Holyrood ministers have been asked to intervene in a row between Highland planners and a company that wants to increase the size of a proposed Lochaber care home.

Aberdeen City Council has been told to apologise to a woman whose son starved to death while in the care of health and social workers.

Two major social care developments at an Aberdeenshire village were officially opened by First Minister Alex Salmond yesterday.

COUNCILLORS have approved the draft development plan for a £9.3 million project, which aims to provide improved services for older people in Carnoustie on the site of the Kinloch school.

FIFE Council has come under fire over allegations of low staff morale, intimidation and a blame culture across its social work service.

BURNSIDE-based Glasgow Liberal Democrat MSP Robert Brown has called for better treatment for dementia sufferers during a debate in the Scottish Parliament on dementia.

VULNERABLE children and families in the region are benefiting from a new scheme which helps keep youngsters safe. Family group conferences, which have been developed by Children 1st and Dumfries and Galloway Council, bring together the wider family network so they can develop a plan to protect and support the children in the family.

A CRUSADING former pupil of a special needs school is fronting a campaign to keep it open. Julie McElroy, of Jordanhill, hopes to stop Richmond Park School in the Gorbals being closed and the pupils moved to another school.

AN innovative Inverclyde initiative to help raise awareness of the issue of suicide has won a national award. Choose Life Inverclyde was named Best Partnership Working (Public/Voluntary) at the Association for Public Service Awards in Cardiff.

The pregnant mother of two children, aged 3 and 4, taken into care because they were judged to be overweight spoke yesterday of her anguish at the decision.