Care home residents are set to benefit from increased payments to cover the cost of free personal and nursing care.

A GROUND-BREAKING cancer care centre has opened in Scotland. The specialist unit is for patients with urological cancers – those affecting the kidney, prostate and testicles.

A package of cost-control measures has been put in place to tackle a £1.3m overspend forecast for social work services in Dumfries and Galloway.

Fife Council has agreed to a public meeting on its controversial new homecare charges. After weeks of pressures and political fighting over the increased costs, the local authority has admitted things could have been done differently – and bowed to campaigners to have a public forum.

{mosimage}It takes place at Rothes Halls, Glenrothes, on Friday, February 1 and is expected to attract campaigners and many local residents worried and concerned about the impact of the new charges.

The meeting will attempt to clarify to the public exactly what the new charges will mean and how they will affect Fife’s disabled and elderly population.

The administration has been accused by the Campaign Against Charges (CAC) group, as well as several councillors, of illegally implementing the charges without a proper policy in place.

A Kirkcaldy councillor has also written to a senior official to ascertain whether the implementation has been legal.

Councillor David Ross said: “There have been failings with implementation in terms of what information has been put out.

There was an error in statistics published in December 2007 relating to breaches of Restriction of Liberty Orders (RLOs).