Ministers have requested a meeting with senior figures in Aberdeen City Council’s social work department after a critical report by inspectors.

A charity worker stole £1,100 from the cancer care shop she managed in Edinburgh while claiming almost £4,000 in income support for “being ill”.

A school for children with special needs is celebrating a five-star inspection report. Croftcroighn School in Craigend, Glasgow has been praised with five excellent ratings, for communication, welfare, staff engagement, partnerships and leadership, by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education.

SCOTLAND saw a record number of abortions last year, with new figures showing a continuing rise since Britain legalised the practice in 1968.

More than half of Scotland’s 236 residential care services for young people need to make improvements to their standards of practice, according to a new report by Scotland’s care regulator.

Figures for March 2006 show that these services were providing 2418 places for young people – 1250 in care homes, 1041 in residential special schools and 127 in secure accommodation.

The Care Commission has published a national report about three aspects of the quality of care provided by these services.  It shows that while there are many examples of good practice in the way young people are being cared for, improvements need to be made.

The Care Commission is recommending organisations who run young peoples’ care services, and their staff, need to improve their training and assessment methods, particularly with regard to child protection, planning for young people’s care and the use and recording of physical restraint. 

SCOTS are consuming twice as much alcohol as previously thought, a report suggests. The last survey, carried out in 2003, said that men were drinking an average of 17.2 units a week, while women consumed 6.5 units.

Alleged victims of abuse by nuns at a Scots children’s home have been barred from taking court action for damages by a House of Lords judgment yesterday.

Five Law Lords ruled that two of those seeking £50,000 in compensation had left it too long to claim for what they said they suffered at Nazareth House at Cardonald in Glasgow.

Two women and a man originally launched the claims, saying they were beaten and abused by nuns belonging to a religious order known as the Poor Sisters of Nazareth.

Two of the three took the case to the House of Lords after a judge at the Court of Session ruled the claims were time-barred.

But the Law Lords ruled that Judge Lord Drummond Young was correct to rule that it was too late to hold a fair trial – the abuse complained of dated back by up to more than 40 years.

Scotland has too few specialist epilepsy nurses, according to a charity which campaigns for the 40,000 people affected by the condition.

HE WAS the government adviser on alcohol abuse who couldn’t say when. Paul Yates is used to lecturing on the dangers of drunkenness, but yesterday the academic heard a sheriff cast doubt on his testimony and so found him guilty of twice drink-driving.

Middle managers could go and savings of £50m found from its budget as Scotland’s largest local authority begins its financial planning against a backdrop of economic uncertainty.