SENIOR councillors were not told that a blunder by officials had effectively shut down Inverness’s only hostel for homeless women, it has emerged.

Casualty is just a stone’s throw away if any one of them takes a turn for the worse but every day and night for 365 days of the year staff at the Beechwood House complex on Old Perth Road are on hand to help addicts turn their lives around.

Biased reporting by the media has been partly blamed for low morale among social workers in Scotland. Says Scotland’s Children’s Minister, Adam Ingram MSP: “You only hear about social work when tragedies happen or something goes wrong, which is rare.”

ABERDEEN City Council’s former chief social worker, who quit weeks before a crucial follow-up inspection of the department, was “driven out” of her job, it was claimed last night.

Support workers in care home services for adults can now apply to register with the SSSC.  Care home services for adults include services regulated by the Care Commission such as care homes, nursing homes and adult residential homes.  All workers in care home services for adults should now be applying to register.

Scotland’s social workers will be encouraged to help promote National Care Standards to their clients, as part of a new drive to increase awareness of the Standards amongst people across Scotland.

ORGANISERS of a conference on care services have criticised the city council for snubbing the event. Three charities have come together to call the summit later this month in the Capital and were hoping for senior members of the health and social care department to turn up.

Ellison Lang’s job is still unusual enough that she finds car insurance companies struggle to identify her chosen career. “I’m a project worker with Addaction Scotland and when I phone for quotes for car insurance my job isn’t listed,” she says “They have everything else you can imagine so it gives you an idea how new this field is.”

Deeside residents have objected to plans to relocate a church-owned care home and build flats in its place. People at Banchory are unhappy about an application to move the Bellfield Nursing Home from the centre of the town to a site on the eastern edge.

National not-for-profit organisation Momentum, officially opened its flagship Scottish headquarters last week.