A three-year contract has been awarded to provide financial and welfare advice to people in south east Scotland.

SCOTLAND’S jobless total is continuing to rise, the latest figures today show. Unemployment increased by 6,000, to 234,000 between November last year and January. The Scottish unemployment rate is 8.7 per cent, above the UK average of 8.4 per cent.

THE NUMBER of people needing care in the region is expected to soar in the next 25 years. And that’s set to create even more unpaid carers, who look after family or friends. Already, nearly 10 per cent of the region’s population consider themselves to provide some form of care.

FURTHER details of a vision for a new Stirling Care Village for older people are beginning to emerge.

COUNCIL officials have been criticised for failing to provide up-to-date information on the state of the town’s care facilities, reports MIKE DELANEY.

SOCIAL work services in Leven have been given a glowing report following a range of inspections that have been undertaken by the Care Inspectorate.

Six years after an application for a new care home in Coldstream was refused, another application has been lodged for the same site.

AROUND 500 council staff have been physically and verbally abused over a 12-month period, the Paisley Daily Express can reveal today.

ABOUT a third of teenagers in Scotland have been binge drinking by the age of 13, according to new research.

ALEX Salmond sought to woo working families to the cause of independence yesterday with a pledge to legally enshrine free nursery provision for pre-school children.