Social work services in West Lothian have been praised in a report by national watchdogs. The Social Work Inspection Agency has just issued its report, Performance Inspection of Social Work Services, and West Lothian received the first excellent grading for an individual council in Scotland for its impact on the community.

Prisoners who have been convicted of serious assault, robbery and housebreaking will be given the opportunity to meet and apologise to their victims under new plans to curb reoffending.

{mosimage}Victims and relatives will be contacted to see if they are willing to have prison meetings with criminals who have committed a range of serious crimes.

Currently, restorative justice meetings are arranged in the community for offenders aged between eight and 16 who have committed minor offences such as breaking windows.

Offenders are given the opportunity to apologise and make amends by doing community work.

Restorative justice has been strongly supported by Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson and Scotland’s chief police officers in relation to minor crimes and youth offending.

However, this is the first time it has been promoted by the executive in relation to serious and violent offences.

Protocols drawn up between the Scottish Executive, Scottish Prison Service and social workers promote restorative justice for prisoners aged 18 and under.

A charity believes a 60-year-old study of mental health in Scotland could hold the key to developing new treatments for conditions like Alzheimer’s.

Hundreds of vulnerable children and adults could be denied vital care if staff at one of Scotland’s largest charities vote for industrial action. Up to 600 workers at Quarriers will decide this week whether to strike over a pay disagreement, with management offering 2.5% while employees want either 3.4% or £600 – depending on which is greater.

A major breakthrough in scanning technology, which could save thousands of lives by allowing doctors to spot developing diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis at a much earlier stage, was announced by Scottish researchers yesterday.

Children handed a petition signed by more than 800 people to Jack McConnell, the First Minister, yesterday, calling for the release of a family of asylum seekers from a detention centre in Scotland.

The Executive must spend an extra £15 million to tackle Scotland’s epidemic of dementia, campaigners said yesterday. Alzheimer Scotland said that the number of people with dementia will increase by 75 per cent in 25 years, from 58,000 to 102,000 in 2031.

A former nurse who admitted tampering with panic alarms at a Scottish care home escaped a jail sentence yesterday. John Cruickshank disconnected emergency alarms at Grove Nursing Home in Kemnay, Aberdeenshire, where he was a staff nurse.

Alcohol is ranked almost as harmful as heroin and cocaine in a new drug classification system proposed by a team of leading scientists. The class A drug ecstasy, possession of which can result in a seven-year prison sentence, is placed near the bottom of a league table published today in The Lancet medical journal, which lists “harm scores” for 20 different substances.

A woman has been fined after leaving a four-year-old alone in a locked flat surrounded by ashtrays, a cigarette lighter and empty vodka bottles. Perth Sheriff Court heard the child was spotted crying at a window by a passer-by who alerted a neighbour.