Vulnerable children in homes run by Calcot Services for Children were abused when staff should have prioritised safeguarding them. Calcot runs eight homes, four schools, and supported living accommodation, making huge profits of 36%, double that of other care providers. Calcot said profits were high because it built up investment. A dozen current and former employees said the company accepted high-risk children because they came with increased funding levels, but did not meet all their needs or keep them safe. Children were groomed for sex, given alcohol, or assaulted by staff. Allegations of child-on-child sexual abuse and suicide attempts were not reported to Ofsted despite an obligation to do so. Employees said vulnerable children were failed. Foster caring is often inappropriate for those who have suffered the worst abuse and neglect. Children's homes are the last resort for young people. Local councils no longer manage care for children with challenging behaviour. Most homes are now run by private companies.

The Royal College of Nursing is urging the Government to increase investment in long Covid research after being warned that patients are suffering under a ‘postcode lottery’ in care. Some clinics treat long Covid as a physical condition, while other clinics treat it as psychological. Existing services are woefully inadequate to meet the level of demand. Latest official data estimates that two million people have said they are experiencing long Covid. There is also a need for nursing expertise to be used more widely to treat the condition. Where nursing staff are used in long Covid care, they play a pivotal role in managing patient care and treating chronic symptoms. Nursing staff see first-hand how life-limiting long Covid can be, especially when patients are suffering with complex chronic symptoms such as fatigue, joint pain, and brain fog. There are not enough specialist services to meet the growing demand, and the help patients get varies hugely across the country.

UK workers are less keen to return to commuting than their European counterparts. Over a third of them still work from home. Hybrid working is the new normal. The new night for after work drinks is Wednesday, as many only visit the office on Tuesdays, Wednesday and Thursdays (sparking the acronym Twats). Boris Johnson told civil servants to ‘make sure everybody gets back to work’, but fewer than one in ten have returned to their desks five days a week. Some say staff are more productive in the office as it is harder to collaborate creatively with colleagues over video calls. Others say they get more done at home without distractions or gossiping, and there are big savings in money and time. Many say their work-life balance has improved, but research has found that working from home increases ‘burnout’ rates as people struggle to juggle their careers and family lives.

Parents are receiving an increasing number of fines by schools trying to encourage children to stop missing school. Almost 1.8 million children regularly missed school in the first term of this academic year. As part of a mission to tackle this, parents have been fined £3.7m so far. For some families there are financial barriers; for example, one pupil messaged that they don't have trousers to wear into school. A uniform bank within the school has now been set up to help remove that barrier, but building trust with families can be tough. Some people are not brave enough to come forward and say they can't afford things. Some parents can't afford the dinner money, and it's cheaper to keep them at home. Parents have also been known to keep older children off school to look after younger siblings. Persuading parents to encourage their children into school can be difficult, as many families face ‘heart-wrenching’ struggles.