The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition (SCSC),an alliance of leading providers of specialist care and education to vulnerable children and young people, has raised concerns over a sharp decline in the number of legally-binding education support plans for those with complex or multiple additional support needs (ASN).
So-called co-ordinated support plans (CSPs), prepared by local authorities, are the only education plans that are legal documents.
This provides some guarantees of entitlement to additional resources and legal redress, placing statutory duties on local authorities to review and ensure the provisions contained within it are being met.
Despite a Scottish Government promise that there would be no reduction in the proportion of pupils receiving them since their introduction in 2004, there has been a significant fall in the number of pupils with a CSP, from 3,448 in 2012 1 to 1,420 in 2021 2, amounting to a drop of 58.9%. This is a reduction from 2.9% to 0.6% of those with ASN, amounting to 0.2% of the pupil population.
A concern raised by the coalition is that councils are reluctant to issue CSPs due to the legal protections they afford, against the backdrop of a lack of resources to support these, with non-statutory alternatives often being offered in their place.
This sharp fall in the number of CSPs is against a background of a dramatic increase in the number of pupils with ASN, such as autism, dyslexia and mental health problems which in 2021 has reached a record high of 232,753.
Of this total 58.0% cent are boys. This represents 33.0% of the pupil population, rising from 118,011 in 2012, and is a near doubling (97.2%) in numbers from that year.
The coalition has called for an expansion in access to CSPs, ensuring that those requiring it receive the care and support they are entitled to, and to revise the relevant statutory guidance, with the necessary resourcing to support this.
A spokesperson for SCSC commented: “We are deeply concerned that there has been a decline in the use of CSPs, which are designed to support those with the most complex needs. This is despite a Scottish Government assurance that they would not decline and a dramatic increase in the numbers of those with ASN.
“By not providing this statutory support, many of those vulnerable individuals are being failed and not getting the support they are entitled to, which is of particular significance given the impact of Covid-19. The Scottish Government, local authorities and other agencies need to collaborate to ensure that those requiring a CSP receive it, with the necessary resourcing to support this.
“With those with ASN drawn disproportionately from poorer neighbourhoods, if we are to genuinely close the educational attainment gap they must get the care and support they need, when they need it.”
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has opened a consultation on its Draft Gaelic Language Plan 2022 – 2025 to widen access and promote the Gaelic language across the organisation.
The consultation seeks the views of key stakeholders, communities and staff on the second draft of the Service’s Gaelic Language Plan which has been prepared in line with the Framework of the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005.
Liz Barnes, Director of People and Organisational Development is inviting people to take part and help influence the way the SFRS integrates Gaelic into its operations and working practices.
She said “Gaelic belongs to the whole of Scotland and we would like to develop the understanding and use of the language, its history and heritage.
“You can help shape the future of Gaelic in the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.
“It’s easy to take part. Respondents are invited to answer a short survey and give their views on the Plan. Responses to the consultation will be used to shape our approach and inform the final Plan.”
The Service has a legal responsibility to have a plan and it wants to build on its existing plan to support the aim of increasing the use of the language by more people, in a wider range of situations.
The consultation will run for six weeks from 17 January to 27 February 2022 and can be accessed here:
Co-chomhairle air Plana Gàidhlig Seirbheis Smàlaidh agus Teasairginn na h-Alba
Tha Seirbheis Smàlaidh agus Teasairginn na h-Alba air co-chomhairle a thòiseachadh air an dreachd Phlana Ghàidhlig aice airson 2025 gus cur ri ruigsinneachd agus gus Gàidhlig a bhrosnachadh air feadh na buidhne.
Tha a’ cho-chomhairle a’ sireadh bheachdan bho phrìomh luchd-ùidh, coimhearsnachdan agus luchd-obrach air an dàrna dreachd den phlana, a chaidh ullachadh a rèir Frèam Achd na Gàidhlig (Alba) 2005.
Tha Liz Barnes, Ceannard Daoine agus Leasachadh na Buidhne air cuireadh a thoirt do dhaoine pàirt a ghabhail ann agus gus buaidh a thoirt air an dòigh sam bith Seirbheis Smàlaidh is Teasairginn na h-Alba a’ filleadh Gàidhlig a-steach do na gnìomhan agus dòighean-obrach aice
Thuirt i “Buinidh a’ Ghàidhlig ri Alba air fad agus tha sinn airson cur ri tuigse agus cleachdadh na Gàidhlig, agus ri tuigse air a h-eachdraidh is dualchas.
“Is urrainn dhut buaidh a thoirt air an àite a bhios aig Gàidhlig ann an Seirbheis Smàlaidh agus Teasairginn na h-Alba san àm ri teachd.
“Tha e furasta pàirt a ghabhail ann. Thathar ag iarraidh air luchd-freagairt suirbhidh goirid a fhreagairt agus na beachdan aca a thoirt seachad air a’ phlana. Thèid freagairtean dhan cho-chomhairle a chleachdadh gus cumadh a thoirt air an dòigh-obrach againn agus gus am plana mu dheireadh fhiosrachadh.”
Tha uallach laghail air an t-Seirbheis plana a bhith aice agus tha i airson togail air a’ phlana làithreach aice gus taic a chumail ri phrìomh amas Plana Nàiseanta na Gàidhlig gum bi an cànan ga chleachdadh le barrachd dhaoine, ann an raon nas fharsainge de shuidheachaidhean.
Ruithidh a’ cho-chomhairle fad sia seachdainean bho 17mh Faoilleach gu 27th Gearran 2022. Gheibhear an suirbhidh an seo.
BOSS will take 5,400 sq ft at St James Quarter, as the lifestyle district continues to ramp up its high-end fashion offering
This latest signing follows the recent arrival of women’s fashion brand, REISS
Edinburgh St James is a 1.7 million sq ft city centre development and one of the biggest regeneration projects currently underway in the UK. On completion, Edinburgh St James will provide the Scottish capital with up to 850,000 sq ft of prime retail space, five star hotel accommodation and will deliver up to 250 new private residential apartments. This will create a vibrant and exciting place to live, visit and shop in the heart of Edinburgh. Architect: BDP and Allan Murry Architects. Developer: Nuveen Real Estate. main contractor Laing O’Rourke
St James Quarter welcomes luxury fashion brand BOSS to its line-up of high-end brands. The world-famous BOSS brand will take its place at St James Quarter alongside the likes of REISS, Kooples, Aesop, Russell & Bromley, Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, and the recently opened H Beauty.
HUGO BOSS is one of the largest German fashion companies and produces luxury clothing, accessories, footwear and fragrances. The BOSS brand is set to occupy 5,400 sq ft of space on level three.
The latest letting expands the fashion offering at St James Quarter. BOSS will join the impressive list of names including & Other Stories, Mango, Zara, Bershka, Pull & Bear, Stradivarius, Next, H&M, JD Sports, John Lewis and many more. It also follows on from the recent announcement of Duck & Waffle.
Nick Peel, Managing Director at St James Quarter, said:“BOSS is a brand we’ve had our eye on for a while and think they will be a great addition to St James Quarter in 2022. We continue to bring together a diverse range of retail, leisure and food & beverage brands with broad appeal but which are far from ubiquitous and BOSS fits superbly into the St James Quarter line up.”
Complementing an unrivalled shopping offer, St James Quarter is a premier food and drink destination in the heart of the Scottish capital. It provides a truly diverse offer – from fast, fresh food, to family and restaurant dining, including Bonnie & Wild as the anchor for the development’s new concept food hall alongside Five Guys, Wingstop, Thai Express, Pho, Maki & Ramen and The Alchemist.
National charity Living Streets is asking people to nominate local groups or individuals who have gone the extra mile to improve their community for walking and wheeling this year.
Living Streets, the UK charity for everyday walking, is looking for inpiring entrants for the Charles Maher Award – Walking Champion 2022.
The award was set up in honour of Charles Maher, a campaigner and longstanding supporter of Living Streets – formerly the Pedestrians Association – and recognises an individual, group or organisation who has helped achieve a better environment for pedestrians.
Stephen Edwards, Interim Chief Executive, Living Streets said: “Local people doing extraordinary things to improve the places where they live deserve to be celebrated.
“By helping to make our streets safer and more attractive, many people and organisations have ensured we have stayed active, healthy and connected to our communities. This award is a chance to recognise their work and say thank you.
“Whether you know a parent who has helped make walking to school safer for local families, an organisation that’s fighting for safer streets for wheelchair users or an individual whose dedication and tenacity has led to street improvements, we want to hear about them.”
Individuals, local groups, organisations or local authorities can self-nominate themselves or others for the Living Streets Charles Maher Award.
The deadline for nominations is midnight on 16 February 2022.
Living Streets members will then select the top nominee by vote, with the winner invited to collect their award during Living Streets’ National Walking Summit on 22 March 2022.
The nomination form is on the Living Streets website:
The new year has got off to a bad start, and everyone has felt the negative effects of the recent restrictions caused by the rise of the Omicron variant. Plus the cost of basic household bills are rising. So, for those from low-income families who experience a bereavement, life must seem especially difficult.
So, a charity-owned funeral director has responded to the current Covid and cost of living crisis by offering pay-what-you can funerals for Lothian residents who have lost someone for the remainder of January.
2021 was a tough year for many. It also started with severe Covid restrictions which disproportionately affected low-income workers. Later in the year, it was announced that the £20 uplift in Universal Credit was to be removed, affecting over 450,000 Scottish households.
And this year, hard-up families face a rise in energy prices and inflation, leading to what has been described as “a cost-of-living crisis”. So, not surprisingly, 2022 may be looking very bleak for some Scottish families.
John Halliday, Co-Founder of Caledonia Cremation today announces a scheme to support bereaved people experiencing hardship this January: “Caledonia Cremation is not a traditional funeral director. When we launched in 2018, we became Scotland’s only social-enterprise funeral director. That means our first concern is people and not profits.
“I see all around that this pandemic has made rich people richer and poorer people poorer. I strongly feel it is up to society to do our bit now in helping those worst affected, however we can.
“People need better food, cheaper housing, catch-up education and help back into work. We can’t do all those things, but what we can do something about the cost of funerals.
“Sadly, it is a fact of life that everyone needs a funeral. But for some people their funeral is the most expensive purchase they ever make. The average cost of a basic funeral is over four thousand pounds.
“So, our contribution is this – we’ve decided to remove all our fees and just let bereaved families pay-what- you-can during this pandemic recovery period.
“There is no means testing, we trust people to know what they can and cannot afford.
“No one anywhere has ever done this before, so we are learning as we go.
“If someone wants to know the usual price, we can tell them. If generous people want to add more towards our fundraising to tackle the root causes of poverty, that is fantastic. But if all they can find to cover the funeral is a few hundred pounds, that’s absolutely fine too.
“No one should judge your worth based on the size of your savings.
“We hope everyone has a happy and healthy 2022, but if the unthinkable happens, then please know you are not alone – we are here and will do everything we can to support you throughout your loss.”
Police Scotland has released an image of a man they believe may hold information which might assist in relation to an incident that occurred on West Richmond Street at around 11.10pm on Wednesday, 15 September, 2021.
The man is described as around 40 – 50 years old, average height and heavy build. He was wearing a black jacket, black trousers and had a bright blue rucksack.
Detective Constable Greg Manley said: “I would urge the man, or anyone who has information relating to him, depicted in the image to make contact with the police.
“Members of the public can contact Police Scotland via the 101 non-emergency telephone number quoting incident number 1825 of 16 September 2021.
“Alternatively, calls can be made anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”
Around 12,000 students will assist in the safe delivery of health and social care as services continue to respond to the pandemic.
More than 3,000 nursing and midwifery students are heading out on placements this month. A further 7,000 students will be placed across the service in February, complemented by around 1,500 Allied Health Professional students and more than 500 paramedic students who will also be involved in the delivery of care via supervised practice.
The practical component of student learning remains centred on supervised involvement in the frontline delivery of patient care as part of accruing the hours necessary for registration as a healthcare professional. It is an integral part of the ongoing work to respond to the challenges of COVID-19, and is greatly valued by the workforce.
Health Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “As part of their professional programme of education, and throughout the pandemic, these students have worked tirelessly to support our NHS, making an invaluable contribution to the delivery of care as part of their supervised practice in health and social care environments.
“As we go into a third year facing up to the challenges of COVID, we are fortunate to combine good quality learning attained by students as part of their supervised practice with the positive impact these students have on the delivery of safe, effective patient care and their ongoing support of our NHS. And I wholeheartedly thank them for their hard work during this difficult time.”
Senior Charge Nurse for Critical Care at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary Steve Walls said: “As part of their learning experience, students have adapted to what has been very challenging time, providing the highest quality of care as valued members of clinical teams across a broad range of services, from our hospitals to the community.
“For me it has been fantastic to see how they have developed while providing an extra pair of hands, eyes and ears to make sure our patients are safely cared for as we respond to the pandemic. They also bring with them an enthusiasm that can lift the mood of a shift.”
Honours nursing student at Glasgow Caledonian University and mother-of-three Natalie Elliott, from Lanarkshire, was one of the first students to go out on supervised hospital placements in April 2020. She said: “ I learned so much. The experience has helped boost my confidence and improved my performance.
“It was a real privilege to be part of the pandemic response and to feel that you’ve made that little bit of a difference. There was a sense of camaraderie on the wards and I really felt part of the team.
“It has also helped me develop more self-awareness. Nursing can be stressful but I’ve learned to look after myself and be more resilient when I feel overwhelmed with the challenges I face, particularly when wards are short staffed and there are difficult cases to deal with.”
Crown Estate Scotland has announced the outcome of its application process for ScotWind Leasing, the first Scottish offshore wind leasing round in over a decade and the first ever since the management of offshore wind rights were devolved to Scotland.
The results coming just months after Glasgow hosted the global COP26 climate conference show the huge opportunity that Scotland has to transform its energy market and move towards a net zero economy.
Highlights include:
17 projects have been selected out of a total of 74 applications, and have now been offered option agreements which reserve the rights to specific areas of seabed
A total of just under £700m will be paid by the successful applicants in option fees and passed to the Scottish Government for public spending
The area of seabed covered by the 17 projects is just over 7,000km2 (a maximum of 8,600km2 was made available through the Scottish Government’s Sectoral Marine Plan)
Initial indications suggest a multi-billion pound supply chain investment in Scotland
The potential power generated will provide for the expanding electrification of the Scottish economy as we move to net zero.
The details of the 17 applicants who have been offered option agreements can be found below and in the downloads section.
Map reference
Lead applicant
Option Fees
Technology
Total capacity (MW)
1
BP Alternative Energy Investments
£85,900,000
Fixed
2,907
2
SSE Renewables
£85,900,000
Floating
2,610
3
Falck Renewables
£28,000,000
Floating
1,200
4
Shell New Energies
£86,000,000
Floating
2,000
5
Vattenfall
£20,000,000
Floating
798
6
DEME
£18,700,000
Fixed
1,008
7
DEME
£20,000,000
Floating
1,008
8
Falck Renewables
£25,600,000
Floating
1,000
9
Ocean Winds
£42,900,000
Fixed
1,000
10
Falck Renewables
£13,400,000
Floating
500
11
Scottish Power Renewables
£68,400,000
Floating
3,000
12
BayWa
£33,000,000
Floating
960
13
Offshore Wind Power
£65,700,000
Fixed
2,000
14
Northland Power
£3,900,000
Floating
1,500
15
Magnora
£10,300,000
Mixed
495
16
Northland Power
£16,100,000
Fixed
840
17
Scottish Power Renewables
£75,400,000
Fixed
2,000
Totals
£699,200,000
24,826
Simon Hodge, Chief Executive of Crown Estate Scotland, said: “Today’s results are a fantastic vote of confidence in Scotland’s ability to transform our energy sector. Just a couple of months after hosting COP26, we’ve now taken a major step towards powering our future economy with renewable electricity.
“In addition to the environmental benefits, this also represents a major investment in the Scottish economy, with around £700m being delivered straight into the public finances and billions of pounds worth of supply chain commitments.
“The variety and scale of the projects that will progress onto the next stages shows both the remarkable progress of the offshore wind sector, and a clear sign that Scotland is set to be a major hub for the further development of this technology in the years to come.”
Should any application not progress to signing a full agreement, the next highest scoring application will instead be offered an option.
Once these agreements are officially signed, the details of the supply chain commitments made by the applicants as part of their Supply Chain Development Statements will be published.
This is just the first stage of the long process these projects will have to go through before we see turbines going into the water, as the projects evolve through consenting, financing, and planning stages.
Responsibility for these stages does not sit with Crown Estate Scotland, and projects will only progress to a full seabed lease once all these various planning stages have been completed.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has welcomed the “truly historic” opportunity for Scotland’s net zero economy, as the winners of the ScotWind offshore wind leasing auction were announced by Crown Estate Scotland yesterday.
17 projects, with a combined potential generating capacity of 25GW, have been offered the rights to specific areas of the seabed for the development of offshore wind power – with developers giving commitments to invest in the Scottish supply chain, providing opportunities for high quality green jobs for decades to come.
The projects are expected to secure at least £1bn in supply chain investment for every 1GW of capacity proposed. They will also generate around £700 million in revenue for the Scottish Government and represent the world’s first commercial scale opportunity for floating offshore wind.
As well as helping complete Scotland’s own journey to net zero, creating thousands of jobs in the process, our offshore wind resource also has the potential to position Scotland as a major exporter of renewable energy, including green hydrogen.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: ““The scale of opportunity here is truly historic. ScotWind puts Scotland at the forefront of the global development of offshore wind, represents a massive step forward in our transition to net zero, and will help deliver the supply chain investments and high quality jobs that will make the climate transition a fair one.
“It allows us to make huge progress in decarbonising our energy supply – vital if we are to reduce Scotland’s emissions – while securing investment in the Scottish supply chain of at least £1 billion for every gigawatt of power.
This will be transformational. And because Scotland’s workers are superbly placed with transferable skills to capitalise on the transition to new energy sources, we have every reason to be optimistic about the number of jobs that can be created.
“That means, for example, that people working right now in the oil and gas sector in the North East of Scotland can be confident of opportunities for their future. The spread of projects across our waters promises economic benefits for communities the length and breadth of the country, ensuring Scotland benefits directly from the revolution in energy generation that is coming.
“The scale of opportunity represented in today’s announcement exceeds our current planning assumption of 10GW of offshore wind – which is a massive vote of confidence in Scotland. So we will now embark on the rigorous consenting process required to make sure we can maximise the potential that clearly exists in offshore wind while also ensuring that the impacts of large scale development – including on other marine users and the wider natural environment – are properly understood and addressed.
“While it is not yet possible to say with certainty what the scale of development will ultimately be, there is no doubt that the scale of this opportunity is transformational – both for our environment and the economy.”
The Falck Renewables and BlueFloat Energy partnership taking part in the current ScotWind offshore wind leasing round is celebrating the success of three of its bids to secure seabed leases for sites which lend themselves to the deployment of large-scale floating wind technology in Scotland.
Two of the partnership’s proposed projects – a site east of Aberdeen in Plan Option E1 and a site north of Fraserburgh in Plan Option NE6 have been granted leases from Crown Estate Scotland – along with a proposed site east of Caithness in Plan Option NE3 which will be developed by a consortium of Falck Renewables, BlueFloat Energy and Ørsted.
The three areas could accommodate a total of approximately 3.0 GW of offshore wind capacity with the projects scheduled to be operational by the end of the decade, subject to securing consent, commercial arrangements and grid connections.
The successful bids combined BlueFloat Energy’s knowledge and experience in developing, financing and executing offshore wind projects with Falck Renewables’ strong track record of global project development and over 15 years of community engagement in Scotland.
Carlos Martin, CEO of BlueFloat Energy, said: “The Scottish coastline is ideal for developing offshore wind projects and our team is thrilled to be given the opportunity to deploy our expertise to deliver these projects in Scotland.
“The potential for boosting the economy and reinforcing Scotland’s position at the forefront of the energy transition is huge. We have already carried out extensive work on mapping out the Scottish supply chain and now look forward to ensuring we work with as many local companies as possible.”
Toni Volpe, CEO of Falck Renewables, said: “We are delighted that our applications have won the support of Crown Estate Scotland and that our offshore wind projects will be making a considerable contribution to providing Scotland with clean energy.
“Falck Renewables has a worldwide renewables portfolio and with our growth strategy we are on track to facilitate the global transition to a low carbon future.”
Richard Dibley, Managing Director of Falck Renewables Wind Ltd, said: “We are hugely excited about the positive impact these projects will have on the whole of Scotland in terms of creating jobs, economic benefit and helping to achieve a net zero future.
“Over the past 15 years we have seen communities empowered with the help of the financial support they have received from our onshore wind farms and we look forward to sharing the benefits of offshore wind with local communities.”
The Falck Renewables, BlueFloat Energy, Ørsted consortium has already begun work with community ownership experts Energy4All on a new framework which will allow residents of Scotland and Scottish communities to share the financial benefits of the offshore wind energy projects the consortium plans to build in the future.
As part of the preparatory work to deliver the offshore wind projects the consortium will collaborate with Energy Skills Partnership Scotland (ESP) to help train up a skilled workforce in time for construction to begin.
Research will also be carried out with the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) to investigate the potential effects of floating offshore wind developments on the marine environment. Projects under discussion will examine how fishing interests and offshore wind can work together and study the interaction of fish, marine mammals and seabirds with floating offshore wind farms.
Energy4All is a non-profit distributing co-operative social enterprise formed by the Baywind Energy Co-operative in 2002 to enable more communities to own and operate renewable energy projects.
Marna McMillin, Chief Executive of Energy4All, said: “Climate breakdown is the key environmental challenge facing our society. If we are to successfully decarbonize our economy, we must rapidly replace polluting fossil fuels with clean power. This requires us to generate much more zero carbon electricity to heat our homes and power our vehicles.
“We need the public to support those changes, and we believe one of the best ways of ensuring that support is to allow individuals to have a share in those projects.
“Falck Renewables has a 15-year track record of working with Energy4All having successfully set up seven co-operatives at its Scottish onshore wind farms, enabling thousands of people to buy a stake in their local wind farm.
“We think partnerships of this sort could be a model for other offshore projects in both the UK and the rest of Europe.”
Reacting to the outcome of the application process for ScotWind leasing by Crown Estate Scotland, the ALBA Party Depute Leader and MP for East Lothian Kenny MacAskill MP said:“This offshore wind giveaway is selling the family silver cheap while Scots families face crippling energy bills this April.
“Those who don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it. It looks like the Scottish Government have surrendered vast chunks of the North Sea wind resource for a relative pittance just as Westminster gave away Scotland’s oil in the 1970s.
“Instead of a one off payment of under £700 million there should be annual payments. Instead of Scottish resources being just handed over to international investment companies there should be a public stake in every single field.
“One has to question the basic competence of Crown Estate Scotland. They think they have auctioned away 10-12 GW of power. Informed industry estimates are the real capacity from this round alone is double that.
“Offshore wind is fast becoming the most lucrative major power source on the planet. Scotland has one quarter of the resource of Europe. It will be cold comfort to Scottish pensioners shivering in their homes facing vast fuel bills to know that the Scottish Government have given away so much of the green power of the future for so little in return.”
The STUC says that the announcement must mark the end of broken promises to Scottish workers and presage the start of a long overdue renewables jobs revolution.
Oil giants Shell and BP, alongside Scottish and Southern Energy, Scottish Power Renewables, and a number of multinational companies have all won leases to develop offshore wind farms off Scotland’s coast.
Following campaigns from trade unions in the wake of failures to secure meaningful fabrication contracts at BiFab, the ScotWind leasing round included requirements on companies to make supply chain commitments, with many bidders making public statements promising major investments in job creation. However, these statements have not yet been published and in any case they do not require a specific proportion of work to be undertaken locally.
The STUC continues to be concerned that so few successful bids are from domestic companies, with previous experience showing that multinational companies regularly offshore work to Europe and the Far East.
The STUC is calling for the Scottish Government to call a summit of successful developers to secure ongoing commitments to cooperate on delivery and work with unions and government to make the green jobs revolution a reality.
STUC General Secretary Roz Foyer said: “Over the past six months the public relations teams of the prospective bidders have been in overdrive, promising the long overdue renewables jobs revolution. Now we need to make that happen.
“The First Minister says that we have every reason to be optimistic about the number of jobs that can be created, but our skills workers in oil and gas need more than words given the experience over the past decade tells us that jobs in offshore wind are consistently offshored overseas.
“With over 1000 massive turbines to become operational over the next decade, it would be nothing short of economic vandalism if we fail to build a thriving supply chain in Scotland. Fundamental to that is building the infrastructure to enable large scale fabrication in Scottish yards, requiring local content from developers, and addressing questions of ownership through the development of a Scottish National Infrastructure company.
“Unions will work proactively and positively with employers and business to deliver the Fair Work future our workers deserve, but we will also campaign vigorously to ensure that promises are kept.”
The Royal College of Occupational Therapists (RCOT) has announced a new strategy and rebrand, crucial to achieving its vision that people everywhere will value the life-changing power of occupational therapy.
The vision purposefully focuses on occupational therapy’s wider impact on society – enhancing the profession’s profile and positioning the role of occupational therapy for the future.
The five-year strategy details what RCOT will do to make its vision a reality. It guides RCOT to rise up to be bold, progressive advocates and champions, open up to new opportunities and people, lift up every occupational therapist to be the best they can be. RCOT has also adopted new organisational values that define how it’ll act and make decisions to reach its vision.
The new brand signals a major change and is essential to achieving RCOT’s ambitions. It has ‘occupation’ and inclusivity at its heart to capture the positive, dynamic and deeply human spirit of occupational therapy.
Commenting on this, RCOT Chief Executive Steve Ford said:“I’m hugely excited to be announcing our strategic plans and revealing our new brand which is critical to achieving our ambitions for the organisation and profession.
“At RCOT, everything we do is so that one day people everywhere value the life-changing power of occupational therapy. Our vision purposefully focuses on our wider impact on society – enhancing our profession’s profile and positioning the role of occupational therapy for the future.
“We listened to our members to find out how we can best support them as individuals, to enable and grow the profession, and to boost awareness so that more people want to get involved with occupational therapy – and choose it as a solution, or as their profession.
“To reach our ambitious goals we must improve and change how we work to become a more forward-looking organisation. We will boldly lead the profession forward with a stronger voice than ever before.
“We will be the advocate and champion that occupational therapists deserve, sharing and celebrating the life-changing outcomes they help to achieve for people and society. We will be proudly inclusive – welcoming and supporting new generations of occupational therapists to join the profession so we reflect the diverse society that we represent and work with.
“It’s time to show the world the true power of what we do.”
