A woman at the centre of Scotland’s most notorious child sex abuse scandal is to sue Orkney Islands Council for £100,000, claiming her childhood was destroyed when she was placed in care. The landmark case is being brought by May Willsher, 24, who was only eight years old when social workers removed her from the family home in November 1990.

A hard-hitting campaign has been launched to stop pensioners being killed by cold weather this winter. Charity Help the Aged has joined forces with Scottish Gas in the winter deaths campaign to highlight the dangers faced by the elderly. Since 2000 more than 15,500 older Scots have died from cold-related illnesses. Douglas Macnaughtan, acting director of Help the Aged in Scotland, said: “Deaths in winter are large in number and to a large extent avoidable.”

Hundreds of elderly people in Scotland are living in nursing homes which are failing to meet basic standards of care. A Sunday Herald investigation has revealed dozens of homes have been warned by the Care Commission over disturbing faults in the past 18 months, including restraint of residents and failure to meet nutritional needs and provide adequate fluids to drink.

A woman at the centre of Scotland’s most notorious child sex abuse scandal is to sue Orkney Islands Council for £100,000, claiming her childhood was destroyed when she was placed in care. The landmark case is being brought by May Willsher, 24, who was only eight years old when social workers removed her from the family home in November 1990.

Doctors are warning Scotland will be short of 750 GPs within six years because of a shortage of training places. With the equivalent of one in six posts for family doctors lying vacant, they say this scenario could mean patients no longer have their own GP.

The Scottish Health Awards recognise the professionals across the many sectors of the nation’s health service, from hospitals to consultants and volunteers. One group who are often overlooked are the many hundreds of people working with the Scottish Prison Service, providing the same level of care to inmates which is available to the general public. John Porter, nursing services manager at the Scottish Prison Service, felt the work carried out by Frank Gibbons deserved special recognition and he has nominated the health care manager from Barlinnie for the Unsung Heroes Award.

A disabled former nurse – unable to dial a phone, dress, feed or wash herself – is to have her council care slashed by more than half in November. Victoria Shanks (58), a resident of Inverness, who has multiple sclerosis (MS), is one of the first victims of Highland Council’s cuts in home care. Her package will be reduced from 147 hours a week to just 62.5 hours, taking away her carer who stays overnight. Friends of the former Raigmore Hospital nurse and midwife fear her health could be put at risk. While carers at Inverness’s MS therapy centre fear others could experience similar cuts and be forced into residential homes.

Serious shortcomings in the monitoring of violent offenders in the community have been highlighted by Scotland’s social work watchdog, which blamed poor leadership for a catalogue of failures. The Social Work Inspection Agency (SWIA) said staff in Dumfries and Galloway must also make better use of risk assessments to analyse the risk of criminals re-offending. In its first full report on social work performance in Scotland, inspectors also described strategic leadership as “unsatisfactory” and raised questions about quality of services provided to the public.

The charity that raises funds for armed forces veterans and their dependents revealed an identity change yesterday. Formerly the Earl Haig Fund Scotland, officials at Poppyscotland hope the new name will give the charity a more modern image and make its work more recognisable with the public. The name Earl Haig Fund Scotland will continue to be the legally registered name.

A string of failings in social work services in Dumfries and Galloway has been blamed on a lack of leadership by the department’s senior management. Systemic issues which have undermined services and left staff demoralised are outlined in a critical report by the new Social Work Inspection Agency.