits and inflation link

The government is considering ending the automatic annual increase in benefits in line with inflation, sources have told BBC Newsnight.

If implemented, the move would see many benefits frozen for two years, then rising only in line with average pay.

In recent years inflation has risen at a far higher rate than average earnings - Whitehall officials say a switch since 2008/9 would have saved £14bn.

The government needs to find £10bn of extra savings in the welfare budget.

Sources stressed the detail of how to make these cuts had not yet been discussed. They would not be drawn on which policies were being looked at. Click here for more.

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Disabled Children Parents’ Guide: Social Care, Housing and Health

A paper with John Bangs concerning the potential for the draft Bill (if enacted unamended) to have an adverse impact on Young Carers and Parent Carers. To access a copy, click here.

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Carers Trust disappointed over Government's refusal to support a Private Members’ Bill

Carers Trust express disappointment that the Government has refused to support a Private Members’ Bill designed to improve identification of carers and improve access to services to support carers and disabled people. Carers Trust supported the Bill along with 28 other national organisations but were disappointed that the Government refused to support this important legislation. The Bill proposed the following key changes: Local authorities to provide sufficient supply of social care services, including social care services for disabled people and carers who wish to work or go into education,
NHS bodies would have to identify carers
Schools to identify and support young carers
Further and higher education establishments to identify and support young carers.
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