INVERNESS councillor Peter Corbett broke away from the administration yesterday when he stood up and refused to spend £25,000 of taxpayer’s money on promoting a senior social work officer to ease the workload of one of the authority’s most highly-paid directors.

The mother of a six-year-old boy who was subjected to what a judge described as “truly appalling” abuse from a man she had regarded as a close friend said yesterday that her child had been “shaped and moulded” for life by the experience.

The University of Edinburgh has awarded the Scottish musician Annie Lennox an honorary degree in a ceremony at the Playfair Library.

UNION leaders have voiced concerns that Highland Council wants to spend £25,000 of tax-payers’ money on easing the workload of one of its most highly-paid council officers so she can continue to represent a national organisation.

Relatives of people who use centres for adults with learning disabilities have criticised proposals to close a number of them in southern Scotland.

Social care charity Quarriers has today come to an agreement with its 2,000 staff about proposed changes to their terms and conditions.

PLANS to spend £30million tackling child neglect in Glasgow have been welcomed by children’s welfare campaigners. The city’s director of public health has announced a series of new measures aimed at protecting children at risk of abuse as a result of poverty or parental drug and alcohol abuse.

SOCIAL work boss Andrew Lowe has acknowledged that the home care service provided by Scottish Borders Council to a 101-year-old Kelso woman “has not been acceptable”.

Scotland’s most senior social workers have called for greater understanding from politicians, the public and parents in controversial instances where children are removed from the family home.

THE 23-stone mum who had her baby taken from her just hours after birth has now lost all seven of her children. The woman was told the last of her three children still at home were being taken into care.