THE emergency services and cash-strapped councils are set to change the way they react to issues including child protection by potentially providing joint services and sharing facilities, according to the chief constable of Lothian and Borders Police.

A project in Scotland to create up to 50 IT jobs for people with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) has been awarded £700,000 in grant and loans.

A new study has revealed Scotland has some of the worst drug abuse rates in the world, and the situation is getting worse.

Scottish Borders Council has started consultation over its social work department’s new care charging policy.

Emergency services, health boards and councils are discussing radical proposals to see how Scotland’s cash-strapped public sector could be reorganised by themes such as child protection, rather than on traditional service models.

An advice and support service for rape victims and women who have faced sexual violence is being wound up as more than half its staff quit in a cost-cutting drive.

A fire that killed 14 residents at the Rosepark care home was almost certainly caused by a faulty electrical cable, the inquiry into the tragedy has heard.

The Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services (IRISS) is organising a series of one-day seminars on ‘Embracing Change: strategies for managing innovation projects and identifying future opportunities’.

The Criminalization Project, involving researchers from the Universities of Stirling, Glasgow, Warwick and York, brings together philosophers, lawyers and political scientists to discuss the various dimensions of the problem of criminalization. 

More than three-quarters of children who are in residential care by their 16th birthday will have a criminal conviction by the age of 22, according to damning new figures.