Month: August 2026

Above-inflation 3.5% and 3.75% increases for doctors and dentists

NHS Scotland pay awards

Senior medics and dentists will receive an above-inflation pay uplift at the end of September, after the Scottish Government agreed to implement recommendations from an independent pay review board. 

Consultants, GPs, Specialty, Specialist and Associate Specialist (SAS) doctors and dentists will receive a 3.5% increase for 2026-27. Salaried community and public dental workers will have a 3.75% pay uplift, recognising particular challenges within those services. 

The pay increases, which impact on over 10,000 NHS employees, will be backdated to 1 April 2026 and are expected to begin appearing in salaries at the end of September. 

Health Secretary Angela Constance outlined the pay awards in a letter to the British Medical Association as she confirmed full acceptance of the recommended pay uplifts by the Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration (DDRB). 

Ms Constance said: “I’m grateful to all consultants, GPs, SAS doctors and dentists for the invaluable contribution they make to the people of Scotland in  delivering safe, effective and high-quality care across our communities. 

“It is, therefore, right that we recognise this by accepting the independent findings of the DDRB to deliver an equitable and affordable pay deal – one that is in line with other public sector pay awards for 2026-27. 

“We remain committed to a fair, evidence-based and independent approach to pay awards and in accepting the DDRB recommendations in full, we are supporting recruitment and retention. 

“This will help to ensure that NHS Scotland remains an attractive place to work, while balancing the need for financial sustainability across the public sector.” 

The DDRB recommendation follows significant investment in consultant’s pay over recent years. They were awarded a 6% increase in 2023-24, 10.5% in 2024-25 and 4% in 2025-26. 

Drylaw Harvest Festival

SATURDAY 5th SEPTEMBER 11am – 2pm

Free Family Day Out at Drylaw Harvest Festival! 🌾

Looking for something to keep the little ones entertained? We’ve got plenty planned for a fun-filled afternoon at our Harvest Festival on Saturday 5th September, 11am–2pm.

Here’s just some of what you can look forward to:

🏰 Bouncy castle

⚽ Spartans football games

🎨 Face painting

✨ Temporary tattoos

🎵 Musical statues with Bev

And that’s just the beginning! There’ll also be apple picking and pressing, garden activities, craft stalls, delicious food, a bake sale, tombola and much more to enjoy.

Best of all, it’s completely free to attend, so bring the whole family along and enjoy a fantastic day out with your local community!

Blackhall Playgroup: Closing Down Sale this weekend

BLACKHALL ST COLUMBA’S CHURCH

FRIDAY and SATURDAY 14 & 15 AUGUST

Sadly, despite the best efforts of all involved, Blackhall Playgroup had to close its doors for good on the 25th June 2026.

Blackhall Playgroup has made a significant contribution to the children and families of Blackhall & surrounding areas for over 40 years and the committee would like to thank all the employees, volunteers and committee members past and present for their commitment and dedication over the years.

As a result of this closure, we are holding a closing down sale. There will be a wide range of high quality equipment, toys, puzzles, games and books for early years and beyond.

🛍 CLOSING DOWN SALE 🛍

📍Blackhall St. Columba’s Church, Upstairs hall

🕙 Friday 14th August 12-4pm

AND

🕙 Saturday 15th August 10am-2pm

💰 Cash only

🅿️ If bringing a car then free parking available on the surrounding side streets (not on Queensferry Road) but please be considerate of our neighbours’ driveways 🙏

Come along & pick up a bargain 👍

Thank you for supporting us. ❤️

Celebrate National Book Club Day at Stockbridge Library! 

FRIDAY 11 SEPTEMBER 12.30 – 2.30pm

As part of the Royal Literary Fund’s Reading Round programme, taking place in 12 libraries across Scotland to mark National Book Club Day, we’re delighted to welcome award-winning writer, journalist and critic Chitra Ramaswamy to Stockbridge Library.

📅

 Friday, 11 September

🕧

 12:30–2:30pm

📍

 Stockbridge Library

Chitra is the acclaimed author of “Homelands”, a moving account of her friendship with German Jewish refugee Henry Wuga. The book won the Saltire Non-Fiction Book of the Year Award and was named one of The Guardian’s best memoirs and biographies of 2022.

Her first book, “Expecting: The Inner Life of Pregnancy”, won the Saltire First Book of the Year Award, was shortlisted for the Polari Prize, and was reissued in 2024.

She has also contributed to numerous essay collections, judged literary prizes, and recently published “Rich Things” for the Alasdair Gray Archive.

Alongside her books, Chitra writes as a restaurant critic for The Times Scotland and occasionally The Observer, and as a TV critic for The Guardian.

Reading Round offers a welcoming and inclusive way to experience literature together. The session will begin with a short introduction before Chitra shares a carefully selected prose extract, reading it aloud to the group.

Participants are then invited to discuss what they noticed, what moved or surprised them, what resonated, and what questions the text raised.

After a short refreshment break, Chitra will read a selected poem twice, followed by another relaxed group discussion.

There are no right or wrong answers, no homework, and no expectation to speak if you don’t want to. Whether you’re an avid reader or simply curious, all you need is an interest in reading and a willingness to explore literature in a friendly, supportive environment.

We hope you’ll join us for this unique opportunity to read, reflect and connect through the shared enjoyment of literature. 

#GoAllIn

Students watch solar eclipse thanks to donation of glasses

First year students at Portobello High had an extra surprise waiting for their very first day at high school yesterday – solar eclipse glasses!

Students were able to watch the solar eclipse safely last night thanks to the Royal Astronomer of Scotland.

Over 300 pupils have been given solar eclipse glasses so they can watch the most significant solar eclipse since 1999. Around 90 per cent of the sun will be blocked by the moon today, Wednesday 12 August 2026, from around 6pm.

Watching the rare phenomenon that creates a few moments of darkness requires special glasses so permanent damage isn’t caused to the eyes. The eye wear has been proving very difficult to source and any shops with stock selling out instantly.

The Royal Astronomer of Scotland, Professor Catherine Heymans, has been working alongside Portobello High School students in a space programme with the physics department and has provided 300 of the glasses for the entire S1 class.

Convenor for Education, Children and Families. James Dalgleish, said: “This is a fantastic gift for our first year students at Portobello High School. 

“An eclipse is such a rare event with the last being in 1999 and the next in the UK to be in 2090. It is fantastic for our young people to be able to watch the solar eclipse safely. 

“Seeing a solar eclipse is a life event and could well inspire a whole new generation of astronomers for Edinburgh.”

Hope they had better luck than me! – Ed.

Crewe Toll Roundabout resurfacing to start on Monday

TRAFFIC DISRUPTION LIKELY FOR TWELVE WEEKS

‼️ MAJOR WORKS TO CREWE TOLL ROUNDABOUT ⚠️

Local Lib Dem councillors report: We’ve been alerted to major works to resurface the Crewe Toll roundabout and upgrade the pedestrian crossings.

The project will start on Monday 17th August and last for approximately 12 weeks.

The works will be completed via overnight shifts (between 7.30pm and 6.30am) but will require temporary closures of Crewe Road South, Crewe Road North, or the Ferry Road West approach.

Only one of these approaches will be closed at any one time.

Phase 1 will start with the closure of Crewe Road South at its junction with the Crewe Toll Roundabout. During these temporary road closures, traffic on the remaining four approaches will be managed via temporary traffic lights.

A signed diversion route will be in place for each of the closed approaches.

SCIAF launches Emergency Appeal for Colombia

SCIAF has launched an emergency appeal to help those affected by the 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Colombia. 

The earthquake struck in the remote Chocó region of Colombia, where SCIAF has active projects. 

The tragedy has killed at least 224 people, with more than 2,600 injured. It’s also thought that around 1,100 homes have been destroyed and 8,000 damaged by the quake, with health centres, education institutes and community centres also affected.

These figures are likely to increase as information comes in from the most remote areas where communication has broken down, especially with thousands still missing.

Geraldine Hill is SCIAF’s Programme Officer for Colombia and lived in the Latin American country for two years. SCIAF has been working in Colombia since the 1980s. 

Geraldine said: “It’s heart-breaking to see communities in Chocó bear the brunt of this latest earthquake. These communities are already very poor and live surrounded by violence, the earthquake is just the latest challenge to confront them. Once again SCIAF’s local partners are responding as soon as the crisis happens.

“SCIAF sets aside emergency funds in our focus countries to speed up locally-led response. We have immediately released £10,000 from these funds for partners, and we are liaising closely with them to determine how best to help. 

“Through our partners in Chocó, we can immediately reach out to those most in need. Our local Caritas partners are already there, working tirelessly to provide emergency relief where it’s needed the most. Please support this response through SCIAF’s appeal.” 

To donate to SCIAF’s Colombia Earthquake appeal please visit:

sciaf.org.uk/colombia-earthquake or call us on 0141 354 5555. 

Child Abuse: Whistleblowing Bill progress

For those following the progress of #PE1979, the new Scottish Parliament Petitions’ Committee have just informed petitioners that our petition (and the other 7 legacy petitions) was privately discussed at their meeting on Thursday 25th June (writes ALISON DICKIE). 

There, committee members agreed to write to the Scottish Government about all legacy petitions.  

In February, PE1979 received the previous committee’s cross-party support when they continued our petition into the 7th parliamentary session to be ‘rigorously pursued’ by the new committee.

Since May’s election, we have continued to build on that support, and initiated meetings with individual and supportive MSPs before the summer recess.  

For nearly four years, petitioners have been calling for independent investigation of allegations relating to the mishandling of child abuse concerns by public bodies and an independent national whistleblowing office for education and children’s services.

Behind the petition’s calls are  families, former and current staff and others who have had their health, career and lives negatively impacted for raising child abuse concerns. Importantly, it includes CSA & CSE survivors who have been further traumatised by the mishandling of their disclosures.  

The allegations raised are diverse but include cases relating to serious and organised child abuse, with links across them.  Given this, petitioners continue to highlight the vital need for robust and independent investigation and an INWO to amplify the voice of whistleblowers and survivors and limit the marking of one’s own homework that thrives at public body, multi-agency and even national strategic group levels.  

Ultimately, we highlight how determining the child safeguarding truth directly relates to the level of confidence we can have in current child safeguarding – the systems and personnel in place – and particularly where the alleged predators still work with children and young people.  

It is our hope that the new Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise, members of the Petitions Committee and MSPs across all parties will show an understanding of these serious matters and more urgently help to deliver the petition’s calls to better keep children safe.

We await the SG response and the committee’s deliberations with interest.  

Read more about it via the online briefings below.

#childprotection

#childsafeguarding

#childrensrights

#whistleblowing https://online.fliphtml5.com/hjdba/pdqf/

https://online.fliphtml5.com/hjdba/fcol/

EdFest opens new live ticket box office on the Mound, powered by a giant real-time offers screen

EdFest has opened a box office on the Mound, beside the Assembly Hall. 

Above the cabin, a 4x2m screen displays a constantly-updating feed of ticket offers from across EdFest’s seven venues, pulled live from Edfest.com/offers , where participating companies can claim their show and run their own marketing offers. The box office also serves normal sales for the Assembly Hall. Edinburgh,

With Fringe well under way after a bumper first weekend, Edfest.com the shared ticketing, marketing and discovery platform uniting Assembly, C ARTS, Gilded Balloon, Just the Tonic, Pleasance, Underbelly and ZOO — has taken its offers on to the street.

A new box office on the Mound, next to the Assembly Hall, is now selling tickets in person for Assembly Hall shows, while a 4x2m screen mounted above the counter runs a live rota of daily offers from companies across all seven EdFest venues.

The screen draws directly from edfest.com/offers, the same feed available to audiences online, so any deal a company sets up, a percentage off, a fixed ticket price, or a 2-for-1, appears on the Mound within minutes.

Companies playing in any of the seven EdFest venues can claim their show on edfest.com, set their own offers, and add further content such as media reviews, giving them a direct, self-managed route to passing Fringe footfall as well as to edfest.com‘s online  audience.

The launch comes as ticket sales across edfest.com and Love the Fringe run 50% ahead of the same point last year. For the seven EdFest venues, which together account for around 70% of all Fringe ticket sales, shows can be added to a single basket and bought in one transaction directly on edfest.com, at 0% box office commission, with booking fees capped at £5 per transaction.

Beyond the Fringe, edfest.com also brings together listings for Edinburgh’s other festivals year- round, including the Edinburgh International Festival, the International Book Festival, the Film Festival and the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo, with booking handled directly through each festival’s own site.

The Mound box office sits alongside Love the Fringe, EdFest’s audience membership programme, now in its third year and grown from 500+ members in 2024 to 1,000+ in 2025.

Membership, from £30, gives access to free tickets, venue and bar discounts, and curated daily review digests across the festival.

William Burdett-Coutts, said: “This is a great step forward for the Fringe. Our drive is to try and reduce costs for performers and find ways of making the festival more efficient.

“With Edfest we have already reduced box office commission for companies to zero provided they put 4% of their tickets into Love the Fringe.

“A win win for the audience and shows alike. Which is why a physical, live-updating box office on the Mound matters during peak Fringe footfall, and how it gives companies a direct way to reach passing audiences.

!Audiences can also save up to £1.50 on booking fees probably making this the cheapest box office service in the city.”

EdFest and Love the Fringe are live now at edfest.com.

Scottish Fire and Rescue Service: Deliberate Fires

In 2024-25 the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service attended 10,468 deliberate outdoor fires. Many of these involve young people.

Make sure children & young people are aware of the risks of playing with fire and the consequences of deliberately setting a fire.

More: https://rb.gy/lwjmgh

fire0settingDownload