Care Home Staff 'Must Have Proper Training'

Compulsory training for care home staff will be introduced under Government plans to better protect the elderly from abuse and neglect, according to reports.

Health minister Norman Lamb said the lack of basic requirements for training care workers was leaving pensioners in the hands of staff who have "no idea what they are doing".

Proposals are expected to include national minimum standards for preparing new recruits to work in nursing homes.

Carers who help with tasks such as washing and dressing elderly people in their own homes will also be required to have the training, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Mr Lamb, the Liberal Democrat care minister, said it was not acceptable that there were no "clear standards of the training that must happen in a care home".

He said: "I would not want a loved one of mine - or indeed myself - to be cared for by someone who has no training."

Criminal prosecutions must follow in the "most outrageous" cases of abuse but reforms are needed to improve the quality of care more widely in nursing homes and in pensioners' own homes, he said.

But Mr Lamb said the new regime must not create "a tick box" culture.

A Department of Health spokesperson told Sky News: "No one should feel that they or their loved ones have to settle for poor quality care.

"Whilst there are many providers that deliver high quality care, more needs to be done to make improvements across the board.

"There are no excuses for failing to keep people safe from abuse or not treating them with kindness, dignity and respect."

Campaigners want all staff to have training in dispensing medication, promoting dignity, the basics of nutrition and hydration, and using equipment such as hoists and lifts.

The reforms, expected by the end of the month, follow a number of scandals involving the treatment of the elderly.

Similar arrangements could be introduced in hospitals after Prime Minister David Cameron said he wanted to end the ability of nursing assistants to "give hands-on care in a hospital ward with no training at all", the newspaper said.

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Abu Qatada Arrested For 'Breaching Bail'

Abu Qatada has been arrested for allegedly breaching his bail conditions, days ahead of a new Government attempt to have him deported.

The radical cleric, who has been convicted of terror charges in Jordan, was arrested by UK Border Agency officials on Friday following raids by the Metropolitan Police Service Counter Terrorism unit.

Searches at two residential homes and a business in northwest and west London began on Thursday, while a search on a third property in northwest London is ongoing, Scotland Yard said.

The searches were carried out in connection with ongoing inquiries by the Counter Terrorism Command, a spokesman for Scotland Yard said.

However, no arrests have been made in connection with the police investigation, he added.

The Home Office said: "The UK Border Agency arrested a 52-year-old man from north London for alleged breaches of his bail conditions imposed by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC)."

He added that the breach will be considered by SIAC at the earliest opportunity.

Qatada was reportedly arrested by officials outside his family home in London.

The Sun newspaper showed pictures of him being escorted out of his house with his hands hidden under a jacket.

Qatada is due to appear at the Court of Appeal on Monday for Home Secretary Theresa May's attempt to overturn a judge's decision to allow him to stay in the UK.

Ms May will challenge the decision in front of three Court of Appeal judges led by Lord Dyson, the Master of the Rolls.

Once described by a Spanish judge as "Osama bin Laden's right-hand man in Europe", Qatada has used human rights laws to fight deportation for more than a decade.

SIAC decided last November that Qatada could not lawfully be deported to Jordan, where he was convicted of terror charges in his absence in 1999.

SIAC judges ruled there was a danger that evidence from Qatada's former co-defendants Abu Hawsher and Al Hamasher, said to have been obtained by torture, could be used against him in a retrial in Jordan.

He was granted bail following the ruling by three SIAC judges and released from Long Lartin prison in November last year, returning to his home.

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Bath Ambulance Crash: Boy Badly Hurt

A boy was seriously injured after being hit by an ambulance as it answered a 999 call.

The child, believed to be 10-years-old, suffered "significant" head injuries in the accident with the South Western Ambulance Service vehicle in Bath, Somerset, just after 4pm this afternoon.

A spokeswoman for the ambulance service said he was taken to the city's Royal United Hospital after the accident at the junction of London Road and Snow Hill near the River Avon.

"Due to the serious condition of the patient, police gave permission for the ambulance to leave the scene to take him to hospital," she said.

"Clearly our primary concern is for the patient and his family - senior executives from South Western Ambulance Service have travelled to Bath and will offer to meet with the family."

"We are also ensuring the crew involved are fully supported. We are also working closely with the police to ensure the circumstances surrounding this serious incident are fully investigated."

The child was later transferred to the Frenchay Hospital in Bristol, which has a specialist trauma unit, where he was said to be in a stable condition.

Avon and Somerset Police said London Road was closed in both directions while they investigated the crash and advised motorists to avoid the area.

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Police Hunt For Missing 10-Year-Old Boy

Police are appealing for the public's help to trace a missing 10-year-old boy.

Shaequan Farquarson was last seen at about 8am on Wednesday on Mauldeth Road, Withington, in Manchester.

The youngster is described as black, 4ft 10in tall, with dreadlocks and brown eyes.

He has a Manchester accent and a one inch scar over his left eye.

When he was last seen he was wearing a blue anorak, blue jogging bottoms and white trainers.

Anyone who has seen him, or who knows of his current whereabouts is asked to call police on 101.

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Gucci Ram-Raid: Sloane Street Shop Targeted

Ram-raiders have smashed their way into the flagship London store of luxury fashion brand Gucci.

The suspects struck in busy Sloane Street (Picture: Layla Al-Naif/Twitter)

A black Mercedes, which is believed to have been stolen, was reversed into the glass doors of the Sloane Street shop on Wednesday.

A number of suspects, possibly three, fled the scene with handbags from the store and got away in a blue Audi A4.

There have been no arrests, Scotland Yard said.

Pictures taken at the scene showed a black Mercedes with its headlights switched on facing the entrance to the store.

Gucci opened its Sloane Street branch more than 20 years ago.

Some of the Italian company's handbags sell for more than £2,000, while women's shoes can cost upwards of £700.

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Deer Cull Urged By Experts As Numbers Soar

By David Crabtree, Sky Correspondent

Experts are urging drastic measurers to cull the soaring deer population in Britain.

New research suggests that only by killing 50-60% of the animals can their numbers be kept under some control.

The number of deer in the UK is estimated at 1.5 million - meaning a cull could result in more than 750,000 animals being shot.

They are having a damaging effect on woodland and farmers' crops. They are also causing an increasing number of accidents.

Each year about 450 people are injured or killed on the roads and more than 14,000 vehicles are severely damaged as a result of collisions with deer.

Research Fellow Kristin Waeber, from the University of East Anglia, said: "I think deer belong in the landscape, but if we let the deer numbers increase even more, then we have to make a decision that we lose our woodlands, our bluebells, our oxlips, because the deer will just eat them.

"So are we okay in compromising that in just having a lot of deer about? I think it is important to keep a balance."

The common red deer is Britain's largest land mammal

She says the deer are disturbing the ecology so much that native birds are being wiped out. The fact that nightingales are now so rare is largely blamed on deer.

Thetford Forest has about 14,000 deer in 52,000 acres. They shoot about 2,000 a year and the bodies are sent to local game dealers.

Trevor Banham, chief wildlife ranger at Thetford Forest, said: "We have a part to play in this. We have to try to manage this population and if we don't, we have this process that is going on now where they are starting to go out of control.

"It is needed, the cull is needed all the time."

The RSPCA says it is opposed in principle to the killing or taking of all wild animals unless there is strong evidence to support it.

It is urging controlled methods, where a cull must be taken on a case-by-case basis. They do not want it to be rolled out in a uniform way across the country.

Although they were kept on private land belonging to the nobility, native wild deer were virtually unknown in England for 1,000 years until their re-introduction by the Victorians.

Today, there are more deer in the UK than at any time since the Ice Age.

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Payday Loans: Firms Face Tougher Ad Rules

Payday loans firms are facing tighter advertising rules as the Government tries to ensure that companies do not take advantage of people drowning in debt.

The plans include limiting the number of adverts firms are allowed to put out per hour, the times they can advertise and forcing them to make sure that interest rates are clearly displayed.

The Government will work with the Advertising Standards Authority and the industry to make sure advertising does not tempt consumers into taking out payday loans that they cannot afford.

The clampdown emerged as the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) prepares to publish the results of a wide-ranging probe into the payday lending industry later.

The OFT has carried out spot checks of 50 major lenders and obtained information from all 240 lenders in the market.

The regulator said in its interim report last autumn that formal investigations have been launched into several firms over their debt collection methods.

Charities have reported rocketing numbers of complaints about payday lenders from borrowers.

The Money Advice Trust (MAT) recently said that complaints about payday loans have doubled year-on-year to reach a record of 20,000 across 2012.

The charity warned that "something is drastically wrong" with the way that expensive loans are being dished out to people who cannot afford them, with lenders often rolling over loans.

New regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which will oversee the consumer credit market from next year, will prioritise tighter rules on payday lending that could come into effect from April 2014.

The FCA's rules will be binding and if they are broken the regulator will have tough enforcement powers including imposing unlimited fines and the ability to claw consumers' money back.

The Government is also planning to do more to encourage greater communication within the industry to stop consumers taking out multiple loans from different lenders.

Sajid Javid, Economic Secretary to the Treasury, said: "The Government is introducing a fundamentally new approach to regulating consumer credit, which will ensure that irresponsible firms and bad practice will have no place in the consumer credit marketplace.

"Consumers can have greater confidence that the new FCA will intervene early and decisively in their interests - thanks to its more focused remit, objectives and powers."

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Royal Baby: Kate 'Reveals' Sex Of Child

The Duchess of Cambridge has sparked speculation that she is expecting a baby girl after an apparent slip of the tongue during a trip to Grimsby.

One member of the 2,000-strong crowd has made headlines after saying Kate may have accidentally hinted that she and Prince William are having a daughter.

The exchange happened during Kate's walk-about in the foggy fishing port, when she was handed a teddy bear by 41-year-old Diana Burton.

Sandra Cook, 67, who was standing next to Ms Burton, reportedly heard Kate say: "Thank you, I will take that for my d..." before cutting herself off.

Sandra told reporters: "I leant over and said to her: 'You were going to say daughter weren't you?'.

"She said, 'No, we don't know!'. I said, 'Oh I think you do,' to which she replied: 'We're not telling'."

If correct, the exchange means Britain will have another Queen, as changes to the laws of succession mean even if William and Kate one day have a son, he would not be able to claim the throne ahead of his big sister.

Otherwise Kate was careful not to give any clues, referring to her unborn child as "it" in one exchange.

When asked by a woman: "Can you feel the baby kicking?", the Duchess replied: "Yes. I can feel it kicking."

The Duchess - her baby bump just visible beneath her chocolate-coloured three-quarter length Hobbs coat - began her visit at the northeast Lincolnshire town's National Fishing Heritage Centre before visting Grimsby's Peaks Lane Fire Station, where she was greeted with more loud cheers from the estimated 200 people who were waiting for her.

One of the women who had been waiting up to three hours to meet her, Claire Moss-Smith, 86, said she had said to the Duchess: "I'm waiting for you to be Queen."

She said Kate laughed and replied: "You might be waiting a long time."

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British Army Bases In Germany To Close By 2019

British Army's History In Germany

Updated: 10:27pm UK, Monday 04 March 2013

By Alistair Bunkall, Defence Correspondent

The British Army arrived in Germany after the end of the Second World War to control the British zone of the country.

It became known as the Rhine Army or BAOR because of the location of bases in West Germany. Its first Commander-in-Chief was one Field Marshall Montgomery.

In the early years, relations between locals and occupiers were completely non-existant.

The British were not allowed to socialise with Germans. To ensure these strict rules were followed, bases were like small towns and everything was catered for - shopping, entertainment, schooling, you name it.

So separate were the two cultures, and such was the British loathing of Germany, that the military even had its own currency to avoid money going into the German economy.

It was also a reflection on the number of serving military in the country at the time. At its height the BAOR numbered 150,000 personnel and that is not including wives and children.

The Cold War followed some years later and Germany became the frontline against the communist threat from the East. Soldiers based there remember training for an imminent Soviet invasion and practising drills in the event of a nuclear strike.

As the years went on, and Germany rebuilt itself, relations softened and soldiers were allowed to fraternise with German women. Naturally some ended up marrying each other and that hasn't changed a bit.

In the late 1980s it became a target for a new enemy. Ten people were killed in attacks by the IRA between 1988 and 1990. This campaign only ended when two Australian tourists were shot dead after being mistaken for off-duty British soldiers.

In recent times Germany has been an important staging post for British forces as the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have demanded a change in focus.

Any soldier of a certain generation is likely to have spent some time in Germany, whether posted there on a more permanent basis or just in the country on exercise.

The well known sports broadcaster Barry Davies began his future career whilst serving in Germany. He commentated on inter-regimental sports matches for the British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) radio and so a vocation began.

The relationship between the British military and the Germans was one that started from the lowest point imaginable but has grown into one of shared resources and outlook.

They arrived as occupiers, became guests, and will leave as friends.

By 2019, a long and entwined history, will come to and end.

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Death Rate: Britain Lagging On Life Expectancy

By Jason Farrell, Sky News Correspondent

Britons are more likely to die early than people in most wealthy nations, research suggests - and experts are warning the gap is widening.

A study has found the UK is now 14th out of 19 Western countries for life expectancy.

In 1990, Britain ranked tenth in a league table - with Alzheimer's disease, cirrhosis of the liver and drug use disorders being blamed for our falling position.

The research was published as Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt prepares to address a "shocking underperformance" that is costing 30,000 lives every year.

Co-authored by Public Health England, the Global Burden of Disease Study, published in the Lancet journal, looks at the state of health in the 15 original members of the EU along with Canada, Australia, Norway and the US.

The report compares death rates, disease and health risks in 1990 and in 2010.

In these 20 years, life expectancy has increased in the UK - by an average of 4.2 years to 79.9 years - but it has failed to keep pace with other nations.

While we are living longer, we are experiencing longer periods of ill health and disability.

Obesity another major concern for health professionals

The UK is now below average compared with 18 other countries on many important indicators.

The biggest risk to health in the UK is tobacco, which accounts for 12% of the disease burden, followed very closely by high blood pressure and high body mass and then physical inactivity, alcohol and poor diet.

As a result, early death rates have not reduced among 20 to 54-year-olds for 20 years.

There have been improvements in many cancer treatments and in road safety, but there has been an increase in alcohol-related and drug-use deaths.

Among all age groups, drug disorders have risen nearly six-fold.

Co-author Professor Kevin Fenton said the report was a "wake-up call and an opportunity".

He said: "While it's encouraging that overall the health of the UK has improved substantially since the last report the pace of improvement is not enough."

Across all ages, the top eight diseases causing the most years of life lost in the UK remain largely the same as those reported in 1990.

In order, these are heart disease, lung cancer, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lower respiratory infections, colorectal cancer, breast cancer and self-harm.

Prof Fenton said there needed to be more focus on prevention as well as "high quality and accountable" clinical care.

The Health Secretary has previously pledged to cut the number of avoidable deaths from cancer, heart disease, strokes, respiratory and liver disease.

He now wants more people to be trained to use defibrillators and conduct CPR, while relatives of people who have died from cardiac conditions will get tests to see whether they too are at risk.

Mr Hunt said: "Despite real progress in cutting deaths we remain a poor relative to our global cousins on many measures of health, something I want to change.

"For too long we have been lagging behind and I want the reformed health system to take up this challenge and turn this shocking under-performance around."

Co-author Professor John Newton, chief knowledge officer at Public Health England, said: "We should be proud that life expectancy in the UK has increased as much as it has since 1990, but we need to make sure that these extra years are healthy ones."

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Cardinal: Sexual Conduct 'Fell Below Standards'

Cardinal Keith O'Brien has admitted that there have been times when his sexual conduct "fell beneath expected standards".

The 74-year-old resigned as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh last week over allegations of improper behaviour up to 30 years ago.

In a statement issued by the Catholic Church in Scotland, he said: "In recent days certain allegations which have been made against me have become public. Initially, their anonymous and non-specific nature led me to contest them.

"However, I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.

"To those I have offended, I apologise and ask forgiveness.

The cleric initially contested the allegations against him

"To the Catholic Church and people of Scotland, I also apologise.

"I will now spend the rest of my life in retirement. I will play no further part in the public life of the Catholic Church in Scotland."

The Cardinal had offered to stand down from his post in November but his resignation was only accepted on Monday.

It came a day after The Observer reported three priests and a former priest had complained about him to the Vatican over alleged "inappropriate behaviour" stretching back three decades.

In fresh claims published on Sunday, the former priest attacked the Catholic Church's response to the complaints.

He told the newspaper of "sensing the cold disapproval of the Church hierarchy for daring to break ranks".

He added: "I feel like if they could crush me, they would.

"The vacuum the Church has created has allowed whimsy and speculation to distort the truth, and the only support I have been offered is a cursory email with a couple of telephone numbers of counsellors hundreds of miles away from me."

Another priest, Father John Robinson, told the Scottish Daily Record: "If the Catholic Church in Scotland is to heal itself, we need transparency and understanding.

"We need to learn lessons from the mistakes we have made in the past and move on to become a more loving and understanding Church which does not condemn victims or even abusers."

Cardinal O'Brien, who was born in Ballycastle, Co Antrim, had been the Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh since 1985.

Ordained as a priest in 1965, he was proclaimed a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in October 2003.

It is understood he is currently out of the country and will not be attending the conclave to elect the successor to Pope Benedict.

His absence means Britain will have no representative to vote in the forthcoming election of the next pope.

The cleric, who initially said he would contest the claims and was taking legal advice, had been expected to quit on March 17 - the date of his 75th birthday.

Cardinals older than 75 are not allowed to vote in the conclave, which is expected to take place in the next few weeks.

An outspoken cleric through the years, Cardinal O'Brien has been no stranger to making the news with his views.

Last week, in a BBC interview, he called for the Catholic Church to end its celibacy rule for the priesthood.

He also recently advocated priests marrying - and has been an outspoken opponent of plans to legalise same-sex marriage. His stance landed him the Bigot of the Year award from the gay rights group Stonewall.

In 2007, he caused controversy when on the 40th anniversary of the Abortion Act, he said the termination rate north of the border was equivalent to "two Dunblane massacres a day".

The Archbishop of Glasgow has been appointed to govern the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh until a permanent replacement for Cardinal O'Brien is chosen.

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Mortars Found In Van In Londonderry

At least three mortars have been found in the back of a van which had its roof removed in preparation for an attack, Sky sources say.

Army bomb disposal experts were called to the Letterkenny Road area of Londonderry after the devices were discovered last night and around 100 homes were evacuated.

Sky's Ireland correspondent David Blevins said: "It would appear that police have managed to thwart yet another attempted attack by dissident republicans.

"A huge security operation has been under way for several hours after Sky sources confirmed that police intercepted at least three mortars."

A bomb disposal robot pictured at the scene

Three men have been arrested, including two 37-year-olds and a 35-year-old.

Blevins said: "We are being told by local people in the Letterkenny Road area that police stopped the van and there is some suggestion they stopped a motorbike at the same time before they made the arrests.

"The police realised very quickly that they had intercepted the mortars primed for an attack in the vehicle which has a Southern Irish registration number plate."

A Police Service of Northern Ireland spokesman said: "Police are currently dealing with a security alert in the Letterkenny Road area of Londonderry, following the discovery of a suspicious object in a vehicle.

The discovery was made on the outskirts of Londonderry

"Approximately 100 homes have been evacuated and army technical officers are at the scene.

"Detectives from PSNI serious crime branch are dealing with the incident and are linking it with dissident republican activity."

Blevins said: "The timing of any attack would be significant given that we are just four days away from a Westminster by-election in Northern Ireland in the mid-Ulster constituency - the seat which was formerly held by Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness.

"That indeed may have been why a possible attack was being planned by those opposed to the peace settlement."

The four contenders for Thursday's by-election are Sinn Fein Assembly Member Francie Molloy, independent Nigel Lutton, the Social Democratic and Labour Party's Patsy McGlone and Eric Bullick of the cross-community Alliance Party.

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PM Meets Families Facing Poverty At Food Bank

By Ian Woods, Senior Correspondent

The Prime Minister has made a secret visit to his local food bank, after criticism that Downing Street does not understand the increasing role they are playing in 'Austerity Britain'.

Mr Cameron visited the charity, which operates out of a church hall in his constituency in Oxfordshire, and spoke to volunteers who supply up to 10 families each week with emergency food parcels.

Nationally, the use of food banks has grown, with the largest operator, the Trussell Trust, now running 310 centres. The trust helped 260,000 people in the past year, an increase of 60,000 on the year before.

The Witney food bank was set up by Jo Cypher, who told Sky News: "We've had people coming in saying 'we've had a choice this week, either we buy electric, we buy gas, we pay bills, or we eat'."

Her colleague Julie Walker-Lock said they were helping a variety of people. "We're seeing from the elderly down to the families with young children. We've had a barrister in - he'd been looking after his wife and she'd passed away and he'd lost everything, and he came here, and we helped him out."

Melody Hopkins is one of the those who has used the Witney food bank. She told Sky News she was a victim of domestic violence, and then lost her job as a carer for disabled people.

More and more people are relying on food banks

Despite receiving benefits and child tax credits, she said she struggles to pay rising food and heating bills, and care for her eight-year-old son Toby who requires daily medication for Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder. She found it difficult to make the transition from wage earner to welfare recipient.

"My wages had stopped, so I had to wait for the benefits to kick in. We were desperate. We didn't have any food. At one point I had a fiver, in my back pocket, to just go and get some food.

"It's sad to think that I used to work, I used to do three meals a day, it was great, and now it's come down to one meal a day, because Toby gets free lunch at school. So I haven't eaten today - I'll eat later with him. I have gone without because Toby comes first ... it's sad when I can't give Toby the food he wants."

Difficulties in finding childcare after school for a child with special needs mean Ms Hopkins cannot get a full-time job, so she does voluntary work instead.

"I don't want to be on benefits. I want to go back to work and do a job. I've always worked. This is the only one or two years I haven't had a job," she said.

The food bank in Witney is housed in a church hall

Ms Hopkins added that she shops for clothes once a year, gets furniture from charity shops and avoids big supermarkets. 

"Every aisle is temptation, you need to go around those shops and not even look at the prices. I can't do that. I go in with a basket and it's the bare essentials - can we make tea out of what we've got? And you see people walking out with big trolleys and you think OK, I haven't got that, we've got what we need and we will go," she explained.

To help as many people as possible, and to avoid dependency, food banks permit only three visits per year, and recipients have to have been referred by a charity or other agency. GPs are now prescribing food as well as medicine to patients.

Dr Raj Kohli, from the Deer Park Medical Centre in Witney, told Sky News: "I do come across families who are struggling to appropriately feed their children. Particularly with fresh fruit and vegetables, it's expensive.

"We're not necessarily seeing the physical effects of malnutrition at this stage, but they are struggling. We need to look at their immediate needs, and a food bank can help their immediate needs."

Food bank user Melody Hopkins prepares a meal

Witney is not the sort of place you might expect to find poverty. The Cotswolds town has only 909 people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance and its unemployment rate is less than half of the national average. 

But there are enough people struggling to make ends meet to mean the food bank has become a vital resource. Even the local Brownie pack saved loose change and then put all their money together to buy tins of food to give to the poor. Shoppers and supermarkets both donate groceries which can be used in food parcels.

The volunteers at the Witney food bank were sworn to secrecy about the Prime Minister's visit, and no cameras were present.

But they said that he listened to their comments about why the food bank was needed and their fears that changes to the benefits system in April could bring a fresh influx of people who find it hard to pay their bills.

Previously, a Downing Street spokesperson has said: "Benefit levels are set at a level where people can afford to eat. If people have short-term shortages, where they feel they need a bit of extra food, then of course food banks are the right place for that. But benefits are not set at such a low level that people can't eat."

Affluent Witney is not necessarily where you would expect to find poverty

Volunteer Julie Walker-Lock told Sky News: "I think that was a very ill-informed statement they made. There is a genuine need for us to be here." 

Ms Cypher said: "We were glad he came, because I think he was blind to the fact that, like everybody else, supposedly Witney is very rich. It's actually quite the opposite. It's not.

"I think he went away with a better understanding of how the system works and why we're here. I'm hoping that we went away with some of those thoughts, and he will act on them."

For those who use the food banks, items like pasta and tins of soups can be an essential part of their diet. But sometimes it's having an occasional treat which can lift people out of depression. An unexpected Christmas hamper made all the difference to Ms Hopkins and her son.

"To everybody else they're not luxuries, but to me and my son they were luxuries. They were things I wanted to buy but couldn't afford to buy, and it brought some tears to our eyes.

"Christmas Day we just had a standard chicken. Most people have turkey, we didn't, we had tinned veg. I mean, it was OK, but we had the little extras like a cracker each, and mince pies. My son was like 'I got sweeties' and I actually wrapped them up and put them in his stocking - that's how important it is to us," she said.

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Councils 'Not Providing Enough Childcare'

More than two thirds of councils are failing to provide enough childcare for working parents, campaigners for families' rights have warned.

Only one in five local authorities have enough childcare for parents with children under two, and just one in three for school-age children, according to the Daycare Trust and Family and Parenting Institute.

And just one in seven have enough childcare for disabled children - a figure that has not improved in five years, it said.

The charity's chief executive, Anand Shukla, said the shortage is linked to the financial squeeze.

"Councils across England and Wales are failing families by presiding over a continuing shortage of high-quality, affordable childcare," he said.

"Local authorities have a legal duty to ensure a sufficient supply of childcare in their areas, but no doubt their failure to do so is linked to the tight financial squeeze they find themselves in, with ever more austere funding settlements.

"Only the Government can address this situation by investing more in providing support for parents."

Britain has some of the highest childcare costs in the world.

Figures published recently by the Department for Work and Pensions showed that a third of parents who want to work more cannot because they are unable to find affordable childcare.

The Government is set to announce childcare reforms

As part of coalition efforts to cut childcare costs, staff are to be able to take charge of six two-year-olds rather than four, while the ratio for children under the age of one will go up from three to four

But the charity's Childcare Costs Survey 2013 suggests such plans will have little impact on childcare costs.

Mr Shukla said: "Staffing costs are only part of a complicated picture, so allowing adults to look after more children at once is not only a risky idea, but an ineffective one too.

"With private and non-profit childcare providers exposed to the full force of a harsh business economy, we doubt whether parents will ever see any of the money saved by cutting nursery staff."

Ministers have still not finalised a much-heralded, wider shake-up of childcare funding and tax breaks.

The Government will make an announcement soon, a spokesman said.

"We are reforming the childcare system so that providers have more flexibility when they have highly qualified staff and childminders are better supported," he said.

"Ratio changes, which are not compulsory, will allow providers to have the flexibility to increase pay for better qualified workers.

"High quality providers will be able to expand and more childminders will enter the market - this will mean parents have more affordable childcare."

The charity's study will be published on Wednesday.

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