Only half of all full day nursery school places in Aberdeen have been allocated due to a flawed city council policy, it was claimed yesterday.

Cases of meningitis and deadly blood poisoning in Scotland are up 40 per cent, with six deaths already reported this year.

The part of the Register for practitioners in day care of children services opened in March and workers can now start registering with the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC). The part of the register for managers and lead practitioners in day care of children services opened in October 2006.

Staff at Quarriers went on strike yesterday in a dispute over pay in what is believed to be the first industrial action in the 137-year-old history of one of Scotland’s biggest charities.

{mosimage}About 100 Unison members took part in a one-day walkout at four of 127 projects run by Quarriers across Scotland and in Bath.

The dispute is over an offer of 2.5% and a refusal by management to target rises at the lowest-paid staff members.

Projects affected included Seafield School in Ardrossan, North Ayrshire, which caters for 66 boarding and day pupils with social and emotional behavioural difficulties, and North Ayrshire Supported Living in Saltcoats, which provides shelter for young men and women aged 16-25.

Unison members at the Stopover and James Shields homeless projects in the south side of Glasgow, which also provide shelter for young men and women, also went on strike. Quarriers said the action had little impact but Unison said it was “very successful” and warned of more to come unless Quarriers improved its pay offer.

An influential group of ministers in Scotland’s largest Protestant church has said that its clergy and congregations have been “sinfully” intolerant of gays and lesbians in its ranks.

A major search-and-rescue operation was called off last night after police hunting for a missing Royal Navy doctor discovered a body. Dr David Hughes, 37, was said to be depressed and had been recently told he was to be deployed on a second tour of duty to Iraq next January.

A man who punched a crying six-week-old baby in the face has been jailed for nine months. Darren Ashmore, 25, was told by the judge that only a prison sentence was appropriate for the offence.

THE NHS in Scotland must learn from the oil and nuclear industries to cut the tens of thousands of mistakes made each year when caring for patients, experts said yesterday.

The number of murders in Scotland has jumped by nearly a third in the past year, with an even bigger rise in fatal stabbings, according to new figures which deal a serious blow to the Scottish Executive’s record on violent crime.

Management at a care home where one resident allegedly sexually assaulted another have been branded “neglectful”. Managers and staff at Camphill Blair Drummond, a Stirlingshire home for disabled young adults, took three days to phone the police after the incident in June last year.