The long school holidays are almost upon us, but Inverleith’s packed summer programme offers more than enough recreational, sports and outdoor events for children, young people and families to keep everyone happy (see below for details)!
Registration for all events requiring booking takes place next Monday (16 June) from 6pm at Broughton High School.
For further information email anne.brown@ea.edin.sch.uk or call 332 6316.
Edinburgh’s first ‘Carers Champion’ Councillor Norman Work marked his inaugural year in the role by setting out the capital’s priorities for supporting people who give unpaid care to family or friends.
Councillor Work launched the City of Edinburgh Council’s Joint Carers Strategy 2014-17 during an event to celebrate national Carers Week.
The Strategy, developed in partnership with NHS Lothian, the voluntary sector and carers, sets out priorities and outcomes for how their valuable work will be supported over the next three years.
It focuses on six priorities:
With around 37,859 carers looking after loved ones in Edinburgh, the estimated cost of providing replacement care in the capital is valued at around £771m a year.
Speaking at a celebration event for unpaid carers at the City Chambers, Cllr Work said: “These people do an extraordinary job of looking after a loved one and I cannot over-emphasise how much we value what they do.
“Many do not think of themselves as carers, and often fail to access the services and advice which is available to them through the Council, charities and relevant organisations.
“It is vital that carers, who can be of any age, are looked after, as there is a risk that their health and wellbeing can also suffer because of the stress and pressure caused by their role. The Joint Carer’s Strategy sets out how we plan to do this by building on our existing work.”
Pictured: (l-r) June Anderson, Zahira Hassan, Cllr Norman Work, Sarah Gundry, Calum Gundry amd Jeanette Scott.
North Edinburgh Arts has been awarded £11,794.00 from the People’s Health Trust towards the North Edinburgh Theatre project’s 1d Tenement Opera, which will be performed in January 2015.
NEA’s Theatre Group will be hosting an information-sharing, discussion and fundraising session this Friday evening to support the exciting initiative.
The 1d Tenement Opera is a story based on the lives of people who have
lived in a tenement in Edinburgh over two centuries. The tenement
eventually becomes part of Edinburgh Corporation’s Slum Clearance
Programme: some of the tenements were sold for just 1d (a penny), and in 1959 one of the last tenements collapsed and a little boy was killed.
Local people told stories of being in the bath and the end of the room falling
away, others spoke of desperately trying to save their babies and children as the floor boards started to slope away from under them. This was known as the Penny Tenement collapse.
The 1d Tenement Opera is devised with the local people of North
Edinburgh, some of whose families had been living in the city centre
before the Slum Clearance Programme.
North Edinburgh Theatre project is delighted to be working with the
following artists for this project: designers Ali Maclaurin and Alice Wilson,
musical director Lynda Peachey, dancer and choreographer Monica de
Ioanni, and dramaturg Lynne Clark. Stephanie Knight is the project
director.
The North Edinburgh Theatre project was developed in 2011 after
research into the requirements of local people. The main finding of this
research was that local people wanted to make theatre again, after a
history of using theatre and other art forms to create work which
highlights their community and its needs and aspirations. In November
2011 North Edinburgh Theatre project developed Yes We CanCan – a
Cabaret of Resistance which was the cementing of the project.
Since then, North Edinburgh Theatre project has participated in a
number of performances including Theatre Uncut in 2012 & 2013 and the
project regularly offers Sharing-of-Work and Work-in-Progress events.
The opportunity to develop 1d Tenement Opera through the support of
the People’s Health Trust is an exciting and important development for
North Edinburgh. It supports the participants’ aspirations and hard work
for well-being and full creative lives, making strong contributions to their
own communities as well as participating in the North Edinburgh Theatre
project.
The funding includes additional resources to develop the Theatre Skills:
Life Skills course that is currently running in parallel with workshops and
preparations for the performances.
‘Kate Wimpress, Director at North Edinburgh Arts, said: “The enthusiasm and commitment shown by the participants of the North Edinburgh Theatre group has been overwhelming for the staff team here at NEA and it was fantastic news when the project won the support of HealthShow, part of the People’s Health Trust.
“We are sure the 1d Tenement Opera will bring out a renewed sense of pride in the participants and their community and look forward to being able to
share this with everyone during the performances in January 2015.”
The North Edinburgh Theatre project invites you to the short Sharing-of-Work, discussion and fundraiser this Friday (13 June) at 7pm. There will be tea and cakes for sale, with funds going towards the 1d Tenement Opera production.
The Health Lottery is operated for and on behalf of 51 Community
Interest Companies across England, Scotland and Wales, all holding
society lottery licenses issued by the Gambling Commission.
www.healthlottery.co.uk
People’s Health Trust is an independent charity addressing health
inequalities across Great Britain. It works closely with each Community
Interest Company distributing grants. www.peopleshealthtrust.org.uk
An Edinburgh College student who came to Scotland for a fresh start and a chance to create a better life has fought against the odds to be named Student of the Year.
Niko Sadlowski – who studies NC Early Education and Childcare and is originally from Poland – received his award alongside 50 other prize winners at the Edinburgh College Further Education Awards ceremony at The Hub in the city centre. Niko was nominated by his lecturers because of his determination to succeed.
Niko, who also works part time at The Action Group charity for people with additional support needs and disabilities, said: “I was delighted and totally overwhelmed to find out I had won Student of the Year at the Further Education Awards.”
Niko added: “I left home as a teenager as I wanted to reduce the financial burden on my parents. I first came to this country at the age of 23 without knowing a word of English and I’ve worked really hard, in many low paying jobs, to create a life for myself and my family here.
“I grew up with deaf parents which meant I learned to communicate with them through sign language. I think this first triggered my interest in supporting people and their families with additional needs because I could understand the kinds of barriers they could face. My son was recently diagnosed with autism, so I also know what kind of support carers and their families require for a better quality of life.”
Edinburgh College childcare and social care lecturer Linda Paechter said: “Niko is an extraordinary student. His knowledge, skills and rich life experiences have been inspiring to his fellow students and I’m so pleased that he has been given the award of Student of the Year as part of the NC Early Education and Childcare course. His unwavering dedication to his studies has been incredible and he truly deserves the award.
“Professionals within childcare are predominantly female, yet the involvement of both male and female carers, educators and practitioners is incredibly important to allow for positive role-models for children. Niko is a wonderful ambassador for the benefits of more men in childcare and I know he has a very successful career ahead of him.”
Around 150 guests attended the Further Education Awards, which were hosted by Denise McAdam, celebrity hairdresser to the stars and presenter of the BBC programme Hair.
Denise, who studied hairdressing at Edinburgh College, has an impressive list of clients including Cindy Crawford, Grace Kelly, Princess Diana, Yasmin le Bon, and Naomi Campbell.
Free Father’s Day Family Takeover of the Museum
This Father’s Day (Sunday 15 June) Dads Rock and friends are taking over the National Museum from 11am for tons of free fun for all the family!
See below for the full programme of events:
Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnership will meet in Stockbridge Library on Tuesday 17 June at 7.30pm.
The main agenda items include plans for 20mph zones in the Inverleith area and community grants.
All welcome.
For further information visit www.edinburghnp.org.uk/
All across Scotland a huge but invisible army is caring for increasing numbers of older, ill or disabled loved ones, new research has revealed. The report highlights a crisis of carers struggling without support and huge gaps in national understanding of growing social issue.
Research published to mark Carers Week 2014 (9 – 15 June) reveals worrying public ignorance of the rising call on families to provide unpaid care.
The reality is that 6.5 million people in the UK – 657,000 in Scotland – are already caring for a family member or close friend who is frail or facing long-term illness or disability.
The Carers Week/You Gov poll shows that adults of all ages drastically underestimate the issue, with only a tiny fraction (11%) of Scottish adults correctly stating the true scale of unpaid, family care.
And while numbers across the UK are predicted to rise to 9 million by 2037, most adults don’t think caring will happen to them. Only around a third of adults in Scotland who are currently not carers (35%) believe it likely they will become carers in the future, the survey found.
Speaking on behalf of the nine charities behind Carers Week 2014, Simon Hodgson, Director of Carers Scotland said: “The reality is that all of us, at some point in our lives, will either be carers or need the help of carers. This survey is a wake-up call, clearly and alarmingly showing that as a society we need a much wider understanding of the realities of caring.”
The survey also asked what would be of greatest concern if a loved one did come to need care
Scotland’s Top 3 Caring Worries are revealed as:
1 Money worries – Being unable to cope financially
2 Emotional strain – Finding it too stressful/upsetting
3 I wouldn’t know how – Not having the experience or skills to be a carer
The views of current carers gathered through the same poll, reveal carers across the country are struggling behind closed doors without adequate help. Worryingly, over half (53%) of carers polled across the UK said they were not receiving enough support. Their experiences included:
“My brother cares full time for both my parents. My father’s 91 and unable to walk without assistance. My mother’s 86, has severe dementia and needs help 24/7. I help at weekends and one evening a week. My brother’s spoken to the doctor about care for my mother and was told the dementia nurse has a full case load. He’s contacted a charity who have agreed to help for two hours per week.”
“My daughter has spina bifida and is a full time wheelchair user….. At 60, it can be hard for me to push a manual wheelchair plus carry shopping up a hill. …”
“I have been looking after my disabled wife for 13 years. … I work part time and my physical health is not great and sometimes I feel like I am cracking up.”
Simon Hodgson added:“We need to understand what carers are doing day in and day out, the impact caring can have – and the difference we as individuals and organisations can make. That is why during Carers Week we are calling on the public and professionals across the UK to reach out to carers in their local communities.”
www.carersweek.org
New jobs alone will not tackle the chronic problem of poverty in Scotland, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has warned. The report was published yesterday – 100 days from the Referendum – and authors say Scotland’s public services must improve to support families and make work pay, whatever the outcome of September’s vote.
Latest research shows by the mid-2020s, one in seven working-age adults and children could still be below the poverty line – two thirds of them in working families.
The findings are detailed in the third and final referendum briefing written by the New Policy Institute (NPI) and published by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) today. The research looks at the challenge that Scotland would face to tackle poverty, even with a much higher employment rate.
Scotland’s employment rate has remained at or above the UK’s employment rate for the last eight years. It currently stands at 73.5% and on rates of growth achieved in the ten years to 2007, it could reach 80% by 2025. At current population levels, this would mean an extra 300,000 jobs in the economy.
The report authors analysed the impact of this growth, looking at what would happen to poverty levels under two scenarios, depending on whether the extra jobs were full or part-time. They found:
The lower poverty rate of the second scenario (of full-time jobs) shows the importance of a higher ‘work intensity’ – where families are able to access jobs with more hours. But this brings problems of its own: policy makers will need to ensure there are sufficient high quality, flexible and affordable public services such as transport, childcare, adult social care and health services, to make it possible for a family to work longer hours.
Dr Peter Kenway, Director of NPI and report co-author, said: “As employment levels rise, post-referendum Scotland must avoid replacing a problem of material deprivation with one of inflexible services and a lack of time: families short of cash are often short on time as well. Both sides of the independence campaign have to address the long-term challenges faced by struggling families of finding secure work that pays sufficiently.”
Jim McCormick, Scotland adviser to JRF, said: “These scenarios highlight the challenges that Scotland must meet if poverty rates are to decrease. Much higher employment would cut poverty, but jobs alone will not eliminate it while low pay and inadequate working hours remain so widespread.
“We need to ensure work pays enough to be a route of out poverty. Working more hours is only part of the answer: housing costs, rates of pay and the tax, tax credit and benefit systems are all implicated. Scotland after the referendum will need policy responses to all of these, whether independent or not.”
One hundred days and counting …
Both sides in the Scottish independence debate are today marking the milestone of 100 days to go in the referendum campaign. Yes Scotland campaigners say that the momentum is with them and that poll gaps are narrowing but the Better Together campaign says the campaign for independence is ‘running out of time’.
The referendum will be held on 18 September, with voters asked the straightforward Yes/No question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”
Opinion polls consistently suggest that the “No” campaign is still ahead, but the “Yes” campaign claims the gap has significantly narrowed over recent months – and, crucially, many people have said they have still to make up their minds.
The nationalists are running out of arguments and running out of time, Alistair Darling, the leader of Better Together, said this morning. The former Chancellor was speaking at the Better Together event marking 100 campaign days to go until the referendum vote in September.
He said that the strong, positive offer of further powers for Scotland by the three main parties backing a No vote means the ground has shifted under the nationalist case for breaking up the UK.
The Glasgow event featured messages from ordinary Scots making their 100 day pledge – a commitment to do what they can over the next 100 days to make sure Scotland stays in the UK.
The Better Together leader went on to say that the choice facing the people of Scotland isn’t one between Scotland and Britain or change and the status quo: the choice is between two competing Scottish visions of Scotland’s future.
Alistair Darling told supporters: “Our opponents have spent months trying – and failing – to come up with evidence to support their goal of separation. And now with just one hundred days of campaigning left the nationalists are running out of arguments – and they are running out of time.
“The choice on September 18 will not be between Scotland and Britain. It will be a choice between two competing Scottish visions of Scotland’s future.
“And something fundamental has changed in that choice since I launched our campaign two years ago. At that time some of those who were still undecided saw the referendum as a choice between change and the status quo. Now – with 100 days to go – the terms of trade have changed. And with it the ground has shifted under – and against – our nationalist opponents.
“For it is now clear that a No vote will bring more powers to Scotland within the UK. Last week, the Scottish Conservatives produced their proposals for the enhanced powers of the Scottish Parliament. All three main Scottish parties backing a No vote now have broadly similar proposals in place.
“There is much that divides us on other issues. But on the constitution – the framework within which legislation is made – we are all now pretty much on the same page.
“And that leads me logically to my 100 day challenge.
“I want to use these 100 days not to see Scotland divided further but to bring together most of us in this nation around a common vision of Scotland leading the United Kingdom after September 18 – not Scotland leaving the United Kingdom.
“I want to use these 100 days to plan for Scotland’s positive, possibility-rich future as part of the United Kingdom with substantially enhanced powers for the Scottish Parliament.
“It is a vision that the overwhelming majority of us want. And so when voters go to the polls on September 18, I want every voter to understand that within the United Kingdom change and progress is coming to Scotland, under-pinned by the commitments of all three parties.
“We will be offering the guarantee of a constitutional future for Scotland which corresponds with what the great majority of Scots have told us they want.”
However Yes Scotland believes the country needs more than concessions from Westminster and argues that, to reach it’s full potential, Scotland must take control of it’s own destiny.
Yes Scotland today urged its volunteers and supporters to make every one of the next 100 days count as the nation heads towards its day of destiny on September 18.
Chief Executive Blair Jenkins paid tribute to the hundreds of thousands of volunteers and supporters who have built the largest grassroots movement in Scottish political history. And he appealed to them to make an even bigger push to help the independence campaign cross the winning line on Referendum Day.
He said: “In only 100 days from now we will be presented with the greatest opportunity our nation will ever have to create the kind of country we all know Scotland can and should be. It is a prize that that we must do everything in our power to secure for the people of Scotland.
“To every one of our hard-working supporters I want to say an enormous thank you for your hard work, dedication and determination for getting us to this point – but we still have much to do and I know that with your continued support, enthusiasm and tremendous industry we can, we should and, indeed, we must do it for Scotland and for future generations.”
Mr Jenkins said that during two years of campaigning as head of the Yes movement his belief that Scotland will vote Yes has never wavered.
And he revealed that voters are moving from ‘undecided’ to Yes at the rate of more than two to one compared to those declaring for No. Research for Yes Scotland shows that for every 10 people who have moved from the undecided middle ground since the autumn, seven have become Yes voters, while three have shifted to No.
Mr Jenkins said: “The campaign is well positioned for success in September. Our people are our most powerful asset, and in these final weeks we will take full advantage of this strength.
“We have the wealth, the wisdom and the will to create a fairer and better country, where all who live and work here share the benefit of our nation’s prosperity and vast resources.
“We are a more prosperous economy than the UK, France or Japan, but we need control of economic and welfare powers to make sure that the wealth of Scotland works for all the people.
“I know there are many people who remain to be convinced and it is by talking with them in millions of conversations that we will win them over to Yes.
“Over the next 100 days I appeal to every single person who believes in Yes to make it their business to talk with and persuade those who remain undecided to come our way.”
As a symbol of the strength and depth of the Yes movement and to mark the 100-days-to-go ‘milestone’, 100 Yes Scotland volunteers gathered in Edinburgh where they formed a gigantic human YES and displayed 100 reasons for voting Yes.
The breadth, scale and diversity of the Yes campaign has created an interest in politics never seen before in Scotland, said Yes Scotland’s Operations Manager Sarah-Jane Walls.
She said: “In terms of energy, positivity, optimism and ideas for Scotland’s future we simply cannot be caught and we are convinced that with that vital support we can continue building momentum. We know that more and more people are moving to Yes and that many remain open to independence. We have the economic strength to be a successful and vibrant independent country and Yes is an opportunity simply too good to pass up.
“There has never been a country better equipped or better placed to become independent and over the next 100 days we will be redoubling our efforts to spread that good and compelling message.”
Ms Walls said it was clear that the referendum campaign comprised two very different narratives about Scotland’s future.
“The Yes story is about creating a social and economic model that matches our aspirations and priorities for a fairer, more progressive, outward looking nation -where we can craft the policies we need to tackle the scourge of child poverty, and narrow the gap between the richest and poorest in our society.
“By contrast, what No offers is a story based on doubt, fear and a lack of confidence in our people and our country.
“On the one hand the Naysayers accept we have the wealth and means to be a successful independent country, but at the same time urge us to forgo that opportunity because there are too many risks. The truth is that the risk to Scotland’s progress as a better, fairer and more prosperous country stems from a No vote and sticking with a Westminster system that simple does not work for us.
“Over the next 100 days we will continue to counter Project Fear by giving people the facts in conversations that will take place in every corner of the country, in the locations where people want to talk in the company of people they like and trust, in their own communities. This is the underlying strength of the Yes campaign and with the continued help from our supporters we will continue to build on that over the next three and a half months.”
One hundred days to decide Scotland’s future …
Join the congregations of Trinity and Goldenacre at an open air Songs of Praise this Sunday at 6.0pm at Heriot’s Playing Fields, Goldenacre.
All welome.
