Care news

• Iain Coleman obituary

  08-10-2025 15:44
  Labour MP fired by compassion for those left behind by society who fought for free social care provision at homeIain Coleman, the former MP for Hammersmith and Fulham, who has died aged 67, was renowned within his west London constituency for a policy of free social care provision at home, something he had fought to introduce in the area during his leadership of the local council in the 1990s before he was elected to parliament in the Labour landslide of 1997.Through a cruel irony, the seri
  
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• ICO promises legal action over ‘traumatic’ UK care-record access

  09-12-2025 07:00
  Information regulator reminds council leaders of need for compassion when releasing files on childhood careThe UK’s information commissioner has raised alarm over the “lengthy, traumatic and often demoralising process” people face when trying to access their care records, writing to local authority leaders to say his office will take action over legal breaches.The data protection regulator said people who grew up in the care system were waiting up to 16 years for access to thei
  
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• Senior DWP civil servant blames victims for carer’s allowance scandal

  06-12-2025 18:06
  Neil Couling said failings by individual claimants ‘at the heart’ of crisis, despite a report finding DWP shortcomings ‘unacceptable’ One of the most senior civil servants in the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has placed the blame for the carer’s allowance benefits crisis on victims, many of who have been left with life-changing debts.In an internal blogpost written for Whitehall colleagues, Neil Couling, the director general of DWP services, said individual
  
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• Children’s home providers in England putting profit over need, says Ofsted

  02-12-2025 13:00
  Watchdog says trend of care homes being registered in cheap areas, not where need is greatest, is ‘national scandal’The number of registered children’s homes in England has risen to a record high, but providers are increasingly prioritising profit over care needs, Ofsted has warned.The watchdog said new children’s homes were proliferating in areas of the country where housing was cheapest, suggesting the rise was driven mostly by profit and this was “bending the sys
  
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• Net migration is plummeting. Why can’t Labour say so? | Heather Stewart

  30-11-2025 12:40
  An honest debate is needed on this polarising topic as sectors such as social care struggle with recruitmentKeir Starmer’s response to the 69% plunge in net migration revealed in official figures last week was to remark: “That’s a step in the right direction.”Describing a reduction of more than two-thirds of any indicator in a single year as a “step” would be a creative use of statistics, putting it kindly. Continue reading...
  
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• ‘Outdated and ever less fit for purpose’: five takeaways from the carer’s allowance report

  25-11-2025 21:07
  Dysfunctional DWP failed to notify some carers that they were accruing enormous debt for years, Liz Sayce’s damning report revealsFull story: Ministers urged to apologise after review finds systemic failures led to carer’s allowance crisisOf all the devastating passages in Liz Sayce’s 146-page criticism of the government’s failing carer’s allowance system, one above all leaps out. It describes how some felt so “overwhelmed”, ashamed and criminalised they
  
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• Ministers urged to apologise after review finds systemic failures led to carer’s allowance crisis

  25-11-2025 13:23
  Unpaid carers were pushed into debt and distress and hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money wasted‘Outdated and ever less fit for purpose’: five takeaways from the carer’s allowance reportMinisters are facing calls to apologise and pay compensation to hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers after a damning review of the benefit system revealed some considered suicide to escape their debts.A report ordered by the government on the longstanding failures within th
  
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• Failures by Tory ministers and welfare officials led to carer’s allowance crisis, review finds

  25-11-2025 13:23
  Unpaid carers were pushed into debt and distress and hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money wastedUK politics live – latest updatesRepeated failures by Tory ministers and top welfare officials pushed hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers into debt and distress, and led to hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money being wasted, a devastating review has concluded.The independent review of carer’s allowance benefit overpayments identified “systemi
  
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• DWP to reassess hundreds of thousands of cases in carer’s allowance scandal

  25-11-2025 01:01
  Damning official review finds many unpaid carers left with huge debt because of government failure‘It’s like the Post Office scandal’: victims of carer’s allowance crisis speak outThe carer’s allowance scandal – a timelineHundreds of thousands of vulnerable unpaid carers will have their cases reassessed after a damning official review concluded they had been left with huge debts because of government failure and maladministration.The review, due to be publishe
  
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• More then 2,000 trafficked children and lone child asylum seekers missing from UK councils’ care

  24-11-2025 01:05
  Charities say vulnerable young people are being failed by local authorities, the police and central governmentMore than 2,000 children who have been trafficked or who arrived in the UK alone to claim asylum disappeared from social services’ care last year, according to freedom of information data shared with the Guardian.The authors of a report, Until Harm Ends, submitted FoI requests to children’s services departments in councils across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
  
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• More than 2,000 trafficked children and lone child asylum seekers missing from UK councils’ care

  24-11-2025 01:05
  Charities say vulnerable young people are being failed by local authorities, the police and central governmentMore than 2,000 children who have been trafficked or who arrived in the UK alone to claim asylum disappeared from social services’ care last year, according to freedom of information data shared with the Guardian.The authors of a report, Until Harm Ends, submitted FoI requests to children’s services departments in councils across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
  
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• Keeping youths in care out of trouble | Letter

  20-11-2025 18:46
  Prof Mike Stein responds to news of a proposal to restrict the ‘over-policing’ of looked-after young peopleDiverting young people in care from the youth justice system and the associated criminalisation may help their future careers (Children in care who lash out may no longer face automatic arrest under UK review, 17 November). However, international research studies have shown that reducing the chances of young people being involved in crime to begin with are more effective.These i
  
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• ‘Possibly the most prolific sex offender in British history’: the inside story of the Medomsley scandal

  20-11-2025 06:00
  At a youth detention centre in north-east England, the paedophile Neville Husband raped and assaulted countless boys. Why was his reign of terror allowed to go on – and why hasn’t there been a public inquiry?When I met Kevin Young in 2012 he was in his early 50s, handsome, charismatic, smart – and utterly broken. The moment he started talking about Medomsley detention centre he was in tears.Young was born in Newcastle, in 1959. At two, he was taken into care, and his parents we
  
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• ‘It’s cruel’: relatives of residents react to proposal to close Lancashire care homes

  17-11-2025 19:26
  Elderly residents of care home left anxious after Reform-led county council started consultation over plans for its closureFor Marjorie Aspden, 95, Woodlands care home in Clayton-le-Moors in Accrington was the perfect place to spend her twilight years. When she looked out from the window of her room, she saw the woods that she played in as a young girl and felt a sense of contentment.Now she and hundreds of other elderly residents are facing uncertainty after the Reform-led Lancashire county cou
  
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• Melania Trump launches new initiative to help children raised in foster system

  13-11-2025 23:04
  Donald Trump signed order creating ‘Foster the Future’ to develop opportunities and online hub for resourcesMelania Trump, the first lady, is spearheading a new initiative aimed at improving career and education opportunities for children raised in foster care.Her husband, Donald Trump, signed an executive order on Thursday that creates a “Fostering the Future” program that brings together federal entities, non-profits, educational institutions and the private sector to d
  
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• Private care providers in three English regions make £250m in three years

  12-11-2025 01:01
  More than third of profits analysed went to firms owned by private equity or based in tax havens, research findsPrivate companies operating care services in just three regions of England have taken more than £250m in profits in three years, with more than a third going to providers owned by private equity firms or companies based in tax havens.New analysis by Reclaiming Our Regional Economies warned that public money is being rapidly funnelled out of the care system into the hands of priva
  
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• Lancashire’s Reform-run council plans to close care homes and day centres

  05-11-2025 17:25
  Questions about potential conflict of interest as council’s cabinet member for social care owns private care companyLancashire’s Reform-run council has been accused of “selling off the family silver” with plans to save £4m a year by closing five council-run care homes and five day centres and moving residents into the private sector.One of the care home residents, a 92-year-old woman, said she would leave only by “being forcibly removed or in a box”. Con
  
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• More than 50 child asylum seekers still missing after disappearing from Kent care

  01-11-2025 13:00
  Council data obtained by the Guardian shows 345 children have gone missing in recent years, many probably taken by traffickersMore than 50 lone child asylum seekers who disappeared soon after arriving in the UK and while in the care of the authorities are still missing, according to data obtained by the Guardian.Many of the missing children arrived in small boats or hidden in the backs of lorries and are thought to have been taken by traffickers. Kent is often the place where they arrive. Contin
  
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• Foster carers across England facing widespread racism, sector leader says

  27-10-2025 21:07
  Government urged to act over ‘impact of far-right sentiment’ on children, foster carers and social workersSocial workers are experiencing unprecedented levels of racism, while foster carers whose ethnicity differs from the children they care for have been accosted in the street, a fostering leader has said as he called on the government to take action.Harvey Gallagher, the chief executive of the Nationwide Association of Fostering Providers (NAFP), said there was growing concern abou
  
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• Sue Barker obituary

  19-10-2025 17:47
  My wife, Sue Barker, who has died aged 79 of pancreatic cancer, devoted her life to protecting and improving the lives of vulnerable children. Over more than five decades in social work she brought her fierce integrity to some of the toughest cases in England and Wales.Born in the village of Royston, then in the West Riding of Yorkshire, Sue was the youngest of three children. Her father, Alexander Willett, was a coal miner; her mother, Eleanor (nee Cheetham), had been in domestic service. Conti
  
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• Penalties for unpaid carers in benefits scandal must be halted, says Ed Davey

  19-10-2025 09:00
  Lib Dem leader urges suspension of fines imposed on hundreds of thousands who fell foul of discredited rulesPenalties imposed on thousands of unpaid carers who fall foul of the discredited carer’s allowance benefit rules should be suspended until the government has fixed the system, the Liberal Democrat leader, Ed Davey, has said.A Guardian investigation last year revealed hundreds of thousands of unpaid carers were landed with huge debts – and in some cases prosecuted for fraud &nda
  
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• English councils to remain poorer than in 2010 despite funding rise, says report

  15-10-2025 19:06
  Exclusive: Impact of austerity cannot be undone by end of parliament despite above-inflation funding, analysis findsCouncils in England will still be poorer by the end of this parliament than they were in 2010 despite Labour’s funding increases, according to analysis by the Institute for Government (IfG).Funding cuts from 2010 to 2019 were so severe that they left gaps that could not be filled even by five years of above-inflation increases, leaving local authorities increasingly reliant o
  
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• ‘Frightened to get out of their cars’: Britain’s toxic race debates threaten overseas care workers

  14-10-2025 07:00
  Staff are being advised to travel in mixed groups and carry panic alarms as incidents of intimidation spreadThey have travelled thousands of miles to care for the most vulnerable people in society. But care workers recruited overseas to fill much-needed roles are increasingly facing racist abuse in the UK, industry insiders have warned, as the country’s immigration debate becomes increasingly toxic.Staff working with elderly and disabled service users have been advised to travel to work in
  
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• Badenoch accuses Labour of prioritising economic ties with China over national security – as it happened

  13-10-2025 19:22
  Minister calls Badenoch’s claims about Chinese spy trial ‘baseless smears’. This live blog is closedAt the Downing Street lobby briefing this morning the PM’s spokesperson said it was “entirely false” to suggest the government influenced the collapse of the China spying case because of concerns Beijing could withdraw investment in the UK, Downing Street said.Asked about reports in the Sunday Times which suggested a decision was taken high up in government to a
  
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• Swinney says Scottish government will sponsor visas for foreign care workers

  13-10-2025 18:28
  First minister tells SNP conference older people should not ‘pay the price for Westminster’s prejudice’ over immigrationJohn Swinney has said the Scottish government will help hundreds of overseas care workers stay in the UK, as he attacked Westminster for its rising hostility to immigrants.The first minister said it was unfair Scotland’s older people had to “pay the price for Westminster’s prejudice”, and that his devolved government would sponsor visa
  
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• Tomorrow I Leave review – poignant portrait of a care worker sacrificing her home life for her work

  13-10-2025 08:00
  The paradoxical emotional push and pull of those forced to migrate for work is vividly captured in Maria Lisa Pichler and Lukas Schöffel’s intimate portrait Every four weeks, Maria leaves her small Romanian town and heads to Austria, where she is employed as a care worker for elderly people. Her life is split between borders and constant goodbyes, a transient emotional state vividly captured in Maria Lisa Pichler and Lukas Schöffel’s intimate portrait. In the opening scene,
  
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• NHS could cease to function under Labour’s new visa rules, say nurses

  07-10-2025 15:15
  Exclusive: Royal College of Nursing says plan to tighten rules for foreign workers is ‘pandering’ to Reform UKThe NHS and social care would cease to function under the government’s new rules to be imposed on foreign staff, nursing leaders have said, as hundreds of medics condemned the policy as “divisive and xenophobic”.In the most explicit attack yet on Labour’s proposed restrictions on overseas workers, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) described the plan a
  
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• UK government owes children apology for damaging Covid errors, inquiry hears

  02-10-2025 18:47
  Children’s commissioner during pandemic says long lockdowns caused explosion in vulnerability among youngThe government should apologise to children for the damaging mistakes and policy errors it committed during the pandemic, the former children’s commissioner for England has told the Covid-19 inquiry.Giving evidence to the inquiry’s public hearing on Thursday, Anne Longfield said a “doom loop” of fatalism among ministers meant the government failed to do more to h
  
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• Disclosure: Care Home Undercover review – this brilliant, blood-boiling documentary exposes a grim reality

  01-10-2025 22:00
  This Inverness institution promised fine dining and champagne for residents. Instead, this documentary depicts abhorrent neglect Continue reading...
  
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• NHS 10-year plan will embed privatisation and hollow out the health service | Letter

  30-09-2025 18:18
  Government reforms could lead to the NHS going the way of social care, where the state is longer able, or willing, to deliver, says Margaret GreenwoodYour editorial states that the government will be judged on the state of the NHS (The Guardian view on Labour’s NHS reforms: where is the plan to deliver them?, 22 September). It is a pity that it doesn’t also consider the risks to the future of the NHS posed by the 10-year health plan, which shifts outpatients from publicly owned
  
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