East Ayrshire Council has suspended two members of staff after a boy with learning difficulties was left in a lay-by as a punishment by his teacher and social worker.

The nine-year-old boy was found by British Transport Police playing beside a railway line shortly after being left in the lay-by.

The authority has confirmed that the employees - Michael Roos from the education department and Maureen Law from the social work department - will now be subject to formal disciplinary hearings.

A statement said: "The council is treating this incident extremely seriously and considers the safety and welfare of any child as being of paramount importance.

"The council is carrying out a thorough investigation and, as a consequence, it is unlikely that this matter will be resolved immediately."

Strathclyde Police and British Transport Police are also carrying out their own inquiries after the boy was left on the A76 outside Kilmarnock last Thursday.

Supervision order

British Transport Police found the boy playing beside a railway line nearby, a short time after he was left.

The child - who is subject to a supervision order and cannot be identified - had been returning from a trip to a games hall in Cumnock in a car with two other children who also have problem behaviour.

He is reported to have taken off his seat belt and started fighting.

The teacher and the social worker, who are based at Hillhead Primary where the boy goes to school, pulled into the lay-by three miles from his home and told him to get out of the car.

They said they would be back to collect him in 10 minutes, after dropping off the other children.

By the time they returned, the boy had been picked up by transport police beside the railway line at Hurlford.

A source within the council has been quoted as saying: "If the parents of the child had abandoned him at the side of a road, the social worker would have been down on them like a ton of bricks.