The Highland Council has been criticised after spending over £2m on a scheme to build five new care homes – only for the project to be scrapped.

The head of social work in Dumfries and Galloway has insisted service provision will not be sacrificed to reduce spending by £780,000.

FIRST Minister Alex Salmond has described allegations of abuse at a Scots care home as “serious and distressing”.

Staff who helped with the evacuation of OAPs when a care home burned down are now facing losing their jobs.

The Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration (SCRA) today announced that more children are requiring compulsory measures of intervention, with a further rise in the number of children and young people on Supervision.

A COUNCIL department with an £82 million budget is set to overspend. Social work chiefs say the way things are going they’ll spend £106,000 more than planned by April next year.

The architect of radical plans to overhaul public services in the west of Scotland is expected to spearhead a nationwide review of how local government must change in the face of a massive squeeze on budgets.

Adult protection activity in Angus is set to continue its upward climb as frontline staff increase their awareness of those at risk.

As many as 3000 people are living with dementia in the Highland Council area but hundreds of them don’t know they have the condition.

Eight local authorities in Scotland are planning to share key services in a bid to save up to £70m over five years.