Missing Person – Peng Tao Yi
Peng is a 19 year old Chinese national studying here in Edinburgh.
He is of medium build and wears glasses.
Peng is currently missing from the Middlefield area of Leith.
Anyone with information should contact 101 quoting incident ref: 0978 of 25/11/24.
There are bike thieves about. Make sure you ALWAYS secure your pedal cycle using the following guidance:
o Register your bicycle securely with https://orlo.uk/oGnWz it may help to recover it if stolen.
o Consider the use of a bike GPS tracker.
o Photograph and record all your bike’s details and distinguishing features. The serial number is generally located on the bottom bracket.
o If using social media, make your profile private.
o Never leave your bike unattended at popular riding destinations.
o Do not leave bikes unattended on vehicle bike racks, especially overnight.
o Consider anti-grinder bicycle locks
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TechFest, an Aberdeen-based charity, has launched the programme ‘STEM into Innovation’ to enhance Edinburgh students’ awareness of innovation processes used within the design and manufacturing sectors.
STEM into Innovation targets secondary school students, offering both in-school tuition and live masterclasses held in Scottish cities. The initiative aims to equip young people with STEM and entrepreneurship skills and knowledge for further academic or STEM careers.
It kicked off with “Pioneers of Progress” in February, an exciting initiative exploring the evolution of instant communications and an introduction to design.
This free programme, which is still available to access via TechFest’s website, is delivered in classrooms through video content accompanied by follow-up challenges that aim to enhance all participating students’ mathematics, writing, design, marketing and teamwork skills.
It is designed for teachers across all subjects, providing a variety of resources for classroom instruction from TechFest, such as student activity booklets and interviews with industry professionals.
Sarah Chew, Managing Director of TechFest, said: “STEM into Innovation taps into Scotland’s rich design and manufacturing heritage, equipping students with the skills and mindset to become Scotland’s next STEM leaders.
“It is a CREST-accredited programme that empowers students to unlock their full STEM potential, strengthens their CVs and UCAS applications while equipping them with the skills and mindset needed to bridge the industry skills gap.
“STEM into Innovation is committed to creating greater diversity and equality through encouraging more young people to consider a career in the engineering or science industries.”
TechFest delivered a range of masterclasses for students as part of STEM into Innovation, where students could roll up their sleeves and dive into hands-on product design.
The masterclasses were held in Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee, and provided an opportunity for young people to gain insights on entrepreneurship and product development from industry professionals.
A masterclass conducted by Horizon Educational, organisers of the Hydrogen Grand Prix (H2GP), concluded the 2024 programme on the 23rd of November with a focus on engineering design and innovation.
Tobias Lundsgaard, Product Development Manager at Horizon Educational said: “Being able to bridge the gap between the products we develop in our R&D centre and the students we serve has been an invaluable aspect of TechFest’s STEM into Innovation programme.
“Getting to know these students – and being able to give them a glimpse into my own process of product development has reminded me of why I chose to pursue a career at Horizon Educational: to help build future leaders with a passion for STEM and Conscious design.”
Other masterclasses were held across Scotland including Edinburgh, which was presented by The National Robotarium.
A parent who attended the National Robotarium masterclass with her child said: ‘‘I would like to thank TechFest for organising these opportunities for the kids.
“My child had such a great day yesterday at Herriot-Watt University with his friend attending the National Robotarium. It was a long drive but so worth it when you see the enthusiasm they come away with about all they have seen and learnt. ”
STEM into Innovation was designed to equip students with in-demand entrepreneurial skills for employers and higher education institutions, enhancing their academic and career prospects in STEM fields.
This CREST-accredited programme: Pioneers of Progress runs throughout the academic year, alongside all other STEM into Innovation events and will continue to be available in the next school year, offering students ongoing opportunities to engage with STEM.
Following the success STEM into Innovation, next academic year, TechFest will host a cross-curricular design project for secondary school pupils to build on their previous programme experiences.
Fort Kinnaird is calling on customers to help spread festive cheer in the community this Christmas.
The centre has teamed up with Cyrenians, an Edinburgh-based charity that tackles the causes and consequences of homelessness, to launch a ‘Letters of Hope’ initiative, as part of the charity’s winter appeal to combat social isolation.
The local community are being asked to write their warm wishes in a Christmas card or letter and post without an envelope in its ‘Letters of Hope’ mailbox free of charge. The initiative will then see these heartfelt Christmas cards distributed to those at risk of homelessness in and around Edinburgh.
There will also be a contactless donation point where shoppers can tap to donate £3, £5 or £10 as well as a QR code displayed on the side of the post box where visitors will be able to tap to make donations and support the charity’s vital work in the city.
The initiative is part of Cyrenians’ Winter Appeal which launched earlier this week to support the charity’s services to stop homelessness in its tracks. The city is facing significant housing challenges, and the funds raised will help Cyrienians reach more people this winter, while providing a little light through initiatives like the Letters of Hope mailbox.
Liam Smith, centre director at Fort Kinnaird, said: “While Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year for many of us, we know that the winter months, and especially the festive season, can be challenging for those experiencing homelessness.
“It’s our visitors who make Christmas so special for us here at Fort Kinnaird, so we know we can count on them to spread some cheer to those who need it most.
“We hope our ‘Letters of Hope’ initiative, and the fundraising support for Cyrenians, will help to bring a few more smiles over the seasonal period.”
Sophie Bell, Fundraising Manager at Cyrenians, said: “Winter is dark enough, so we are delighted to be partnering with Fort Kinnaird this season to bring a little light to those who need it most.
“Cyrenians works across the community to break the cycle of homelessness. With services across addiction recovery, family mediation, supported housing, food distribution and more, we will provide vital support to many people who are struggling this Christmas. Thanks to Fort Kinnaird and their customers, we can work to tackle homelessness together.”
Letters and cards can be posted into the special post box – located outside ODEON Cinema – from now until 20th December when they will be distributed by Cyrenians in plenty of time for Christmas.
For more information on Fort Kinnaird, please visit https://www.fortkinnaird.com/
For more information on Cyrenians, please visit: https://cyrenians.scot/
In a heartwarming celebration of community spirit and festive joy, Edinburgh’s very own local legend, Shikha Ahuja, is being honoured in a vibrant Christmas window display at Pret A Manger on North Bridge.
Shikha Ahuja, 54, a dedicated member of the Milan Senior Welfare Organisation, has been nominated by the charity for her enthusiastic and unwavering commitment over five years. Shikha brings joy, connection, and a dash of Bollywood magic to the elderly amongst Edinburgh’s South Asian community.
She is always looking for ways to enhance the lives of others, from organising cooking clubs and yoga sessions, through to leading a digital literacy programme for senior citizens, to help them become better connected and combat loneliness.
As a tribute, Shikha is being commemorated in a window display that perfectly captures the festive season – complete with a garland featuring food from Pret’s Christmas menu.
Shikha says: “I’m truly humbled to be featured in this beautiful display. For me, it’s about more than just providing a service.
“It’s about spreading warmth and helping older people feel more loved and less alone, whether by reconnecting them with family on Zoom or creating spaces to socialise through community arts and crafts.
“I feel blessed by everyone I help and grow a little each day.
“To be celebrated in this festive display, surrounded by the spirit of generosity and community, is so uplifting. A huge thank you to the team at Milan Senior Welfare Organisation, The Pret Foundation and everyone who works towards making Edinburgh a more connected community.”
The Edinburgh display is part of a national celebration of joy, with additional windows in Liverpool, London, Birmingham and Manchester showcasing the most joyous moments of 2024, Top 10 list below. Pret is encouraging everyone to visit their local shop, admire the displays and share in the festive spirit by using the hashtag #ShareTheJoy on social media.
Katherine Bagshaw, UK Food and Coffee Director, said: “At Pret, we believe that Christmas is about bringing people together, celebrating, and sharing the joy. We’re thrilled to be able to tell inspiring stories of remarkable individuals who make a real difference in their community.
“Shikha’s nomination is testament to her dedication in helping others – thanks to The Pret Foundation, we’re able to provide food, resources, and support to those affected by hunger and homelessness, not just at Christmas but year-round.”
TOP 10 – 2024 MOMENTS OF JOY
Scottish Fire and Rescue Service combined forces with the Leith Community Policing Team at Lorne Primary yesterday to deliver the ‘The Junior Cop & Good Citizen’ programme.
Constable Gloc leads the current initiative which is presented to Primary 6 pupils with the aim of encouraging the children to act responsibly and safely at home, in the community and within their school environment.
It involves a weekly programme of inputs covering the following topics:
The Role of the Police
Fire Safety
Travel Safe
Online Safety
Alcohol, Drugs, and age specific goods
Respect in the Community, including ASB and Hate Crime.
The image is of Community Fire Fighters Young & Sinclair, PC Clark and in centre stage a potential firefighter of the future.
As of 4 November, Carer Support Payment is available in every local authority area in Scotland. We introduced the payment in phases from November 2023 and are delighted it is now available across Scotland.
Carer Support Payment is money to help unpaid carers providing 35 or more hours of care a week to someone who gets disability benefits. The payment is £81.90 per week.
Carers in Scotland who already get Carer’s Allowance will have their benefits automatically transferred to Carer Support Payment with no gap in entitlement. Social Security Scotland will write to people in advance to let them know that their award will be moving.
We are planning an awareness-raising campaign in early 2025 to support take-up of the benefit .
More information on eligibility and how to apply is available at mygov.scot/carer-support-payment.
Free stakeholder resources are available on our website to share with your networks and help us promote the payment to people who may be eligible. Please download them and share across your networks and channels.
The next Carer’s Allowance Supplement payment of £288.60 will be paid on Friday 6 December to eligible carers who were paid Carer Support Payment or Carer’s Allowance on 7 October 2024.
We will write to eligible carers in advance, so they know when to expect the payment. If carers have not received the payment or heard from us by 16 December 2024, they should call us free on 0800 182 2222.
More information is available on our website.
The City of Edinburgh Council is once again supporting the global 16 Days of Activism campaign.
This is an international movement aimed at raising awareness, driving advocacy, and sharing knowledge to combat gender-based violence.
Running from 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, through to 10 December, Human Rights Day, the campaign calls for action on a global scale.
As part of its commitment the City Chambers was lit up orange in support of the campaign.
The Chief Executive and Leader of the Council are pleased to announce that the Council is participating in the Equally Safe at Work accreditation programme, further reinforcing its broader strategy to create safer communities for women and girls.
City of Edinburgh Council Leader Cammy Day and Chief Executive Paul Lawrence said: “We are pleased to announce that the City of Edinburgh Council is participating in the Equally Safe at Work accreditation programme as part of a wider programme of work in the City to promote gender equality and to prevent and eradicate discrimination and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). This falls within Edinburgh’s wider commitment to implementing Equally Safe.
“Gender inequality in society is a cause and consequence of VAWG, and women’s market labour inequality is one of the ways this is expressed in society. To prevent VAWG, we must tackle gender inequality in society. The Council as an employer is committed to addressing and eradicating the ways in which social gender inequality plays out in the workplace.
“As one of the largest employers in Edinburgh we are committed to progressing gender equality in the workplace, and the Equally Safe at Work Programme provides us with the tools to make meaningful change for all employees in the organisation, particularly women.
“We will be undertaking a number of activities to progress gender equality for our colleagues and better support victim-survivors of violence against women (VAW) at work. This includes reviewing our equality policy, introducing a specific gender-based violence policy, looking at recruitment and progression practices and pathways, and providing relevant learning and development opportunities.
“We’ll do more to raise awareness of gender equality and violence against women and work to address occupational gender segregation – undertaking pilot projects to change the workforce profile where roles are seen as traditionally male- or female-dominated.
“It’s important that all employees in the workplace feel safe and supported. While women and girls are at greatest risk of gender-based violence, we know that boys, men, transgender and non-binary people are also affected – the work we do will benefit everyone.
“It’s also important that we take an approach that recognises that women have different experiences of employment, and this is shaped by multiple, intersecting inequalities and discriminations that overlap to create different levels of inequality. We recognise that individuals face unique challenges and discrimination based on the intersection of their gender, race, ethnicity, disability, economic disadvantage, religion, sexual orientation and other social identities.
“We’ll continue to work to address disadvantage including pay gap intersectionality through our commitments in our new Workforce Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2024 to 2028.
“Equally Safe at Work will enable the City of Edinburgh Council to develop initiatives and practices that better reflect the needs of all employees in the organisation and align with our Behaviours and our commitment to implementing the Equally Safe strategy across the City.
“We will ensure that the changes we make are sustainable, creating and maintaining a more inclusive culture where women feel safe at work and empowered to lead in their own careers and raise any concerns or complaints they may have.
“We will be working to embed this work throughout the organisation and consistently review the changes to ensure they still reflect the needs of the organisation and our colleagues.
“Making sure that women, who are the vast majority of City of Edinburgh Council employees are safe, supported and included in the workplace is not just a commitment- it’s common sense.
“We want all colleagues to have the tools, resources and support they need to perform their best and to feel fulfilled from their work within the Council.”
Dear colleagues
I am writing to you to provide an update on Edinburgh TSI* activity since the EIJB Board meeting on November 1 and to invite your collaboration on the next steps.
Though it was welcome that the IJB agreed not to proceed with an in-year cut to the Third Sector Grants Programme, the process leading to that decision, and risks flowing from the meeting on November 1 remain very challenging.
Resolving the funding position for the Third Sector Grant recipients, and all third sector funding from the IJB for 2025/6 alongside co-designing the conditions of success for any future model of working in partnership is a key priority for the Sector, and as a consequence, for the Edinburgh TSI.
We believe the IJB proposals need to be part of a wider strategic conversation in the city about how we invest in the Third Sector, ensuring we have the right investment in the right places with the right capacity to deliver the most impact.
Edinburgh TSI letter following November 1
In the lead-up to the November 1 IJB meeting, we worked collaboratively with the Edinburgh Community Health Forum, and others across our sector to draw out information for briefings from affected TSOs through phone calls, questionnaires and meetings. This concluded with a detailed rebuttal of arguments in Paper 7.2, as presented to the IJB as well as a TSI deputation. The deputation sought to build on the arguments put forward by organisations for time to plan better and work differently.
Following that meeting, I wrote on behalf of the TSI to the Chair of the EIJB, the leader of the Council, the CEC Chief Executive and the NHS Lothian Chief Executive. I emphasised the need for:
Edinburgh IJB engagement on Third Sector Grants and contracts
Agreeing on a funding settlement for 2025/6 is a key objective for the Third Sector, both for the Third Sector Grants Programme and for the larger contracted services with Third Sector Organisations.
There are different possible scenarios. A best-case scenario might be a one-year continuation of the grants programme while time is dedicated to coherently and collaboratively designing a sustainable “replacement” which enables the IJB to purchase what they need and want from the Third Sector while providing foundational funding for the wider sector.
This will require a series of conversations, some sense of prioritisation and scoping of how to manage change. The big challenge is time. Initial discussions are progressing between Edinburgh TSI and the IJB on immediate priorities, and a meeting has been invited with CEC.
To inform the discussions on funding, the Edinburgh TSI met with a group of Third Sector partners to scope priorities. This includes articulating the real consequences of making any cuts on the Sector and its ability to deliver outcomes with communities; seeking confirmation on the priority focus for the IJB in 2025/6, and inviting discussion on options around the best use of our joint resources through a process of co-design. These conversations will need to be ongoing. We welcome your views as to how best to shape them.
Edinburgh IJB engagement on Public Social Partnership
Any change to a way of working to a Public Social Partnership or some other commissioning model by the IJB demands an investment of time up front.
This time is needed to confirm commitment to co-design to ensure that any partnership is a partnership, and any working relationship is founded on clear conditions for success.
This needs an investment in learning from other PSP’s in the city, what worked, and what didn’t, and it needs clarity on roles and responsibilities. In the meantime, a clear transition arrangement needs to be set out, describing how current commitments and contracts are to be managed.
Following the November 1 meeting, the IJB have been reviewing budget and partnership proposals. They have invited a group of Third Sector representatives to discuss how to progress partnership working together on shared issues and challenges.
The purpose of the meeting is to start a conversation about how best to work together, who to engage and what success looks like. The next steps will need wider conversations within the sector and between the sector and the IJB, and we invite your views as to how best to shape this.
Reference Group Proposal
The Third Sector has important Board roles on the EIJB and other city institutions. However, at the EIJB meeting, Cllr Pogson asked if there was enough Third Sector representation on the Board.
A reformed Board may be a future possibility, but meanwhile, it is critical to be able to support the people who occupy these Board seats so the voices of the sector feed into them, support and challenge them.
This is particularly the case in the next year or so where there will be very challenging issues and decisions to consider, with significant impact for the Sector.
To try and make sense of where to best put attention around these issues, we have convened a small, embryonic group of sector people. We aim to build this into a Reference Group with representation from across the Sector to distil and amplify the voices of the sector around priority issues. This will evolve over the next few months, and we invite your collaboration.
Our initial sense is that the areas of focus are about:
We have developed Draft Terms of Reference for this Group, which builds on the current issues around the IJB but also focuses on the Third Sector as a whole.
Next steps
In sharing this context and background, it is my intention to work collaboratively to find a solution to the real risks we are facing as a sector.
In this context, I invite you to get in touch with initial feedback on the role of the TSI in shaping the Reference Group. In the meantime, Edinburgh TSI colleagues will continue to convene the sector through forums, networks and meetings, alongside the Edinburgh Community Health Forum.
Together, we can also continue to highlight the risks and impact of this loss of investment in the third sector, both individually and collectively.
Please get in touch and get involved. We recognise that our strength is in working together and supporting each other across our rich, diverse and talented Third Sector. I look forward to working with you.
DIARMAID LAWLOR,
Chair of the Edinburgh TSI
* The Edinburgh Interface is a collaboration between Edinburgh Voluntary Organisations’ Council (EVOC), Volunteer Edinburgh (VE), and Edinburgh Social Enterprise (ESE).
