A specialist unit set up to investigate and prosecute Scotland’s most serious sex crimes has been involved in 100 cases since it began work last month.

Dundee City Council has been criticised for “major weaknesses” in identifying children in the city who need protection and for “significant delays” in protecting those at risk of emotional abuse or neglect.

BRANDON MUIR’S father John was “in shock” when he learned that a report on Dundee’s child protection services had highlighted so many major deficiencies, his family said yesterday.

The man in charge of child protection in Dundee at the time of Brandon Muir’s death did not attend today’s Press conference. Fred McBride — who is currently head of children’s services at Dundee, but is due to take over as Aberdeen City Council’s £107,000 social care and wellbeing director — took a week’s leave knowing that the report into child services was due out today.

Scotland’s councils have been handed an extra £5.5million so criminals who have been given community service start work sooner after being sentenced.
 

CHILD PROTECTION services in Dundee have been severely criticised in a damning report published today. The report, prepared in the wake of the Brandon Muir case, was compiled by a team of independent assessors led by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education and has raised major concerns over the effectiveness of services to protect vulnerable children in the city and meet their needs.

Aberdeen City Council has defended the appointment of its new social work director in the wake of a damning report on child protection services in Dundee where he is currently employed.

Disturbing evidence that under-5s are not being monitored for mental well-being by statutory services has been highlighted by the Health and Sport Committee in its report published today.

A CONTROVERSIAL care home is being shut down after failing to meet safety standards. Camperdown Care Home in Dundee – which looks after 30 adults with brain trauma, neurological disorders and spinal injuries – was told to improve or risk closure.

Wide variations in the management of high-risk offenders in the community are exposed in a report to be published today.