FIFE Council’s £40 million care home replacement scheme will begin with a new care home for Kirkcaldy. The town has been selected as the location for the first new home following a meeting last month.

FOURTEEN staff have been axed after a council probe into joke e-mails about Gary Glitter. The sacked workers include child protection staff at South Lanarkshire’s offices in Rutherglen and Hamilton.

WATCHDOGS have praised a council social work department for the running of three children’s homes. The credit followed a Care Commission inspection of children’s Units in Lenzie, Milngavie and Kirkintilloch.

It has taken more than four years, but last month the former principal teacher of the residential school at the centre of one of Scotland’s biggest child abuse investigations finally cleared his name.

A PERTH foster carer who preyed on teenage boys was jailed for eight years and three months at the High Court in Paisley yesterday. Paulnacha O’Mairthini subjected four boys to a catalogue of sexual abuse and attacks over a period of more than six years.

INVERNESS’S area police commander is concerned about the number of crimes committed against children after newly-published figures reveal a worrying rise in cases.

One in five care services in Scotland are failing to make adequate checks on staff, according to the care regulator. A Care Commission review found some staff were being employed without crime checks and with unverified qualifications and references.

THE director of a north-east charity has accused Aberdeenshire Council of misspending public funds, but the council has rejected the allegation.

A senior Inverness-based social worker has been named Highland Council’s Employee of the Year. Kate Birch, the council’s children’s services manager for Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey, was given the award after 24 years’ service to social work in the Highlands.

EDUCATION budgets could be slashed and a raft of other services cut back after Aberdeen City Council revealed it needed to save £25 million next year.