As many as 2.2 million people in the UK have given up full-time employment to care for children or other dependants in the past three years, according to a new report.

Young men in Scotland must be targeted in the fight against prostitution, according to a leading American feminist. Janice Raymond, an executive director of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, wants schoolboys to be educated about prostitution in an attempt to shape male attitudes towards pornography and sexual exploitation from an early age.

Universities are calling for the Scottish Executive to waive tuition fees for the children of asylum seekers after it was revealed a small number of students are already being offered degree places.

Foster carers in Glasgow are refusing to take on new children until concerns are addressed over the way allegations against them are dealt with.

A 15-YEAR-OLD girl has been tagged to keep her out of a city’s red light district and save her from sexual exploitation.

Additional staff are urgently needed if social workers in Moray are to fulfil the council’s legal obligations to the public. Councillors will be told this week that an extra four social workers are required for the community care department to cope with the workload.

A nurse was jailed for 15 months yesterday and now faces deportation after tormenting dementia sufferers at a care home. Jefferey Ednalan, 34, was convicted of a catalogue of abuse including stuffing a deodorant can in the mouth of a 95-year-old man to stop him shouting and two counts of indecent assault.

Forty babies a year are being identified for fostering in the Lothians – before they are born. Most are being taken from drug addict mothers by social workers immediately after birth for fear they may come to harm.

Housing must be placed at Scotland’s political and financial heart over the coming four years and beyond if we are to ensure everyone has a home. That will be the message – at a major housing conference – from housing and homelessness charity, Shelter Scotland.

A move to privatise residential care homes for the elderly in the Highlands may be reviewed. The SNP group on Highland Council have asked officials to revisit the decision to transfer them to the private sector.