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.

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.

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.

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.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien has resigned his membership of Amnesty International following the decision by the organisation to support the provision of abortion services.

Scotland’s prison population yesterday reached a record high of 7497, with young offenders and those on remand accounting for the bulk of the latest increase.

An investigation has been launched into allegations of “inappropriate practice” at a residential school. The inquiry at Oakbank School in Aberdeen was sparked by a complaint from a member of staff.