A new £7.6m hospital unit for teenagers battling serious mental health problems including eating disorders has been officially opened in Glasgow.

News that the Scottish Government is to delay the introduction of the controversial Children’s Hearings Bill until early next year has been welcomed by leading social workers and the charity which represents children in care.

The Baby P scandal has led to councils across the north and north-east being inundated with calls about at-risk children. New figures from Aberdeen City Council show referrals went up by a quarter last year and the number of youngsters on the child-protection register soared by half in the past eight months.

The Church of Scotland is consulting on a wave of redundancies after losing tens of millions in the economic downturn. It is understood up to a quarter of the 80 staff at the Edinburgh headquarters of the Kirk’s CrossReach service, part of a 200-year-old practice of providing social support, could face redundancy.

CHANGES to the homecare service in the Borders are the first part of a long term plan to improve care for the elderly but as far as some carers, clients and their families are concerned it has hardly been an auspicious start.

HIGHLAND Council’s introduction of charges to transport the elderly to day care centres and lunch clubs in Badenoch and Strathspey has been branded “disgusting” and “diabolical”.

THE homeless hostel where murdered prostitute Emma Caldwell was last seen alive is finally to be closed. Inglefield Hostel in Govanhill, Glasgow, is the only large hostel for homeless women remaining in Scotland.

NEGOTIATIONS to secure £200,000 of funding for Beechwood House — Inverness’s only 24-hour emergency centre for alcoholics — have failed, sparking fresh fears that the facility may be forced to close.

Glasgow City Council has today launched a programme offering an alternative to remand for young people going through the court system.

A Dundee child protection worker today said she strongly believed Brandon Muir’s killing was both predictable and preventable.