The first recipients of the Scottish Government’s new Expanded Festivals Fund have been announced today, marking a major step in widening support for Scotland’s festivals, and strengthening opportunities for artists and audiences across the country.
Creative Scotland has awarded £1,994,000 of funding to 28 festivals in the first tranche of support for the new Expanded Festivals Fund.
Designed to enable innovation in programming and showcase Scottish and Scotland-based artists and practitioners, it supports festivals in expanding their international and domestic reach and profile and creating opportunities for skills or sector development.
This initial round spans a wide range of artforms and locations, extending activity far beyond Edinburgh and Glasgow to communities from Orkney to the Borders, Argyll to Aberdeen, and Dumfries & Galloway to Highlands, reflecting the breadth and ambition of Scotland’s festival sector and the transformative potential of this new investment.
Supported projects represent significant investment into opportunities for artists and creative professionals which will broaden cultural offerings for audiences, including new and innovative festival programming, international collaborations, touring opportunities and talent development programmes.
Culture Secretary Angus Robertsonsaid: “Scotland has a wealth of outstanding festivals across the country which lie at the heart of our culture sector and national life.
“Our festivals’ ambitions and creativity provide focal points for activity and an invaluable platform for artists and performers to showcase their work. They also provide hundreds of millions of pounds to the economy and support a pipeline of jobs and businesses.
“The Expanded Festivals Fund forms part of the Scottish Government’s ongoing commitment to provide an additional £100 million more annually for culture funding by 2028-29. I am heartened to see this fund support incredible projects across Scotland which will increase participation in creative pursuits and ensure festivals can commission and collaborate on new and exciting works.”
Paul Burns, Interim Director of Arts and Engagementat Creative Scotland said: “Scotland’s festivals are a vibrant celebration of our creativity and culture, recognised and enjoyed by local communities and people from around the world.
“The Expanded Festivals Fund is a new opportunity to profile incredible creative work in every corner of the country and support other areas vital to our festivals’ ongoing success.
“The supported projects reflect the full range of our festivals’ work – including sector and talent development, international collaboration, and the development of new projects with specific groups and communities in their areas.”
The list of awards up to £100,000, for programmes of activity taking place between 1 May 2026 and 30 April 2028, can be found on the Creative Scotland website (see below).
In Edinburgh, there’s funding for the HIDDEN DOOR (£57,000) and PUSH THE BOAT OUT (£71,000) festivals.
Recipients of awards of up to £200,000 will be published in May 2026.
Social Bite’s new Edinburgh Village on Granton Waterfront has received its modular built Hub as the project progresses towards an opening date this spring.
The new Hub, the first of seven bespoke-made installations which will populate the village, will act as a communal area for villagers, with six new and improved one-bedroom ‘Nest Houses’ which have been re-designed following resident feedback due in the coming weeks.
The move along the Granton Waterfront is a relocation of the original Edinburgh Village. The move has allowed Social Bite, residents and charity partner Cyrenians to work together to reassess the design and facilities available and create living spaces which support people living there everyday based on their needs and wants.
The supported accommodation model, first launched with the Edinburgh Village in 2018, has proven successful in helping people who’ve experienced homelessness rebuild their lives in a safe, supportive community.
Charity partner Cyrenians will continue providing 24/7 support, having played a key role in helping nearly 100 residents gain skills, confidence, and reintegrate into the community to date.
Josh Littlejohn, founder of Social Bite said:“It’s brilliant to see the milestone of the brand new hub landing as the new Edinburgh village takes shape.
“We can’t wait to welcome residents to their new home.”
Amy Hutton, Director of Services at Cyrenians, said:“Part of what has made the Social Bite Village so successful is the sense of community that is built between volunteers, residents and staff.
“The Hub is vital to that sense of community – a place where people can gather, cook, socialise and relax.
“Seeing the new Hub installed down at the new location is exciting – we are looking forward to starting a new chapter providing support to Social Bite Village residents in the new location, for years to come.”
Social Bite Village – Edinburgh – Hub Delivery – 18th March 2026
Raymond Davies Photography
The hub was manufactured by Invergordon-based Ecosystems Technologies and made the long commute from The Highlands to Granton. The remaining buildings are due to arrive in April.
The Social Bite Village has received generous support from M&G plc through their Empty Spaces coalition with Habitat for Humanity, as well as from Anderson Strathearn, itison, and many incredible contributions from individual supporters.
Right to lifelong advocacy and enhanced support for all care leavers
A lifelong entitlement to advocacy services for all care experienced people will ensure their voices are better heard after MSPs backed landmark legislation to accelerate delivery of ‘the Promise’.
The Children (Care, Care Experience, and Services Planning) (Scotland) Bill underpins delivery of the Scottish Government’s response to the independent care review, and commitment to keep the Promise. The Bill was passed in a final Stage 3 vote in the Scottish Parliament.
The Bill will extend aftercare support currently available for 16-to-26 year olds who were in care on their 16th birthday to those who had left care before that point – including help with accommodation, education, employment and wellbeing.
It includes provisions to drive reforms to the Children’s Hearing System, including remunerated Panel chairs to help reduce delays and increase capacity, to ensure the system better meet the needs of children and families.
Residential childcare providers will have to provide financial information to Ministers, and a Residential Childcare Futures Reference Group will be established.
This group will draw together partners from national and local government, social work, and organisations representing care-experienced people to ensure the needs of children and young people are foremost in residential care.
It will consider definitions of profit and provide future advice to Ministers on further regulation to limit profit.
Natalie Don-Innes, Minister for Children, Young People & The Promise said: “This legislation will deliver a very strong package of further change that will help improve the lives of people across Scotland with care experience and those who care for them. It represents a significant milestone and will accelerate progress towards keeping the Promise.
“I am grateful to everyone across the care experienced community who helped to shape the Bill, and to MSPs across the Parliament whose engagement has resulted in a legislative package that will help greatly improve the support available.
“This legislation is an essential part of our wider on-going programme of work to keep the Promise, and will help to deliver the change which the 5,500 voices that informed the Independent Care Review told us must happen.”
Discussions with MSPs from across the chamber led to Scottish Government amendments to the Bill, which will deliver enhanced support for kinship carers. These include strengthening the role of family group decision making, and making it easier for eligible kinship families to access financial, practical and advocacy support through a comprehensive needs-based assessment from their local authority.
Inquiry publishes third report and 10 recommendations, examining ‘The impact of Covid-19 on healthcare systems’
The Chair of the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, Baroness Heather Hallett, has today published her third report which concludes that the UK’s healthcare systems “came close to collapse”. Ultimately it “coped, but only just”.
Module 3, the third of the Inquiry’s 10 investigations, has examined the impact of Covid-19 on healthcare systems across the four nations. It investigated how governments and society responded to the pandemic, the capacity of healthcare systems to adapt and the impact on patients, their loved ones and healthcare workers.
Today’s new report, ‘The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on healthcare systems of the United Kingdom’ (Module 3), finds that the UK entered the pandemic ill-prepared. Healthcare systems were already overstretched and in a precarious state. This fragility had profound consequences once the crisis hit, especially when the numbers of people seeking treatment for Covid-19 started to increase dramatically.
Healthcare systems were overwhelmed and came close to collapse. Despite the best efforts of healthcare workers, many Covid patients did not receive the care they would otherwise receive and non Covid patients had their diagnoses and treatment delayed. For some this meant their condition became inoperable. Healthcare workers put their lives at risk and the pandemic had a significant and long-lasting impact on their mental health and wellbeing.
In hospitals, visiting restrictions meant some vulnerable patients were left without vital support. Some people died alone. This continues to have a devastating impact on the bereaved.
Baroness Hallett calls for the prompt and thorough implementation of 10 key recommendations. These are necessary to prevent healthcare systems being overwhelmed in the next pandemic.
“This third UK Covid-19 Inquiry report concerns the impact of the pandemic on the UK’s healthcare systems. I can summarise that impact as: we coped, but only just.
“The healthcare systems came close to collapse. Healthcare workers carried the burden of caring for the sick in unprecedented numbers. It came at a huge cost to them, their families, their patients and the loved ones of patients. Collapse was only narrowly avoided thanks to the extraordinary efforts of all those working in healthcare across the UK.
“Despite those efforts, some patients did not get the level of care they would usually receive. The enormous strain placed upon the healthcare systems was unprecedented. Those working within it were obliged to work under intolerable pressure for months on end.
“We cannot know when, but there will be another pandemic. My recommendations, taken as a whole, should mean that the UK is better prepared for that pandemic. In doing so, we shall avoid some of the terrible human cost of Covid-19.
“I urge governments across the UK to work individually and collectively to implement these recommendations, in full and in a timely manner.”
A four-page brief summary of the report can be found on the Inquiry’s website and is available in a variety of languages and accessible formats.
In total, 95 witnesses gave oral evidence during Module 3 public hearings held in London in autumn 2024. The Inquiry heard from healthcare professionals, policy-makers, relevant experts, groups representing those most at risk from contracting Covid-19 and those who developed Long Covid as a result of catching the virus.
The Inquiry also heard from serving and former senior politicians, leading scientists, key medical professionals and civil servants.
Some of Baroness Hallett’s conclusions are as follows:
While health ministers maintained that the UK never reached a state of overwhelm, “there was clearly overwhelm”. Lower levels of care were provided to patients and patients did not always get the care they needed, notwithstanding the efforts of healthcare workers.
The pressure was, at times, intolerable and this continued for wave after wave of the virus. Healthcare systems entered the pandemic with low numbers of hospital beds, high bed occupancy, high numbers of staff vacancies and of sickness absences, meaning systems were in a precarious position from the outset.
Initial infection prevention and control guidance was flawed because it assumed that Covid-19 was spread by contact transmission and failed to consider the extent to which the virus was also spread by aerosol transmission.
Supplies of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) were particularly constrained at the start of the pandemic, causing healthcare workers sometimes to work in inadequate and unsuitable PPE and put themselves and their families at risk to care for patients.
111 services were not able to cope with the level of demand. Call demand for advice and information about Covid-19 increased dramatically, particularly in the early stages of the pandemic.
Waiting times for emergency ambulances grew. Waiting times for even the most life-threatening calls grew, with some ambulance services resorting to military aid to ensure there was not a significant risk to life.
Visiting restrictions meant that many patients died without the comfort of being surrounded by their loved ones, while vulnerable patients such as those with dementia or a learning disability and children in mental health inpatient units, as well as women accessing maternity services were left without vital support.
The public messaging “Stay Home, Protect the NHS, Save Lives” may have, inadvertently, sent the message that healthcare was closed, contributing to a decline in attendances even for life-threatening emergencies such as heart attacks.
The mental health of healthcare staff was severely impacted, with many exhibiting signs of post-traumatic stress disorder, while burn-out was common.
The Chair considers that all Module 3 recommendations should be implemented in full and in a timely manner.
The Inquiry will monitor the implementation of the recommendations during its lifetime. In summary, the Inquiry recommends:
increasing capacity in urgent and emergency care and ensuring that hospitals have the ability to implement surge capacity;
strengthening the body responsible for infection prevention and control guidance, broadening its membership to enhance its decision-making and improving the guidance itself;
improving data collection, enabling individuals at highest risk of harm from infection to be more easily identified and recording deaths of healthcare workers more accurately;
promoting a standardised process and documentation for advance care planning, recording patients’ preferences for future care and treatment;
increasing support for healthcare workers, improving retention and increasing resilience; and
publishing guidance to assist decision-makers, providing clear criteria for clinical decisions if critical care resources become completely exhausted.
A full list of the Inquiry’s recommendations can be found in thefull report.
The Inquiry has published recommendations for Module 1 and Module 2. Baroness Hallett welcomes the action taken by the four governments of the UK to date and trusts that all remaining recommendations will be implemented promptly and in full. Progress on the implementation of recommendations can be tracked on the Monitoring of Inquiry Recommendations page on the Inquiry’s website. The Inquiry expects to receive the next progress update in May 2026.
Module 3 was the first to publish a recordof the Inquiry’s listening exercise, Every Story Matters, which brought together the contributions of more than 32,000 people. The Healthcare Record sets out the personal impact of the pandemic in stark and often distressing terms.
The Inquiry’s next report – focusing on the development of Covid-19 vaccines and the implementation of the vaccine rollout programme (Module 4) will be published next month, 16th April 2026. A further four reports will follow covering Modules 5 to 9, with the final report, Module 10, scheduled to be published no later than Summer 2027.
New proposals to combine Right to Buy legislation to simplify the process for community groups to take over land and assets have been published.
The Community Right to Buy Review examined the existing powers introduced since 2003:
Community Right to Buy
Crofting Community Right to Buy
Community Right to Buy Abandoned, Neglected or Detrimental Land
Right to Buy Land to Further Sustainable Development
Analysis of consultation responses showed widespread support for consolidating the non-crofting compulsory purchase rights and non-legislative changes such as updating guidance and setting up a public register for existing community groups.
Land Reform Secretary Mairi Gougeon said: “Existing legislation has helped revitalise so many areas of Scotland since it came into force, but there is no denying it asks a lot of those who put forward proposals and we committed to making that process easier.
“We’ve listened to all the views put forward and we propose that some of that legislation is merged and updated in the next Parliament.
“The Crofting Community Right to Buy will be updated to simplify the process, rather than merged, as it was clear from those we spoke to about the need to keep this distinct, due to the unique nature of crofting in Scotland.
“We are also working on procedural changes and updates to guidance to support those seeking to invest in their local community.
“I would like to thank all of those who took part in the consultation.”
To coincide with Reform UK’s Scottish conference on Thursday 19 March activists from Edinburgh Climate Coalition (ECC) are launching a campaign today warning voters across Scotland that voting Reform UK in the Scottish Parliament Election could threaten jobs, increase energy bills and undermine Scotland’s renewable energy future.
The campaign will include social media activism, street campaigning and community outreach across Edinburgh and the Lothians, with volunteers speaking directly to residents about how climate policy affects everyday issues such as employment, energy costs and public services.
The ECC wants to ensure that everyone is aware that Reform UK’s policies that undermine climate action will make the lives of people in Scotland worse.
The coalition argues that Scotland’s renewable energy sector has the potential to deliver long-term economic benefits while helping to tackle climate change.
We’ve created high-quality resources to sound the alarm—and we need your help to spread the word.
