Increasing numbers of elderly carers looking after disabled adult children pose a ticking timebomb for Scotland’s social services, according to an alliance of disability charities and campaigners.

A Dundee woman has been made an OBE in recognition of her work to support the most vulnerable people in society.

SCOTLAND’S largest local authority plans to cut more than 800 social work jobs and replace them with an NHS-style call centre.

Council bosses face a drastic ­reduction in services after 3000 staff ­applied for voluntary redundancy. It means Glasgow City Council could create a call centre for social work emergencies and the privatisation of waste collection.

PRIVATE home-care workers are being “exploited”, and effectively paid below the minimum wage with little or no training.

Scotlands top carers and social service projects have been recognised at Care Accolades 2010, the prestigious award ceremony celebrating the very best of the care sector across the country.

Some local authorities are now working to an updated doomsday financial forecast. According to the chief executive of the nation’s largest council – Glasgow’s George Black – a realistic scenario is a 20% cut and the impact on the public would be devastating.

Administrators for two Scottish nursing homes are looking for buyers for the businesses, as their elderly residents begin searches for new homes, after the company behind the homes went into administration.

The architect of Scotland’s flagship free elderly care policy today admits it should be reviewed amid massive pressure on public funding – but also calls for a fundamental examination of the UK’s free health service.

Masinde, a 22-year-old refugee from Burundi, has been in Glasgow since 2003. She was abandoned at Central Station, aged 15, when the man who had helped her come to Scotland vanished, saying he would be back in ‘a few minutes’.