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DO YOU CARE FOR SOMEONE?

 

 

If you live in Edinburgh and provide unpaid care to family, friends and neighbours, you can have your say on how public and voluntary organisations can provide you with better support.

The City of Edinburgh Council has launched a consultation on its draft Joint Carers’ Strategy, developed in partnership with NHS Lothian, the voluntary sector and carers themselves.
The Joint Carers’ Strategy, and consultation, covers six priorities:

  • identifying carers – helping people who care for others realise they can get support
  • information and advice – carer training, advice, help with finances and benefits
  • health and wellbeing – emotional, social and practical support to improve health
  • short breaks and respite – giving carers a break from caring
  • young adult carers – supporting the transition to adulthood for carers
  • personalising support for carers – support that meets the individual needs of carers

The Council offers a range of support to carers, including a pilot scheme to provide a one-off Carer Support Payment of £250, which was recently highlighted as an example of best practice by the Scottish Government. The payment was made available to unpaid carers, adult and young carers who met the criteria, allowing them to spend some time on themselves to improve their health and wellbeing.

Another successful scheme has been the Carer’s Emergency Card, which was launched in November 2012. These cards are designed to inform emergency services that the holder is a carer and that someone depends on them. It also provides the names of people who can be contacted in case of an emergency. To date 258 carer’s cards have been registered and these will continue to be promoted.

Both schemes received positive feedback in a newly published carers’ survey, designed to evaluate these and other initiatives. The Carer Support Payment proved to be particularly popular, with 738 payments made to adult and young carers. 84% of people in receipt of the fund said that it provided them with the support as they intended and 30% chose to spend the money on respite or a short break.

ARE YOU A SMALL BUSINESS IN NORTH EDINBURGH? READ ON.

A pilot has been launched to encourage Edinburgh’s growing small to medium sized business sector to connect to superfast broadband.

The scheme is part of the UK Government’s £150 million super connected cities programme and is being delivered locally through Business Gateway.

Vouchers will be awarded to businesses to help cover the installation costs of connecting to superfast broadband services up to the value of £3,000. Businesses will pay the VAT costs and the ongoing subscription. The pilot is open until the end of September with the application process taking a couple of weeks to complete, therefore businesses need to move quickly to take advantage of the opportunity.

To qualify for a voucher, applicants should be small to medium sized or be a third sector organisation located in the City of Edinburgh Council area, have fewer than 250 employees and a turnover of less than £40m. Further information and the application form can be found at www.connectionvouchers.co.uk/edinburgh.

Going for a spin

Sainsbury’s Blackhall have got their big bike ride under way. Last week a
spin bike arrived in store until Sunday. Colleagues will be taking turns
to cycle the distance from Nairn to Carlise in store whilst other
colleagues take to the road and cycle the route stopping in at
Sainsbury’s stores along the way to fundraise for Maggie’s.

Gail and Aidan cycling today in-store said ‘customers have been very generous and a lot of them have personal experience with Maggie’s’SAM_1436 (2)s.

LEIPing for joy! Community funding for Leith youth project

LEITH COMMUNITY PROJECT AWARDED FUNDING

A Leith community project has been awarded nearly £72,000. Port of Leith Housing Association (PoLHA) secured funds for Leith Early Intervention Project (LEIP) from the Scottish Government’s People and Communities Fund.

The partnership project – between Pilmeny Development Project, YMCA Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders Police, PoLHA and local schools – will receive £71,258 over the next two years.

The funds will provide early intervention and capacity building to give support to at least 190 young people excluded from generic youth work provision, and who are at risk of offending or are already offending.

Anne Munro, Project Manager for Pilmeny Development Project, said: “We are delighted to have received this funding as it will go towards providing effective intervention for young people via a tailored programme of street work, weekly drop in youth work, a mentoring service and opportunities to use and develop skills and experience through volunteering.”

Keith Anderson, Chief Executive at PoLHA, said: “LEIP is a fantastic initiative and I am delighted we have been able to support them through access to the Scottish Government’s People and Communities Fund.”

Emma Thomson is new PASS patron

British superstar and Oscar award winning actress Emma Thompson has become the new face of Edinburgh College’s Performing Arts Studio of Scotland (PASS). ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????The Nanny McPhee and Sense and Sensibility star (pictured above), who is also a screenwriter and well-known human rights activist, has shown her support towards the performing arts arm of Edinburgh College by accepting the honour of being its patron.

Emma Thompson said: “Edinburgh College’sPerforming Arts Studio of Scotlandis an exciting, high octane, cutting edge centre that will attract much of the wealth of talent in Scotland and beyond. I’m very proud to be patron.”

The much-admired British actress became familiar with PASS after meeting Edinburgh College acting and theatre performance lecturer John Naples-Campbell when he was training as a theatre student at the Scottish Youth Theatre in Glasgow.

John said: “I first met Emma when I was 18 years old at the Scottish Youth Theatre (SYT). She came along to the theatre to hold a Q&A session with SYT students and, after listening to her talk about her career in the industry, I felt driven to continue with my career in performing arts – which is why I am anacting and theatre performance lecturer today.”

“We are absolutely thrilled to have Emma Thompson as patron as this means that our training at Edinburgh College is truly recognised by the very best in the industry. We look forward to welcoming her to our productions in the college’s theatre wherever possible, and we hope to work around her schedule to hold workshops with our students.”

John added: “Emma is an inspirational person, not only because of her many Academy Awards, but also because of her work as a human rights ambassador. Her tremendous work on stage and screen gives hope to any young person wishing to pursue a career in the arts and I know that having her as our patron will motivate and inspire our students to reach their full creative potential.”

As one of the world’s most respected actresses, Emma Thompson is known for her versatility in acting as well as screenwriting and she most recently appeared in The Boat That Rocked, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and as the voice of Queen Elinor in the Pixar animation Brave. As well as her work on screen, Emma Thompson also works as an educational ambassador for a UK-based human rights organisation, the Helen Bamber Foundation, to help rebuild the lives of, and inspire a new self-esteem in, survivors of human rights violations.

Edinburgh College offers a selection of dance, acting, technical theatre, costume design, and make up artistry courses.Former graduates from performing arts courses include Scottish actress Karen Gillan, who starred in the BBC’s Doctor Who. Previous students from PASS have also performed live at the O2 Arena and collaborated with Jon Lord at the Usher Hall, Edinburgh, and have also performed live on stage with Lady Gaga.

EdCollogo

 

 

 

Channel Four news coming to Edinburgh

Channel 4 News is taking to the road this week with#c4newspopup – travelling from Cornwall to Edinburgh assessing how real the economic recovery actually is through the eyes of local people.

On Friday (23 August), Channel 4 News will be in Edinburgh where presenter Jackie Long (pictured below) will be anchoring the programme live.

JackieLongThroughout the day Jackie and her#c4newspopup team will be meeting the public and interacting live online with workers, businesses and consumers from the region reporting their stories and views on the economy and how it is affecting them.

We want to hear from everyone … from inspirational local figures to complaints over bin strikes; from the hot new local arts centre to the shops which have closed on the high street – we will be reporting all their stories on the programme and across all digital platforms.

We are asking people to get in touch with us with their stories via:

Twitter:@channel4news using the hashtag #c4newspopup

Email:c4newspopup@itn.co.uk

More information:http://www.channel4.com/news/c4-news-pop-up-economic-recovery-economy-british-business-uk

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Unfairly sacked? That’ll be £160, please!

despairWestminster Government introduces fees for employment tribunals

Bringing a claim or an appeal to the employment tribunal is currently free of charge with the full cost being met by the taxpayer, but the government has now introduced fees, claiming that by doing this people using employment tribunals will meet ‘a significant proportion’ of the £84m cost of running the system. Their aim, they say, is to reduce the taxpayer subsidy of these tribunals by transferring some of the cost to those who use the service, while protecting access to justice for all.

The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) – a taxpayer-funded service to help workers and businesses settle disputes without the need to go to a tribunal – will remain free, but if agreement cannot be reached at that stage and the claim is taken further significant costs will now be incurred.

Workers will have to pay £160 or £250 to lodge a claim and a charge of either £230 or £950 if their case goes ahead.

Minister Jonathan Djanogly said: “It’s not fair on the taxpayer to foot the entire £84m bill for people to escalate workplace disputes to a tribunal. We want people, where they can, to pay a fair contribution for the system they are using, which will encourage them to look for alternatives.

“It is in everyone’s interest to avoid drawn out disputes which emotionally damage workers and financially damage businesses. That’s why we are encouraging quicker, simpler and cheaper alternatives like mediation.”

Critics of the charges argue that the new charges will dissuade many employees from making legitimate claims about workplace discrimination and there is concern that, once again, it is the poorest and most vulnerable that will suffer.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: “It is vital that working people have fair access to justice, but introducing fees for tribunals will deter many – particularly those on low wages – from taking valid claims to court. Many of the UK’s most vulnerable workers will simply be priced out of justice.

“The government’s remission scheme to protect low-paid employees is woefully inadequate, and workers will be more likely to be mistreated at work as rogue bosses will be able to flout the law without fear of sanction.”

Responding to a consultation on the controversial proposals, Citizens Advice Scotland’s Kevin Dryburgh said: “Employment tribunals are an essential service for all workers and employers in the UK. It is not just successful claimants who benefit – all employers and workers benefit from a service that protects workers, discourages rogue and exploitative employers, and ensures a level playing field for good employers.

“Far from being a costly burden on employers and tax payers, employment tribunals play a key role for all those in work. Placing barriers to accessing Employment Tribunals will affect the effectiveness of the service in providing this role.”

Trade union UNISON is fighting the fees and has been given permission to seek a judicial review. The hearing will take place in October.bigben