A great SNP jobs swindle

Daily Record

Scotland’s flagship apprentice scheme has been condemned as a “blatant con” after it was revealed that more than 10,000 jobs went to people already in work. The scheme was set up by the Scottish government to help unemployed young people. But in reality, 39 per cent of the 25,000-plus modern apprenticeships went to established workers.

Scheme to help teenage mothers gets pound;4m boost

Scotland on Sunday

A US programme that helps teenage mothers is being extended at a cost of more than pound;4 million. The family nurse partnership scheme is designed to provide intensive support for first-time mothers under 20. The scheme, which has been running in Edinburgh, is now being rolled out to Tayside, Glasgow, Fife and Ayrshire and Arran.

Teacher guilty of sex assault on boys

The Scotsman

A supply teacher is facing jail after he was found guilty of sexually assaulting two boys in his class on the day he arrived at a Fife school. Stephen Tait, 29, touched the six- and seven-year-old boys in his P3 class as he was marking their jotters. He touched one of the boys on the bottom and he touched the boy’s friend on his stomach and private parts.

Fitness regime proposed for overweight Scots

The Sun

Scots could be forced to get fit under drastic new laws being proposed to cut the nation’s obesity epidemic. Under NHS Health Scotland’s Charter for Physical Activity, schools would be required by law to provide two hours of PE a week, drivers penalised to give cyclists more rights and GPs paid extra to encourage people to exercise.

Europe’s `baby boxes’ condemned by UN

The Guardian

The United Nations is increasingly concerned at the spread in Europe of “baby boxes” where unwanted infants can be securely abandoned by parents, with as many as 200 now in operation across the continent. Since 2000, more than 400 children in nations as diverse as Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Poland, have been abandoned in the hatches.