A charity which has helped hundreds of seriously ill children to enjoy a holiday is to be disbanded later this year. Advancing years, coupled with a dramatic increase in paperwork for the national charity regulator, have convinced the two former nurses who set up The Sunshine Holiday Fund to wind up the charity.

A nurse has been found guilty of tormenting dementia sufferers at a care home. Jeffrey Ednalan, 34, carried out a number of abuses on helpless residents at Colinton Care Home in Edinburgh during the five months he spent working there.

Almost 5,000 families have been refused permission to send children to their school of choice according to a report published yesterday. Figures released by the Scottish Executive revealed that 4,838 parents had placing requests refused in 2005-6, compared with 4,547 the year before.

A Highland heroin addict yesterday begged a sheriff to send him to prison for a minor shoplifting offence so he could receive help with his drug problem.

Scottish ministers are to urge the Home Office to consider allowing the children of failed asylum seekers to remain in the country, The Herald has learned.

Changes in the law which will make it easier for former shipyard workers to claim compensation for asbestos-related lung cancer will be approved later.

A convicted criminal has won a legal challenge after he claimed a recorded message on phone calls from prison breached his human rights. Stewart Potter, 43, from Glasgow, is serving a 21-year sentence for assault and robbery.

Patients are having to wait longer for routine operations such as hip and knee replacements, despite claims that waiting lists are at an all-time low. Figures obtained by The Scotsman show that since 1998, median waiting times have increased for 17 out of 25 common procedures.

More money to fund wheelchair services was demanded yesterday after NHS staff said a £1 million injection from the Scottish Executive was nowhere near enough. Around 96,000 people in Scotland use wheelchairs, but many face long waits for upgraded equipment.

It is a typical family portrait. Hastily arranged, a little stiff. The children are plump and happy; a basket of apples and grapes rest at their feet. Everything is in order for this sunny Scottish family – the Glassfords, one of Glasgow’s wealthiest in the 18th century.