Day: September 15, 2020

Sturgeon slams ‘despicable’ COVID scammers

Statement given by the First Minister Nicola Sturgeon at a media briefing in St Andrew’s House yesterday (Tuesday 15 September):

Good afternoon, and thanks for joining us again today.

I will start with the usual run through of the daily statistics with apologies in advance. Parts of my briefing today are a little bit technical because it’s about how we report figures and while it might seem a bit difficult to follow today, what I’m going to report to you, particularly around people in hospital, is in the interest of making these figures more accurate and more transparent as we go into the next phase of tackling the pandemic.

But I can report firstly today, that the total number of positive cases reported yesterday was 267. This represents 3.6% of people newly tested.

101 of those cases were in Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 59 were in in Lanarkshire, 53 were in Lothian and 13 were in Ayrshire and Arran.

The remaining 41 were spread amongst the other seven mainland health board areas.

However to be clear, and this is the point I want to stress today, these, as indeed our daily figures always are, are test results that were reported yesterday.

Because of the backlog in the UK wide system that I referred to yesterday, this figure will include – a bit more than it normally would – results from swabs taken over the past few days.

We hope that the backlog of the past few days will have worked its way through the system shortly.

And just to be clear, to reassure you, for the purposes of our trend analysis, tests are looked at by day of the sample, not just by date of reporting, to ensure that we are tracking the increase in cases accurately. From that analysis of course, right now unfortunately, we do know that cases are rising .

Now as I said yesterday, I do have a concern about the capacity constraints right now within the UK wide system – for Scotland in recent days, just to be clear, this has not been an issue of access to testing slots, regional testing centres or mobile testing units but instead it’s been one of access to sufficient lighthouse laboratory processing.

And it has been this that has led to a backlog in the system and longer turnaround times for tests than we want to be the case.

Now as this is a UK wide system, we are not able to resolve this on our own. And the issues are impacted by demand elsewhere in the UK.

To that end, I had a conference call, a constructive conference call, last night with Matt Hancock, UK Health Secretary and Dido Harding, who is head of the UK testing system, to seek firstly assurances that Scotland is and will continue to get fair access to the UK wide laboratory capacity and also to discuss how we can resolve these issues. I hope to see improvement in next few days, but of course I will continue to provide updates.

I also, and this takes me into the slightly technical bit of the briefing, I want to provide some context before providing today’s update for the number of people in hospital with Covid.

Now, if you cast your mind back a couple of weeks now I think if you are one of the regular viewers of this briefing, I indicated then we were looking at how we report on numbers of people in hospital.

Under that measure, the one we have been using up until now, lots of people are classified as being Covid patients, even if they have recovered from Covid and are now being treated for a condition that is unrelated to it.

That old measure was providing accurate information at the peak the epidemic of this first phase back in the year when there were 1,500 Covid patients in hospital.

But as the pandemic has progressed, we have been reporting a higher number of hospital cases than is probably justified and that’s the issue I alluded to a couple of weeks ago.

For example in late August, Scotland officially accounted for almost one third of the hospital patients with Covid in the UK – despite having one twelfth of the UK’s population, and a relatively low incidence of the virus at that stage.

To try to ensure we are no longer counting patients who no longer really have Covid, we are from now, and I’ll report under the new measurement today, but then regularly from tomorrow, we’re moving to a new definition.

From now on, we will only count patients who first test positive for Covid during their current stay in hospital, or in the two weeks before their admission.

In addition, we will stop classifying them as Covid patients, for statistical purposes after 28 days in hospital – or 28 days after the date of their positive test, whichever is later.

This new measure will be an improvement on the old one – but it is important for me to point out that it will not be absolutely perfect.

The effects of Covid sometimes require hospital stays of longer than 28 days, and so a small number of patients with Covid may not be captured by the measure I’ve just outlined there

I have therefore asked Public Health Scotland to develop analysis about patients who unfortunately end up spending longer in hospital.

But overall, this new measure will give us a better picture both of the current situation in hospitals, and crucially, given the phase of the pandemic we are going into, it will be more sensitive to the changes in hospital admissions caused by new cases. So it will enable us to more accurately reflect and report any increase in hospital admissions over the next period.

So, under the old measure, I would be telling you, and I am going to tell you, that 262 patients are in hospital. That is two fewer than yesterday.

But that is the last time I’m going to give you that old measure, instead I’m going to move to the new and more accurate measure and I will use that solely from tomorrow onwards and under that measure, as of today there are 48 patients in hospital under that more narrow but more accurate measurement and we will be able to track it better now the increase in hospital admissions from here on in.

And using the new definition, I can report, there are six people are in intensive care. Under the old definition I would have been reporting seven in intensive care so clearly the change in measurement doesn’t have the same impact towards numbers in intensive care as it does on broader hospital numbers. .

And finally, in terms of my daily statistics update, I regret to have to report that in the past 24 hours, one additional death has been registered of a patient who first tested positive over the previous 28 days.

That means that the total number of deaths, under this daily measurement, is now 2,500.

That total serves again to remind us of the impact of this virus and why we can never, ever be complacent about the risks it poses and I want again to pass on my condolences to everybody who has lost a loved one – including of course everyone who is grieving as a result of the death that was registered yesterday.

There are a couple of other issues I want to address before Jason Leitch and I take questions from the media as normal.

The first is just to report here, we made this public last night but I thought it was worth reporting, that we had a meeting yesterday as I indicated earlier yesterday we would, to discuss the current position in Greater Glasgow and Clyde

And the good news is, that early indications suggest that the restrictions in place in Glasgow City, East and West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire might be helping to slow down the increase in new cases. So that at this stage is positive.

But the number of new cases in these parts of Greater Glasgow and Clyde remains very high and is still increasing, all be it, we think, at a slower rate than would’ve been the case without these restrictions being in place. So taking all of that into account and the local authorities for these areas were present at the meeting yesterday. We agreed that the existing restrictions should remain in place for a further week and then they will be reviewed again at that stage.

That means people in these areas, Glasgow City, East or West Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire should not visit other households at all.

Those same restrictions now also apply as of last Friday, in North and South Lanarkshire,

In all of these seven local authority areas, you should not host someone in your home – unless it is for essential care purposes. And you should not visit someone else in their home – again unless it’s for care purposes or delivery of shopping to a venerable or elderly person and that is regardless of where they live. So I live in Glasgow City, I can’t have people in my home but equally I can’t go and visit my parents for example, who live in Ayrshire and Arran which is not one of these affected areas.

The second issue I want to cover today relates to the Test and Protect service.

We are aware that some fake callers are pretending to work for Test and Protect , and are trying to con people by claiming that payment is needed for a test.

Sadly, this reminds us that there are always a small number of people, a tiny minority , but never the less they’re there, who will try to exploit any situation they can to defraud people. And it is truly and utterly despicable particularly at this time of crisis that we are living though.

But in light of it, I wanted to take the opportunity today to remind you and ask you to remind others that you know, that Covid tests are free, and will always be free for those who need them.

Nobody from Test and Protect will ever ask you for financial information –they will never ask you for your bank or credit card details – and they will never try to sell you anything.

The only thing Test and Protect staff will ask you about, is where you’ve been and details of the people you have been in contact with.

Genuine contact tracers will often also first send you a text to let you know that you will shortly receive a call from NHS Scotland.

Callers will always introduce themselves and state the reason for their call. They will know your name. They will ask you for details of people you have come into contact with, in a relevant time period. They will tell you that you will receive further information by e-mail or post.

And they will always call from the same number – 0800 030 8012 – and they will give you the option of calling back on that number if you need to verify the service.

There is a lot of useful information about this on the Coronavirus sections of the Trading Standards Scotland website, and the Advice Direct Scotland website.

You can report any concerns about calls you have received to Advice Direct Scotland. And if you are unfortunate enough to have been the victim of a scam, or an attempted scam, you should contact the police on 101.

Fundamentally, if a person claiming to be a contact tracer is asking about things that aren’t necessary – in particular your bank details or computer passwords – then put the phone down straight away because they are not a legitimate contact tracer .

As I mentioned earlier, if you do get phoned by a legitimate contact tracer you have the option of phoning them back – on 0800 030 8012 – if you want to verify the call.

Genuine contact tracers will only ever ask about your movements, and details of the people you have been in contact with. This is a small minority of people, hopefully it won’t happen to any of you watching, but I thought it was important to take the opportunity to stress what will and will not be asked of you if you do get one of these calls, so that together we can make sure these people who attempt theses scams, these despicable people don’t get anywhere in Scotland.

The final point I want to make just to round off, is to remind you of the new rules which came into force yesterday, and of our other important public health guidance.

As you should all know, unless you live in one of the areas I’ve already spoken about where stricter restrictions are in place, no more than six people can now meet up together – and those six people can come from no more than two households.

Children under the age of 12, do not count as part of the total of six, but they do count towards the total for households. I said on Friday I would look at further advice on whether we could give greater flexibility for children and I hope to give the outcome of that later this week.

That rule – six people and two households – applies indoors and outdoors: in homes, pubs and restaurants, and in outdoor spaces such as parks and private gardens.

So please make sure that you are not breaching those limits.

This step – limiting the number of people and households you interact with – is a tough one and it’s really not an easy one or a welcome one at all. But it is a really vital step in helping us to keep the virus under control by limiting the interactions that we know are most likely to cause it to spread.

Please also, if you haven’t already done so, download the Protect Scotland app if you can. I know that last time I looked this morning 950,000 of you have already done that, but we want as many people as possible to do so.

It is very quick and easy to do. It’s a simple but very powerful way of all of us as individuals helping the country collectively.

And as always, and this will be my final comment, remember all the other things and we all need to do to try to minimise the risk of Covid spreading and all of that of course is encapsulated in FACTS. The five golden rules to try to minimise the spread.

• Face coverings should be worn in enclosed spaces
• Avoid crowded places.
• Clean your hands and hard surfaces regularly.
• keep Two metres away from other households
• and Self isolate, and book a test, if you have symptoms.

So thank you for bearing with me though what I know was a bit of a technical briefing today. Occasionally they will be like this because we are trying as we are go through the pandemic to make sure that we are reporting information in a clear, accurate and as transparent way as possible.

As we go through different phases sometimes that means changing definitions that we have used previously and so explaining that takes a bit of time and hopefully over the next period, these things will become much clearer for all of us.

Thank you for listening.

Heart Research UK Healthy tip: Managing stress

Heart Research UK Healthy Heart Tip, written by Dr Helen Flaherty, Head of Health Promotion at Heart Research UK

Watch your stress levels

We all experience stress from time to time. There are many things that can lead to us feeling stressed. It can come from the news, our jobs, financial insecurity, health issues and personal problems. Feeling constantly stressed and overwhelmed can lead to a rise in blood pressure and resting heart rate, both of which increase our risk of having a heart attack.

We have some tips to help you avoid unnecessary stress and deal with existing stress in a healthy way: 

What is stress?

Stress is essentially when we feel threatened or under pressure and our bodies are preparing to either fight or run away from our current situation. This so-called ‘fight or flight’ response should only occur on rare occasions and it is useful for getting us out of dangerous situations. For many people stress can be more long term and persistent and this can have a negative impact on our mental and physical health.

Avoid consuming too much news

Whilst it may be important for us to stay up to date with current affairs, a constant stream of negative news reports can be a source of stress and anxiety. The World Health Organization recommends that we watch, read or listen to the news to just once or twice a day for short periods. Why not schedule a daily timeslot when you will allow yourself to check the news (e.g. 7:00 pm – 7:30 pm).

Walk your way to a healthy heart

Not only is regular physical activity good for our heart health, but it can also alleviate stress. It is recommended that adults get 150 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity each week, such as brisk walking. When we feel stressed, we may tell ourselves we are too busy to exercise. However, physical activity does not have to be a time-consuming chore.

Incorporating small changes to increase our daily steps can improve our overall mental and physical health. You could start by making small changes, such as parking at the furthest point away from the shop entrance in the car park, getting off the bus a stop early, or leaving your office during your lunch break to take a walk.

Breathing and meditation

Just breathe. Despite the growing attention that meditation and breathing exercises is getting, it is still one of the most underrated things you can do to ease your stress levels and lower your blood pressure. To do this all you need is 10 minutes of your day to sit and do absolutely nothing but concentrate on your breathing.

Meditation is one of the simplest and cheapest ways of reducing your stress levels and blood pressure, and there are many free guided meditation resources online to teach you how to do it.

Ask for help

Sometimes stress can feel overwhelming and you may need a little help to manage it. Try speaking to a friend, family member or a work colleague about how you feel. If you think you would benefit from professional help, you can speak to your GP.

You can find more healthy tips, recipes and advice at heartresearch.org.uk.

Have your say on regulation of short-term lets

A public consultation will gather final views on proposed new legislation for the regulation of short-term lets.

The Scottish Government’s proposals include a mandatory licensing scheme to ensure that all short-term lets are safe and to address issues faced by neighbours.

The regulations, if passed by Parliament, would come into force by April 2021. These would also give councils powers to manage pressures created by the use of whole properties as short-term lets.

Welcoming the launch of the consultation, Housing Minister Kevin Stewart said: “Short-term lets can offer people a flexible and affordable accommodation option, and they have contributed positively to Scotland’s tourism industry and local economies across the country.

“However, we know that in certain areas, particularly tourist hot spots, high numbers of these arrangements can cause problems for neighbours and make it harder for people to find homes to live in.

“The views and evidence from our previous consultation and research showed broad consensus for some form of regulation. Our proposals will allow local authorities and communities facing the most severe pressures to take action to manage those more effectively from next year. 

“I believe our proposals for a licensing scheme and short-term let control areas are evidence-based and right for Scottish circumstances.

“We will be engaging with stakeholders on our detailed proposals over the next four weeks. I am confident that our proposals will allow local authorities to ensure a safe, quality experience for visitors, whilst protecting the interests of local communities.”

Read the consultation paper on the Scottish Government website.

The consultation runs until Friday 16 October.

Lottery win for Parkgrove neighbours

Five people in Edinburgh received some good news this weekend – they’ve each scooped a cash prize of £1,000 thanks to their postcode.

The Parkgrove Crescent neighbours landed the cash when EH4 7RW was announced as a People’s Postcode Lottery winner on Sunday (13th September).

People’s Postcode Lottery ambassador Judie McCourt sent her well wishes and said: “A big congratulations to all those who have picked up a prize in Edinburgh. I hope they are able to treat themselves to something special with the money.”

A minimum of 32% of ticket sales goes directly to charities and players of People’s Postcode Lottery have raised over £600 million to date for thousands of good causes in Britain and beyond.

This draw was promoted by WWF-UK, which has received more than £15.2 million in funding to build a future in which people and nature thrive.

For more information on People’s Postcode Lottery, please visit www.postcodelottery.co.uk or Facebook  and Twitter.

The long shadow of deprivation

Research highlights England’s local councils with the lowest social mobility opportunities

The effect of deprivation in dozens of English local authorities is now so persistent that some families face being locked into disadvantage for generations unless the right action is taken, a new report shows today.

In the most detailed study of regional social mobility ever conducted in the UK, the report from the Social Mobility Commission identifies local councils with the worst and the best social mobility in England.

In the “coldest spots” those from disadvantaged backgrounds, entitled to free school meals, have little chance of making a better life for themselves or their children. They also earn much less than their more affluent peers.

These areas, which range across England, include:

  • Chiltern
  • Bradford
  • Thanet
  • Bolton
  • Wolverhampton
  • Kingston-upon-Hull
  • Fenland
  • Mansfield
  • Walsall
  • Gateshead
  • Kirklees
  • St Helens
  • Dudley
  • Bolton
  • Wigan

Individuals aged 28 from disadvantaged families in these councils earn on average just over half the amount of those from similar backgrounds in the most mobile areas. They also earn much less than those of the same age from more affluent families living nearby.

Steven Cooper, interim co-chair of the commission said: “These findings are very challenging. They tell a story of deep unfairness, determined by where you grow up. It is not a story of north versus south or urban versus rural; this is a story of local areas side by side with vastly different outcomes for the disadvantaged sons growing up there.“

Areas with high social mobility, where those from poorer backgrounds earn more and the pay gap with those from affluent families is smaller include:

  • Forest Heath
  • West Oxfordshire
  • South Derbyshire
  • Cherwell
  • Kingston upon Thames
  • South Gloucestershire
  • Tower Hamlets
  • North Hertfordshire
  • Eden

The research, carried out by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) and UCL Centre for Education Policy and Equalising Opportunities (CEPEO), links educational data and HMRC earnings for the first time to identify young sons from disadvantaged families – those entitled to free school meals. The sons who were born between 1986 and 1988 and went to state schools in England, were followed from aged 16 to 28.

The results, covering around 320 local councils in England and 800,000 young adults, show a postcode lottery for disadvantaged people. In areas with high social mobility, disadvantaged young adults earn twice as much as those with similar backgrounds in areas with low social mobility – on average, over £20,000 compared with under £10,000. Annual earnings from this group range from £6,900 (Chiltern) to £24,600 (Uttlesford).

Councils with the lowest earnings for disadvantaged individuals include:

  • Bradford
  • Hyndburn
  • Gateshead
  • Thanet

But they also include:

  • West Devon
  • Sheffield
  • Malvern Hills
  • Kensington and Chelsea.

Those with the highest earnings include:

  • Broxbourne
  • East Hertfordshire
  • Forest Heath
  • Havering
  • Uttlesford
  • Wokingham

But those from poor backgrounds also face unfairness on their doorstep. Pay gaps between the most and least deprived individuals in local authorities with the poorest social mobility are 2.5 times higher than in areas of high social mobility.

Education, often blamed for social mobility differences, is only part of the answer. In areas with high social mobility, gaps in educational achievement account for almost the entire pay difference between the most and least advantaged sons. On average it accounts for 80% of the difference.

However, in local authorities where social mobility is low it is much harder to escape deprivation. In such areas, up to 33% of the pay gap between the highest and lowest earners is down to non-education factors, like local labour markets and family background.

Disadvantaged workers are restricted by factors including limited social networks (fewer internships); inability to move to more prosperous areas; limited or no financial support from family; less resilience to economic turbulence due to previous crisis such as 2008 financial crash and less developed soft skills.

The commission is now urging regional and community leaders to use the findings to help draw up tailored, sustained, local programmes to boost social mobility, building on the approach in some Opportunity Areas.

The commission will also ask the government to extend its current Opportunity Areas programme – which gives support to 12 councils – to include several more authorities identified as the areas with the most entrenched disadvantage.

Professor Lindsey Macmillan, Director of CEPEO at UCL and Research Fellow at IFS said: “This new evidence highlights the need for a joined up-approach across government, third sector organisations, and employers.

“The education system alone cannot tackle this postcode lottery – a strategy that considers the entire life experience, from birth through to adulthood, is crucial to ensuring fairer life chances for all.”

Laura van der Erve, Research Economist at IFS and co-author of the report, said: “Not only do children from disadvantaged backgrounds have considerably lower school attainment and lower adult earnings than their peers from more affluent backgrounds, we also find large differences in the outcomes of children from disadvantaged backgrounds across the country.

“This highlights that children’s opportunities in England are still defined by both the family they were born into and the area they grew up in.”

Key findings

  • Social mobility in England is a postcode lottery, with large differences across areas in both the adult pay of disadvantaged adults, and the size of the pay gap for those from deprived families, relative to those from affluent families.
  • Disadvantaged young adults in areas with high social mobility can earn twice as much as their counterparts in areas where it is low – over £20,000 compared with under £10,000
  • Pay gaps between deprived and affluent young adults in areas with low social mobility are 2.5 times larger than those in areas with high social mobility.
  • In areas of low social mobility, up to 33% of the pay gap is driven by family background and local market factors, over and beyond educational achievement.
  • Characteristics of the coldest spots: fewer professional and managerial occupations; fewer outstanding schools; higher levels of deprivation and moderate population density.

The Social Mobility Commission is an independent advisory non-departmental public body established under the Life Chances Act 2010 as modified by the Welfare Reform and Work Act 2016. It has a duty to assess progress in improving social mobility in the UK and to promote social mobility in England.

Holyrood commitee seeks views on UK’s Internal Market Bill

Holyrood’s Finance & Constitution Committee has launched a call for views on the UK Government’s controversial Internal Market Bill, which was was introduced at Westminster on 9 September.

According to its explanatory notes, the purpose of the Bill is to “preserve the UK internal market, providing continued certainty for people and businesses to work and trade freely across the whole of the UK.”

All parts of the Bill trigger the need for legislative consent from the Scottish Parliament – but the Scottish Government has indicated it will not recommend that consent be given.

The Finance & Constitution Committee is therefore seeking views from all interested organisations and individuals to help inform its parliamentary scrutiny of the Bill and of the Scottish Government’s legislative consent memorandum.

The deadline for submissions is 24 September 2020.

Finance & Constitution Committee Convener Bruce Crawford MSP said: “The creation of a UK internal market and how it operates will impact on a wide range of Scottish organisations, including Scottish businesses – especially food production and agriculture, environmental and consumer organisations, as well as the third and voluntary sector and the wider public.

“It is vital therefore that we hear from people who are going to be affected by this Bill, but we only have until 24 September to do so. This is time critical.”

The Committee is scrutinising the UK Internal Market Bill as well as the forthcoming Legislative Consent Memorandum.

In order to inform its scrutiny, the Committee is seeking views, especially in the following areas:

Oral evidence on the Bill will begin later this month.

ELREC Food Support Project appeal

Dear colleagues and friends,

The lockdown and Covid 19 have been particularly difficult on many BAME, low income and isolated families here in Edinburgh.

In June 2020 ELREC started a food project to help bridge the gap between BAME people and food poverty and access to free food services such as food banks.

This came about after ELREC was contacted by many community members asking for food support due to job losses, furlough, redundancies, and benefits income not being sufficient to live on for many families and also children being at home fulltime.

ELREC provided this work thanks to local funding but this has now ended, yet the demand for food parcels and halal meat for BAME families remains. The work is all volunteer led and these include ELREC staff, board members and our other volunteers who give up their time to help us deliver this project.

ELREC provides on average 30 food parcels per week but not only put the parcels together but also deliver them to any family who are unable to collect them. There are 15 volunteers involved and on average we spend 20 hours per week on this work.

Currently ELREC is working in partnership with Edinburgh Community Food and Fareshare who provide us with free food parcels, but we do not have sufficient funding to top up the parcels with meat, which is the main item we are asked for.

There are many families within our communities who need and rely on this food support for many reasons but the standard food banks don’t meet their needs.  Therefore, ELREC is asking for funds to top up their food support with specific items they need such as halal meat, nappies, baby milk or any other essential items.

ELREC hopes to continue this work until end of October 2020 in line with the furlough scheme and then make alternative arrangements for these families to continue to access this food support with which they need to live.

FOOD for those who need it:

PLEASE DONATE what you can and help us keep doing this important work for our community.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/elrec-food-support

Many thanks,

Foysol Choudhury MBE
Chair, Edinburgh & Lothians Regional Equality Council

Tel 0131 556 0441

September-NewsletterDownload

Collaborate and create: Students unveil their vision for beauty spot visitor hub

Students from Edinburgh Napier and the City of Glasgow college have linked up to design a new visitor hub for Beecraigs Country Park in Linlithgow.

Two teams from the Scottish institutions were tasked with creating an ecologically sustainable, environmentally friendly, and inclusive focal point to the vibrant country park.

The aim was to layout a proposed building that could be constructed and deconstructed away from the intended site, known as offsite construction.

Team 2 won the first prize of £600 in the Offsite Ready challenge, when they designed a hub which would cater for cyclists, with open and accessible areas.

Team 1 delivered their presentation on a centre which would withstand the elements, including a mezzanine complemented by the carefully considered path of the sun. They received the runner up prize of £300.

From Edinburgh Napier, the winning team included digital designer Zarja Krevelj, production manager Emily Rankin, production manager Callum MacGillivray, and Agata Gaspari in charge of the summer pavilion.

The ‘Are you Offsite Ready? Online design challenge’ was sponsored by Finnish renewable materials manufacturers, Stora Enso, who donated £900 to reward students for their efforts.

Rory Doak, Business Development Manager at Stora Enso UK & Ireland said: “Stora Enso were thrilled to support a student-led design project, showcasing the abilities of students to adapt to new working conditions and produce manufacturable, sustainable and inclusive designs.

“I hope that we will see more competitions emerge, like this, that equip students with strong fundamental knowledge of BIM, inclusivity, and sustainable construction with timber. I am sure these principles will be key industry drivers in the future, and these students will continue to champion these design principles as they build their careers.”

The challenge was originally conceptualized by Edinburgh Napier lecturer Dr Mila Duncheva and research assistant for the Centre for Offsite Construction and Innovative Structures, Louise Rogers; with Catriona Jordan, from City of Glasgow College, as a way of giving students an opportunity to gain some industry experience out with the university curriculum and in lieu of the international internships usually available to students from Edinburgh Napier’s School of Engineering & the Built Environment.

Dr Mila Duncheva said: “This challenge was designed to develop students’ transferable skills including teamworking, problem solving, working to tight deadlines and collaborative digital workflows using Building Information Modelling (BIM).

“I was astounded by both teams’ intricate technical solutions and striking visual presentations and am delighted we provided a positive experience for them during the worst of the pandemic.”

The project spanned 12 weeks, starting in June. It presented challenges for the students as they learned to work together remotely, whilst figuring out how to get the best from their designs and cater for the park’s one million yearly visitors.

The Offsite Ready challenge teams collaborated with West Lothian Council to provide accurate geographical plans of the proposed sites. And engineering consultant firm SWECO who did an analysis of the project’s factors.

Students also attended a collection of lectures designed and delivered by their mentors, to help inform their designs.

With most of the mentors coming from Edinburgh Napier University, this included: Prof. Pat Langdon, Prof. Robert Hairstans and Dr Andrew Livingstone, working alongside industry leaders such as Matt Stevenson from SNRG

Eirwen Hopwood of West Lothian Council said she would like to see one of these designs become a reality at Beecraigs Country Park in the future.

This challenge was part of the wider Offsite Ready project funded by the Construction Industry Training Board and led by the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre in collaboration with Edinburgh Napier University, City of Glasgow College, Construction Wales Innovation Centre, Ministry of Building Innovation and Education and Class of Your Own.

Battle of Britain Day explained

The national celebration of Battle of Britain Day on 15 September is a major event. But do you know what we are commemorating and why, and how can you explain its significance to your children? Former primary school teacher Laura Steele of leading education resource creators PlanBee has all the answers.

What was the Battle of Britain?

The Battle of Britain was a decisive air battle between Britain and Germany in the Second World War, which took place between July and October 1940. 

How did the Battle of Britain begin?

Germany, led by Hitler, had invaded much of Europe, and Britain was the only country left to conquer. Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe, Germany’s air force, to fly over and bomb towns and army defences on the south coast of England, hoping to weaken the British defences before invading by land. The first bombs were dropped on 10th July 1940. 

How did Britain respond?

Hitler did not anticipate the strength of the Royal Air Force, and Britain’s determination to fight back. He decided to focus the attack on the air force bases of Britain instead, bombing airport runways and radar stations, hoping to weaken the RAF. Hitler became impatient at how long it was taking to defeat Britain, so he also ordered the bombing of large cities such as Cardiff, Glasgow, Belfast and London.

What was ‘The Hardest Day’?

18th August 1940 was named ‘The Hardest Day’ after a particularly fierce air battle between the RAF and the Luftwaffe. Germany aimed to destroy RAF Fighter Command, the control centre of Britain’s fighter aircraft. Both sides suffered heavy losses. Despite shooting down twice as many German planes in the sky, the RAF lost many of their aircraft when they were destroyed on the ground. 

What happened on ‘Battle of Britain Day’?

The Germans felt that they were getting close to victory. On 15th September, a huge bombing attack was launched on London. Immediately, RAF pilots took to the sky in their fighter planes, shooting down many German aircraft. This was a key turning point; although more air raids occurred after this date, they became less frequent.

How did it end?

At the end of October 1940, Hitler abandoned his plans to invade Britain. After the Battle of Britain, the RAF had seriously weakened the Luftwaffe and caused Hitler’s first major defeat of the war.

Seven fascinating facts about the Battle of Britain

●        The name ‘Battle of Britain’ was coined by Prime Minister Winston Churchill. In a speech he made after the defeat of France, he said, ‘ …the Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin.’

●        The leader of the RAF was Sir Hugh Dowding. The leader of the Luftwaffe was Hermann Göring.

●        Despite the Luftwaffe having more aircraft, the RAF had the advantage of radar which gave them advance warning of where and when German aircraft were approaching. 

●        The Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire were the main RAF fighter aircraft. The Hurricanes were responsible for 60 per cent of German losses.

●        The Messerschmitt bf 109 was the most dangerous German fighter plane. The Luftwaffe’s Heinkel He III was capable of carrying bombs weighing up to 250kg.

●        At the beginning of the Battle of Britain, the RAF had 1,963 aircraft while the Luftwaffe had 2,550. By the end, the RAF had lost 1,744 and the Luftwaffe 1,977.

●        After the Battle of Britain, Winston Churchill said, ‘Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.’ This is why the pilots who fought in the battle became known as ‘The Few’.


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Today: talking Health at Holyrood

MSPs to quiz NHS Lothian on impact of Covid-19

The Health and Sport Committee will hear from NHS Lothian on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic today.

This will include discussion of the health board’s 2020-21 budget, such as whether costs associated with the pandemic have been offset by savings in other departments.

The Committee will also explore the long-term effects of Covid-19 on health boards, including the funding of Integrated Joint Boards (IJBs). The Committee will also seek to find out what planning has been carried out in anticipation of a potential second wave of the virus.

Appearing before the Committee for this evidence session will be:

  • Calum Campbell, Interim Chief Executive, NHS Lothian
  • Susan Goldsmith, Director of Finance, NHS Lothian

The NHS Lothian session follows the appearance of NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.

The Cabinet Secretary for Justice, Humza Yousaf MSP, will also give evidence on the latest travel regulations relating to the Covid-19 pandemic. This will be the first item on the Committee’s agenda, which starts at 9.45am.

Full meeting papers:

 https://www.parliament.scot/S5_HealthandSportCommittee/Meeting%20Papers/20200915_HS_PUBLIC_PAPERS.pdf

You can watch the session live here: https://www.scottishparliament.tv/