Initiatives to address Scotland’s drug problem are “hugely inefficient” due to the government’s failure to learn from past mistakes, senior professionals have warned.

Over the next two weeks, every social worker, social care worker and early years’ worker registered with the Scottish Social Services Council will receive information through their letterbox and inbox from their regulatory body emphasising their personal responsibility to report poor practice in care services by colleagues or providers.

Angus Council has suspended four employees in the wake of the death of a 74-year-old woman.

A SCOTTISH local authority has been criticised for scrapping free private nursery places for children in a controversial cost-saving move.

Almost £1 million is being provided to allow 3,500 carers respite from the “stressful demands” of looking after someone close to them.

A former Royal Marine who has been appointed to lead Scotland’s major military veterans’ charity out of recent financial and administrative difficulties, has insisted the organisation “needs to move with the times”.

Haddington Infant School Nursery got top marks from inspectors from Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland.

A MAJOR conference staged to examine the treatment of dementia in the Borders heard criticism of some local GPs who are being accused of dragging their feet when it comes to diagnosing the disease.

JUST 12 babies were adopted by new families in Scotland last year, despite hundreds being in care. Child-care experts have blamed the situation on red tape, branding the system “slow and bureaucratic”.

CARE watchdogs are to ban council bosses from placing vulnerable teens at an under-fire residential school.