These include the case of six-year-old Rikki Neave, who died from abuse after social workers failed to take him into care.

The White Paper is expected to cover a range of measures, including:

• Setting new standards for social care staff and ensuring they are properly trained;
• New plans for independent inspections of care homes;
• The introduction of national frameworks on charging for domiciliary care, on carers and on access to services;
• A long-term care charter.

New council

Former Junior Health Minister Paul Boateng announced in April the gradual phasing in of a General Social Care Council.

It will establish codes of practice for all social care staff.

It will also decide who is registered and when. The register will cover not only social workers, but other care staff. Being on it will depend on possessing the relevant qualifications and training.

All employers will have to sign up to a code of good employment, which will emphasise their responsibility to check that new staff are properly trained.

Social services chiefs are keen to have a national register in order to reassure the public. They want it to begin with child care staff.

Around 80% of Britain's 1.2 million social care workers do not have professional qualifications.

Experts have warned that giving them up-to-date training will be an enormous task.

Qualified staff are already registered, but the government wants to use the care council as a way of encouraging more training and qualifications.

The council will have a lay chairman and members appointed by the health secretary.

Independent inspections

While the 1984 Registered Homes Act requires private and voluntary homes to be registered, inspected twice-yearly and regulated by the local authorities, local authority homes have no such statutory requirement. They do, however, have to be inspected under the 1991 Community Care Act.

Health Secretary Frank Dobson will unveil the White Paper

The same is true of small children's homes (with fewer than four children run by for-profit organisations) and domicilary services (care given to people in their homes).

Under the proposals, eight independent regional authorities will be created, with sole responsibility for regulating care services for both adult and childrens' services.

They will replace the estimated 250 local authority and health authority inspection teams which exist at present.

The government will draw up national standards for the inspectors to monitor.

They will have powers to serve improvement notices, to prosecute and de-register.

Care home managers will have a right of appeal against any decision.

The services covered will include care homes, foster agencies, boarding schools and home care services.

National frameworks

There are also likely to be national frameworks on charging for domiciliary care, on carers and on access to services.

Currently, eligibility for care services can be altered according to a local authority's financial position.

Six-year-old Rikki Neave died after being abused

Many hard-pressed councils have changed their criteria and effectively rationed care so that only the most vulnerable receive services.

Some have introduced charges or raised charges for domiciliary care. Age Concern says the current system is "a lottery determined by your postcode".

Its Director-General, Sally Greengross, said: "It is essential to reduce the variation in quality and levels of service which older people in different parts of the country receive."

Long-term care charter

The proposed long-term care charter has been promised for some time.

Several private and voluntary care homes have their own charters which operate along the lines of the NHS Patients' Charter.

The National Care Homes Association has a code of conduct and residents' charter for its members, spelling out residents' right to privacy, dignity and other issues such as religious worship.

The sssociation says it will offer the charter to the government as a blueprint.