A nursery manager who called a four-year-old child in her care a "wee gay boy" has been struck off.

Margaret Morrison was a manager at the Hummingbird House Nursery in Dunblane, Perthshire, now called Dunblane Nature Kindergarten, when the incident took place in 2011.

After a hearing of the Scottish Social Services Council's conduct subcommittee in Dundee, Ms Morrison was found to have breached its code of practice by making the "inappropriate" comment about the child to a colleague, Adele Lyon, in the nursery's Bumblebee Room.

When Ms Lyon said "you can't say that", the committee found that Ms Morrison responded "well he is".

No child in the nursery was reported to have heard the comment.

In a ruling published on Tuesday, the subcommittee also found that in June 2014 Mrs Morrison failed to treat a young colleague with dignity and respect and made a threatening remark, saying to another colleague to tell the worker: "Your days are numbered."

It was also found that on June 25 2013, Ms Morrison allowed her own 15-year-old daughter to look after children at the nursery when the teenager was not qualified or employed to do so and that on the same day, between 8.15am and 9.15am, she allowed the Bumblebee Room to operate outwith the required staff to child ratio, placing the service users at risk of harm.

The subcommittee ruled Ms Morrison's conduct "fell short of the standard of conduct expected of a person registered with the council".

It found Ms Morrison's misconduct was deliberate, she showed "little insight" into the seriousness of her actions and its potential impact on children and colleagues, and she had shown "no genuine or timely expression of regret".

It also ruled that though no child was harmed, there was a potential for serious harm.

The subcommittee said Ms Morrison had "attitudinal issues", her misconduct was "fundamentally incompatible with being a social service worker" and there was no other solution apart from striking-off to protect members of the public and the wider public interest.