A veteran councillor has voiced fears over the number of youngsters being taken into care in the north-east after new figures revealed almost 250 are being looked after by Aberdeenshire Council at Banff, Fraserburgh and Peterhead.

Frontline clerical/admin workers in Glasgow council’s social work department began an all out indefinite strike action on 1 July. The dispute is over the failure of the council to pay the 400 workers a ‘working context and demands’ payment under a new pay and grading scheme.

HIGHLAND Council has launched an investigation into allegations that staff have been abusing the facilities at one of their residential care homes in the strath.

Councillors have thrown out plans to increase the size of a proposed care home for elderly people by a third, amid claims that there had been inadequate consultation and research.

It’s a very good start, says Lorne Crerar, of his assault on the Byzantine organic complexity of the bodies which regulate Scotland’s public services. “It’s almost more than I could have hoped for.”

Plans for a £95million development of mental health services in Tayside have taken a step forward with the award of the project’s contract.

Scotland’s largest local authority has pledged to spend £8m on nine new build children’s homes, as it aims to modernise its care of youngsters and put to bed the controversy over the infamous Kerelaw home.

A SPECIALIST care service for people with dementia in Inverness is facing a crippling £110,000 deficit this year — all because Highland Council refuses to pay its share.

The future of a scheme which uses technology to help some of the most vulnerable people in the community is to be decided by Dundee City Council.

The opposition SNP group complained yesterday that Highland Council’s home care and personal care services were being “privatised” by the multi-party coalition running the authority.