Plans to spend an extra £1.6m on care services for older people have been announced by Perth and Kinross Council. The move came amid concern over councils operating waiting lists for the Scottish Executive’s flagship free personal care for the elderly policy. There are 48 people in Perth and Kinross currently on a waiting list. The authority, which said it spent more money on the service than the executive provided, expects the number of eligible people to increase.

With new Home Office contracts agreed for the housing of asylum seekers in Glasgow, over 700 asylum seekers (84%) have already transferred from being supported and accommodated by Glasgow City Council and Glasgow Housing Association respectively, to support and accommodation being provided by YMCA Glasgow and the Angel Group.  That leaves 125 asylum seekers still to be re-housed over the next couple of months.

David Wiseman, Director of Strategic Development at the Care Commission said: “We are obviously extremely interested in what is being developed by the regulator in England and will be closely monitoring the results and outcomes.  The Care Commission is currently developing its own system for assessing the quality of care services and we will be piloting later in the year in a number of care homes for older people.

Cathy Jamieson, Justice Minister, has admitted she is disappointed after figures showing the number of children responsible for serial crimes had risen since she began a crackdown three years ago. But she renewed her pledge to cut Scotland’s army of persistent young offenders to under 1000 by 2008. The Scottish Executive aimed to reduce the number of persistent youth offenders from 1201 in 2003-2004 by 10% by this year and by 20% by 2008.

The number of persistent young offenders jumped 10% last year in the clearest sign yet of a setback to the Scottish Executive’s self-proclaimed “war on neds”. Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson has already signalled that the executive will miss its target of cutting the number of persistent offenders by 10%. Now figures obtained by The Herald show numbers are rising faster than before she launched her crusade to bring them down in 2003. Fully 1388 youngsters aged between eight and 16 qualified as persistent young offenders in 2005-2006, according to leaked figures from the annual report of the Scottish Children’s Reporter Administration, which is scheduled to be published today.

Jack McConnell is facing open revolt by police after Scotland’s biggest force accused him of sending out “mixed messages” on crime and of forcing them to police “by league table”. Stratchlyde Police said the first minister was playing a “numbers game”, pressuring them to issue Anti-social Behaviour Orders (Asbos) and dispersal orders to boost crime clear-up statistics. In an unprecedented attack, the force said it was easy for McConnell to look tough on crime but by relying so heavily on Asbos he risked unfairly criminalising young people.

An organisation behind a proposal to open Scotland’s first “boot camp” for young offenders has been criticised over its choice of name. Critics claim the firm’s title New Education Developments Scotland — whose acronym is Neds — is demeaning and offensive to young people. The Neds centre, based at Glenlivet, in Morayshire, will house up to 35 young people aged 12-16 who have been in trouble with the police. Youngsters with behavioural and drug problems will undergo a strict physical regime of outdoor activity and vocational training.

Drug addicts face having to sign an agreement not to have children to qualify for treatment under plans being considered by Labour. Hard drug users would have to sign a “social contract” agreeing to remain childless in order to continue receiving free methadone and housing payments.The idea, which has been fed into Scottish Labour’s manifesto discussions for next year’s Holyrood election, is the brainchild of Duncan McNeil, convenor of Labour’s 50-strong parliamentary group. The MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde sparked controversy earlier this year by suggesting that contraceptives should be put in methadone to prevent addicts from reproducing.

Hospitals in Scotland have 11,000 fewer beds than they had 10 years ago, it emerged yesterday. The nation now has fewer beds for the acutely ill per head of population than the UK as a whole, according to official figures. France, Switzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria are among the developed countries with greater hospital capacity. A fact-sheet for First Minister Jack McConnell about NHS Scotland, obtained by the Scottish National Party under freedom of information legislation, shows there were 39,668 beds in Scottish hospitals in 1996-97. By March this year, that figure had dropped to 28,257.

Hundreds of two-year-olds from some of Scotland’s most deprived communities are to be given free nursery places. Free part-time places are currently only available to children between the ages of three and five. Under the £2m Scottish Executive pilot scheme, 900 toddlers from the poorest parts of Dundee, North Ayrshire and Glasgow will be eligible for a place. The initiative was launched in Glasgow, which has been allocated 500 free places, on Thursday. Parents of pre-school children aged three and over are currently entitled to 12-and-a-half hours a week of nursery education paid for by the executive.