Aberdeenshire MSP, Alison McInnes, will visit the VSA Carers' Centre in Peterhead to show her support to unpaid carers and young carers during this year's Carers' Week. The visit will start at Peterhead Health Centre at 2pm with the unveiling of the "Life of my Own" montage which has been produced locally, followed by afternoon tea and an informal chat to carers at the centre.
It could be more difficult in future to bring a disability discrimination claim on mental health grounds, following an Employment Tribunal decision. The tribunal suggested that a claimant could be required to provide evidence from a consultant psychiatrist to prove a diagnosis of stress or depression. Previously, the threshold of proof had been lowered to make claiming easier.
A BBC Scotland investigation finds that tens of thousands of claimants who are genuinely sick or disabled may have been refused the new Employment Support Allowance. BBC Scotland investigations correspondent Mark Daly has been examining how the system works in practice.
The social care budget needs protecting just as NHS spending has been, campaigners say. Age UK has warned that if the expected cuts to councils are made, just half the 1m people needing help at home in England will be getting it by 2012. The charity said social care should be put on the same footing as health, which will not see a funding drop.
A council has been criticised after it cancelled a travel scheme enabling elderly and disabled people access to cheap or free public transport. Eastleigh council said it believed an alternative scheme would offer a wider choice of travel options.
People with learning disabilities receive worse healthcare than the rest of the population some doctors and nurses believe, according to a charity. Mencap has found almost half of doctors and a third of nurses from a poll of poll of 1,084 think this is the case.