Thousands of asthma hospital admissions could be avoided if patients were given personalised plans to manage their condition, it was claimed yesterday. Almost 400,000 people in Scotland suffer from asthma and more than 6,000 emergency trips to hospital each year are caused by the condition.

A growing number of Scots children are falling victim to parental abduction, despite an international crackdown. The rate of international child-abduction cases is rising in Scotland following the growth of family breakdowns and increasing ease of travel, say legal experts.

Health and social work staff are being merged to create a more efficient service. East Renfrewshire Council’s social work department and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s local health services have moved into a new office block in Burnfield Avenue, Giffnock.

A new care home planned for the site of Edinburgh’s Eastern General Hospital is facing a delay of nearly one year. The council is due to open four new homes in the city to help tackle the problem of “bed blocking”, where patients are held in hospitals because they have nowhere else to go.

A lack of out-of-hours social work staff at Dumfries and Galloway Council is putting child ren’s services at significant risk. The council’s chief social work officer Beth Smith highlighted the problem in a report on emergency out-of-hours social work.