Liberal Democrat Children and Families Minister, Sarah Teather, today published a Green Paper on Special Educational Needs and Disabilities which proposes a new single assessment process to join up health, social care and education services.
Support for young people in England with special educational needs faces a major overhaul. The government wants to replace the current complex system of statements of need with a simpler, more family-friendly assessment. Parents of special needs children are also being promised control over support budgets by 2014.
Treating stroke survivors for a heartbeat problem called atrial fibrillation (AF) might prevent many patients from going on to develop dementia, UK experts believe. Research into nearly 50,000 patients' records found that AF after a stroke more than doubles the risk of dementia.
Thousands of benefits recipients currently paid by cheque could receive their money on a token "like a library card", the government has said. Only 250,000 out of 18 million benefits claimants receive money by cheques cashed at post offices - often as they do not have a bank account. However, the system is to be run through PayPoint outlets instead, and cheques will be phased out over a year. There are 22,000 PayPoint outlets in UK supermarkets and convenience stores.
Serious concerns have been raised about a controversial vein-widening treatment being offered to people with multiple sclerosis. An investigation by BBC Inside Out discovered that one doctor carrying out the procedure in Egypt is not licensed to practice medicine in that country. The BBC understands that in the UK, an NHS GP has been reported to the doctors' watchdog, the General Medical Council, for organising the treatment through his private company at a cost of nearly £8,000.
A new method using brain scans to spot the early signs of Alzheimer's Disease is being tested in NHS memory clinics. An advanced computer programme compares a patient's brain scan with a database of 1,200 existing images of brains already affected by the disease.