A scheme which aims to support vulnerable adults in Tayside is to start paying participants. The appropriate adults project can no longer run using volunteers, because of an increase in demand for the service, according to Tayside Police.

Rhona Brankin, the Deputy Environment and Rural Development Minister, has been appointed as Scotland’s new Communities Minister to replace Malcolm Chisholm who resigned last month.

A highly effective campaign to encourage the public to help get more drug dealers off the streets is to be extended across Scotland. The recent localised Drug Dealers Don’t Care (DDDC) campaign in six local authority areas is to be extended to include Dundee, Aberdeen and South Lanarkshire.

A former teacher at one of Scotland’s top private schools has admitted sexually abusing pupils. Jonathan Quick, retired Latin and sports teacher at Dollar Academy, admitted five charges following an investigation by police which began in 2002. The inquiry followed the suicide of a 23-year-old student who was allegedly abused by the same teacher.

{mosimage}The Herald revealed that at least three former pupils at the Clackmannanshire school came forward after learning of the circumstances of the man’s death.

The alumni, who were aged between 11 and 13 at the time of the abuse in the 1980s, claimed the teacher had touched them inappropriately.

Quick, who retired from the school in 1995, is living in a nursing home. His lawyer originally claimed he was too unwell to stand trial, but independent medical examinations said Quick was fit for the case to go ahead.

At Alloa Sheriff Court, the former teacher admitted a charge of assault with a sexual element and four charges of lewd, indecent and libidinous practices.

He will be sentenced on January 22. Potential sentences range from a fine to imprisonment.

The man who said we should provide free care for our elderly has now described the idea that an ageing population creates a crisis as as a “myth”.

Drug abusers are 10 times more likely than the overall population to suffer from dyslexia, a study by Stirling University shows. Of the addicts studied, 40% were dyslexic, compared with about 4% of the total population of Scotland.

Dundee City Council has confirmed that it is forced to divert cash from other council budgets to the social work department to ensure young lives are not put at risk.

An anti-domestic abuse poster campaign, using a different daily message on the same billboard over the course of a week, begins today as part of the Scottish Executive Campaign – Domestic Abuse, There’s No Excuse.

Shelter has been bombarded with calls from French journalists looking to learn from Scotland’s forward thinking homelessness legislation, as French politicians make moves to implement similar laws.

The number of complaints made against Edinburgh’s child care social workers has soared to nearly one a week, according to figures released today.