Drug addicts face having to sign an agreement not to have children to qualify for treatment under plans being considered by Labour. Hard drug users would have to sign a “social contract” agreeing to remain childless in order to continue receiving free methadone and housing payments.The idea, which has been fed into Scottish Labour’s manifesto discussions for next year’s Holyrood election, is the brainchild of Duncan McNeil, convenor of Labour’s 50-strong parliamentary group. The MSP for Greenock and Inverclyde sparked controversy earlier this year by suggesting that contraceptives should be put in methadone to prevent addicts from reproducing.

Hospitals in Scotland have 11,000 fewer beds than they had 10 years ago, it emerged yesterday. The nation now has fewer beds for the acutely ill per head of population than the UK as a whole, according to official figures. France, Switzerland, Poland, the Czech Republic and Austria are among the developed countries with greater hospital capacity. A fact-sheet for First Minister Jack McConnell about NHS Scotland, obtained by the Scottish National Party under freedom of information legislation, shows there were 39,668 beds in Scottish hospitals in 1996-97. By March this year, that figure had dropped to 28,257.

Hundreds of two-year-olds from some of Scotland’s most deprived communities are to be given free nursery places. Free part-time places are currently only available to children between the ages of three and five. Under the £2m Scottish Executive pilot scheme, 900 toddlers from the poorest parts of Dundee, North Ayrshire and Glasgow will be eligible for a place. The initiative was launched in Glasgow, which has been allocated 500 free places, on Thursday. Parents of pre-school children aged three and over are currently entitled to 12-and-a-half hours a week of nursery education paid for by the executive.

Social work inspectors are to be sent in to help a council that refused to extend the offer of free care of the elderly to new applicants, claiming it does not have enough money. Argyll and Bute Council, which last month said it had run out of cash to fund the Scottish Executive’s flagship policy, had come under pressure from the executive to agree to the intervention.After meeting Lewis Macdonald, deputy minister for community care and health, Argyll’s political leadership and chief executive told him they had found £700,000 to ease pressure on the care budget.

Social work staff should get the same level of protection from assault as emergency workers, union leaders have insisted. The call comes as new figures show the number of violent incidents in the care sector have doubled in a year. In one month there were 24 incidents of physical abuse towards staff in South Lanarkshire, compared with 12 in the same period last year. And there were 17 complaints of verbal abuse in April-May this year, compared with 11 last year.

An education and care centre has clinched its second top award within a week. Graham Bell, chief executive of the Kibble in Paisley, lifted the Ernst & Young Scottish Social Entrepreneur of the Year title just days after Scottish Business in the Community named the Kibble Scotland’s Social Enterprise of the Year.

The Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), the organisation established to register key groups of people who work in social services in Scotland, has recently extended the list of qualifications it recognises and accepts for the purposes of registration. Qualification requirements are set as part of the eligibility criteria for registration to help ensure the competence and professionalism of the workforce.

Care homes & childminders in Scotland will be given ratings under a new, easy-to-follow grading system to help customers compare services. The Care Commission, the official watchdog, is adopting the same point scale used by school inspectors to assess education standards. Homes will be marked one to six according to the the quality of life available to residents, the living environment, staffing and management. The move is expected to make it easier for people to choose homes that meet their requirements and give owners an incentive to drive up standards.

Two drug-dealing empires have been smashed and more than 100 dealers jailed after a three-year investigation. In what has been hailed as one of the nation’s most successful drug operations, the dealers have been jailed for a total of more than 70 years. Addiction workers have also praised the convictions from Operation Round-up, which has removed the hard drugs supply from a region plagued by abuse. The drive against more than 100 dealers by Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary targeted the supply network of class A drugs in the area, predominantly heroin and cocaine.

Parents from North Glasgow will,  on Thursday 6th July 2006,  highlight the need for better play environments for Scottish children. Donna Stewart, Gillian Spence and Marie Forsyth, who are supported by CHIP (Children’s Inclusion Partnership), will call for more safe, secure play environments for Scottish children at an international conference called ‘Planning and designing healthy public outdoor spaces for young people in the 21st century’.  They will be supported by Kirstin Henry, parent development worker from CHIP, who has been working alongside them.