Daily roundup: Care applications, health visitor 'snub', and parents of disabled children struggle to work

Numbers of care applications are continuing to rise according to the latest statistics from Cafcass. Last month the organisation received 937 applications, a nine per cent increase on the same month last year. And for the seven months between April and October this year there were 6,323 applications, up 8.2 per cent on the same period last year. Cafcass said applications received during all months except June this financial year have been the highest ever recorded.

The public health minister has been accused of snubbing health visitors and community nurses after delivering a conference speech that lasted just five minutes. Unite said Dan Poulter's “very brief speech” at the Community Practitioners’ and Health Visitors’ Association (CPHVA) conference in Brighton “did nothing to allay concerns about the future of the NHS”. Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, said: “This was a very special conference for Unite/CPHVA members, who are celebrating the 150 years since the origins of the modern health visiting profession began in Salford in 1862. Yet all the minister could do was mouth a few platitudes, refuse to answer important questions from delegates and then scuttle off back to London. He snubbed these NHS professionals and it has left a sour taste in the mouth.”

More than 90 per cent of unemployed parents with disabled children want to find a job but are unable to, a charity has claimed. A survey by Working Families found that of those parents that did not have a job, 83 per cent said finding suitable childcare was the main barrier to paid work, while 82 per cent had given up work in order to care for their disabled children. Sarah Jackson, chief executive of Working Families, said: “There is often an assumption that parents of disabled children will not be in work, which affects the way they are treated by the services around them. The sheer cost of childcare means that even if work is flexible enough to cope with the demands of appointments, it is difficult to make work pay.”

Local fostering panels should be replaced by regional panels, to make it easier for foster carers to register with more than one fostering agency and therefore increase the number of placements available to children in care, the Norfolk Foster Care Association has claimed. In a letter to the children’s minister Edward Timpson, the association said such a move would “create a level playing field and help address any potential conflict between agencies and the local authority about a foster carers' suitability”.

More than 1,500 children, some as young as ten, have had DNA samples taken by police in North Yorkshire in just two years. The York Press reports that in 2011, samples were taken from 497 boys and 184 girls aged ten to 17. In 2010, a total of 582 boys and 269 girls had samples taken. Under Home Office guidelines police forces can legally take samples from anyone over the age of criminal responsibility, even if they have not been found guilty of an offence.

And finally, people wanting to adopt or foster are to benefit from a new mobile phone application to help them put themselves forward as a potential carer. The software, commissioned by the British Association for Adoption & Fostering (BAAF), allows prospective adopters and foster carers to search for their nearest local authority, voluntary adoption agency, or independent foster care provider. David Holmes, chief executive at BAAF, said: “By launching this mobile app, BAAF is able to reach a whole new arena of prospective adopters and foster carers in a new and exciting way.”