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Campaigners say cash-strapped local authorities are placing young people in budget accommodation, making them targets for grooming by criminal gangsVulnerable teenagers in care are being placed in hotels by cash-strapped councils, with experts warning they are being “served up” to criminal gangs.Children aged 16 to 17 are entering care in greater numbers than any other age group, often with complex needs, and experts say...

Karina Moon, who is sole carer for her daughter most of the week, was told she needed to repay £11,292.75 or be prosecuted for fraudEx-ministers press Sunak on ‘persecution’ of carers who broke earnings rulesCarers in the UK: have you been threatened with prosecution for benefit fraud?Karina Moon vividly recalls the telephone call that brought her to tears. She was stood, frozen, in the...

Possible charity highlights financial savings and environmental benefits for low-paid staffMinisters should consider a social leasing scheme for care workers in rural areas across the UK to use electric cars, a climate charity has argued, saying this would save often low-paid staff large sums, also bringing a big environmental boost.A focus group of carers in rural and semi-rural parts of the UK, carried out...

University of Oxford study shows benefits and risks of technology to healthcare, but ethical issues remainBritain’s hard-pressed carers need all the help they can get. But that should not include using unregulated AI bots, according to researchers who say the AI revolution in social care needs a hard ethical edge.A pilot study by academics at the University of Oxford found some care providers had...

Proposals to reduce funding for services from bin collections to social care, arts and libraries leave many worried for the futureIt wasn’t long ago that the people of Birmingham were being told the city was on the brink of a “golden decade”, with record levels of investment off the back of events including the Commonwealth Games and the arrival of HS2.Now the council has...

Young people with complex needs face long waits for places because providers fear negative watchdog reportsSome care homes in England are refusing to take children with complex needs because they are worried it might affect their Ofsted inspection ratings, fuelling concern that vulnerable young people in the social care system are having to wait months or even years for a stable home.Last month, an...

Plans to reform social care and House of Lords are trimmed as Keir Starmer’s party opts for caution ahead of voteLabour is planning only limited first-term reforms of social care and the House of Lords and a smaller green investment plan as part of a stripped-down general election manifesto, as it seeks to make its policies “bombproof” to Tory attacks.Shadow cabinet ministers have been...