A NEW report into Dundee’s child protection services has concluded the public can now have “much higher” confidence in the system following a raft of improvements in the wake of the Brandon Muir scandal.

Ventilation systems at a care home where 14 elderly ­residents died in a fire were badly designed, a building control expert has told the inquiry into the tragedy.

The Highland social work chief’s early retirement will cost the council almost £60,000. The arrangements were thrashed out in private at the end of last month’s full council meeting in Inverness.

To ensure management qualifications are fit for purpose, the SSSC agreed in June 2009 to change the management requirements for registration.

The contract has been awarded for a new support service for people who are deaf, hard of hearing, blind or partially sighted in Aberdeen.

Scottish Government inspectors have again raised “significant concerns” about education and child protection services in Aberdeen.

Scottish charities will soon be allowed to pay for indemnity insurance for trustees and the Court of Session will be given the power to impose a life ban on people acting as trustees under new legislation.

Three projects run by offenders in North Lanarkshire have won awards for their contribution to their communities.

A CARE worker spoke this week of her ordeal after being wrongly accused of assaulting an elderly resident in a nursing home. Libby Watson wept tears of joy as a sheriff cleared her of any wrongdoing.

The co-owner of a care home where 14 residents died in a blaze ignored fire safety advice in a staff training video because he did not think it applied to