Social Work spending in Fife is heading for an £8.4 million overspend by the end of the financial year before any cost-saving steps are taken, despite the budget for 2007/8 being boosted by £11.5 million.

Council officials in Shetland will spend the next three months finding almost £1 million needed each year to run a new temporary care home. Shetland Islands Council’s services committee listened sympathetically to the idea of turning parts of Lerwick’s Montfield hospital into a much needed care facility.

The number of drug-related deaths in Scotland has increased by a quarter, according to new figures. The General Register Office for Scotland (Gros) said there were 421 drug-related deaths last year, 85 more than in 2005, representing a 25% rise.

Health bosses are failing to deal with severely underweight Fifers who are desperate to battle life threatening eating disorders, it has been claimed. The Press can reveal a growing frustration among sufferers, medics and counsellors who feel let down by NHS Fife’s approach to complex conditions such as anorexia and bulimia.

The number of “bed blocking” patients in the Lothians fell marginally in July, according to new figures. There were 141 elderly patients stuck in hospital wards with nowhere else to go – down from 150 in June. However, this was still much higher than in April, when figures reached an all-time low of 89.

Education bosses were warned months ago that a paedophile was visiting a house yards from a school. The Record told on Monday how convicted child abuser Rodney Boyd regularly sits in his van outside Flora Stevenson Primary in Edinburgh.

A Lothian council chief who helped award himself a £304,000 pay-off has resigned, it was announced today. John Lindsay, 60, will receive retirement and legal entitlements but will not get any redundancy pay, East Lothian Council said.

A Lerwick hospital could be transformed into a temporary care home in a bid to alleviate an acute shortage of residential places for old people in Shetland. The islands currently have 11 elderly patients who have been waiting more than six weeks to be discharged from hospital into specialist care.

Cancer patients and their families are to benefit from a new money help service. Inverclyde Council’s social work team, working with Macmillan Cancer Support, will give financial advice and support to vulnerable residents who are suffering from the disease.

Opposition MSPs last night condemned the executive’s decision to halt the relocation of hundreds of public sector jobs, claiming the U-turn was contrary to the new administration’s pledges on employment.