SOUTH Lanarkshire Council’s use of an online auction to acquire care provision for the elderly has been compared to “buying cheap jewellery on a TV shopping channel”.

A scheme to encourage failed asylum seekers to leave Scotland voluntarily, rather than through enforced detention, began yesterday.

MANAGEMENT failure, poor training and a “macho” culture are among the damning criticisms raised by an official Scottish Government report into the Kerelaw abuse scandal published yesterday. The Ayrshire residential unit faced hundreds of alleged cases of sexual and physical abuse from its former pupils dating back to the early 1990s.

Poorly-trained staff at a residential school were able to abuse children with impunity, according to an independent inquiry published yesterday.

Inverclyde Council’s education and social work chief Ian Fraser has been suspended. The council issued a brief statement last night saying that Mr Fraser, who is Corporate Director of Education and Social Care, was suspended by chief executive John Mundell on Friday afternoon pending a full investigation into “a number of management and operational matters.”

A CENTRE supporting people with learning difficulties is celebrating after the council performed a U-turn and agreed to continue funding dozens of its members.

SOCIAL work chiefs have defended their decision to allow four children who were described as living like “street urchins” to be returned to their parents.

SERVICES for deaf and hearing-impaired people in Tayside have been further supported with a funding increase from Perth and Kinross Council.

A joint social work and health project aimed at preventing falls by older and vulnerable people in the Falkirk area has won another national award.

Vulnerable residents of a closure earmarked Dundee care home were facing an anxious wait today to find out where and when they will be re-housed (writes Graham Huband).