Parents in the Fife and Central Scotland force areas will now have the right to ask if a sex offender may have access to their children.

Elderly residents at a north-east care home fear they could be left housebound amid claims Aberdeenshire Council plans to change wardens’ shifts.

BASW Scotland has criticised the coalition government’s plans for major reduction in funding for Scotland, announced in the Comprehensive Spending Review last week, and called on the Scottish government to do everything it can to protect services for vulnerable adults and children.

Police are investigating claims that an elderly woman was tied to a bed at a care home in Glasgow. It has been reported that the 84-year-old woman was restrained at Baillieston Care Home in the city’s east end.

Scotland’s local councils are facing a new cash crisis as Holyrood imposes a budget on them that will leave them with a £630 million shortfall, according to a document leaked to The Herald.

FIFE Council has ruled out the total closure of its care homes — but question marks remain over the heads of several facilities.

An SNP councillor in Fife will be “seriously disappointed” if the local authority ends up spending £16 million on two new care homes.

CONCERNED neighbours and parents of St Blane’s Primary reacted angrily this week during a public meeting over a proposed behavioural school.

A carer at an Edinburgh residential home who hit a 79-year-old dementia patient on the head has been jailed for four months.

Charities warned last night that the neediest people in society would be hit hardest by the cuts – and urged the Scottish Government and local authorities not to make the problems worse.