With temperatures set to drop and snow expected in some areas this week, we want to help you get prepared! 
Here are our cost effective ways to stay warm throughout the winter months:
For more tips and advice, head to our website: bit.ly/StayingWarmInWinterFB
Relationships Scotland, Scotland’s leading relationship support charity, is urging couples to seek support for relationship issues, rather than opting for separation if they’ve had a challenging Christmas.
The first working Monday of the year, known as Divorce Day, is often the time when there’s a surge in people looking to leave their partner and enter into a formal separation agreement. This is often the result of the emotional pressures and expense of Christmas, which can push couples to breaking point as the New Year starts.
Stuart Valentine, Chief Executive of Relationships Scotland said: “The New Year often prompts couples to reflect on their relationship, especially if the festive season has been fraught. Traditionally there is a spike in people looking to separate on what has become known as Divorce Day.
“Christmas can put a huge strain on relationships where families typically spend more time together with normal routines disrupted, creating a far higher potential for stress and arguments to erupt.
“Our advice is simple, and we urge couples not to be hasty in making decisions about the future but instead seek help to discuss the issues which are causing problems within the relationship.
“Often the advice and support from a trained counsellor can be the difference between a family staying together, or becoming another January divorce statistic.
“Where couples do decide to separate, we also have family mediators across the country who can help separating parents agree the future living arrangements for their children, ensuring both parents keep in contact with their kids after they split up where possible.”
The total number of divorces in Scotland has been relatively stable in Scotland over the last five years with 8,149 in 2024-25 compared to 8,251 in 2023-24.
Stuart Valentine added: “While Christmas will be a time of happiness for many, the pressure it brings can be too much for an already fragile relationship.
“Relationships Scotland understands the importance of positive and resilient relationships and the damage caused by relationship breakdown if not handled properly, especially for children.
“We hope couples experiencing difficulties will think about accessing support through counselling or mediation, before heading to the courts seeking divorce.”
MAKE A MOVIE DAY at WESTER HAILES LIBRARY
It’s Hollywood time here at Wester Hailes! 
We will script, film and edit our own film in just one day 
There will be a role for everyone so no matter what you want to do whether that be a editor, director, script writer or producer we will have something for everyone 
So if you are ready for a challenge, come to Wester Hailes library and make a film in just ONE DAY
No booking required, refreshments provided!
Kids will be protected from exposure to junk food advertising on TV and online as new regulations come into force to help tackle childhood obesity. From today, adverts for less healthy food and drinks will be banned on television before 9pm, and online at all times.
This decisive and world-leading action by this government is expected to remove up to 7.2 billion calories from children’s diets each year, reduce the number of children living with obesity by 20,000 and deliver around £2 billion in health benefits over time.
Evidence shows advertising influences what and when children eat, shaping preferences from a young age and increasing the risk of obesity and related illnesses. The ban targets the media children and young people use most at the times they use it.
At the start of primary school, 22.1% of children in England are living with overweight or obesity and this rises to 35.8% by the time they leave.
Tooth decay is the leading cause of hospital admissions for young children (typically ages 5-9) in the UK.
Minister for Health, Ashley Dalton said: “We promised to do everything we can to give every child the best and healthiest start in life.
“By restricting adverts for junk food before 9pm and banning paid adverts online, we can remove excessive exposure to unhealthy foods – making the healthy choice the easy choice for parents and children.
“We’re moving the dial from having the NHS treat sickness, to preventing it so people can lead healthier lives and so it can be there for us when we need it.”
The UK government has worked closely with health campaigners and industry leaders to find the right balance which combines our commitment to raising healthy kids and economic growth. It’s in everyone’s interest that parents and children can make healthy choices and we thank food and drink companies for getting behind these restrictions voluntary since October ahead of them taking legal effect today.
Previous interventions, such as the Soft Drinks Industry Levy resulted in businesses reformulating to make products healthier, and the measures coming into effect today have already had a similar impact, driving the development and promotion of healthier options.
This change is part of a range of measures the government is taking to lift children out of poverty and help give them the best start in life.
To tackle obesity and improve diets, Westminster has introduced the Healthy Food Standard to make the average shopping basket of goods healthier, and we’re giving local authorities the power to stop fast food shops setting up outside schools.
Katharine Jenner, Executive Director, Obesity Health Alliance, said: “It’s been one battle after another, but we are finally going to see children being protected from the worst offending junk food adverts.
“This is a welcome and long-awaited step towards better protecting children from unhealthy food and drink advertising that can harm their health and wellbeing. These new restrictions will help reduce children’s exposure to the most problematic adverts and mark real progress towards a healthier food environment.
“For the government to achieve its ambition of raising the healthiest generation ever, this is an important policy as part of a broader approach to preventing obesity-related ill health. Continuing to strengthen the rules over time will help ensure these protections remain effective.”
Colette Marshall, Chief Executive at Diabetes UK, said: “With type 2 diabetes on the rise in young people, the need to improve children’s health in the UK has never been greater. Obesity is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes, and the condition can lead to more severe consequences in young people – leaving them at risk of serious complications like kidney failure and heart disease.
“The long-awaited move to restrict junk food advertising – along with other measures such as mandatory healthy food sales reporting for businesses and the extension of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy – can help protect the health of our children, creating a future where conditions like type 2 diabetes can be prevented in young people.”
The Soft Drink Industry Levy will be extended to cover more products, including sugary milk-based drinks – and the government is helping to further improve kids’ diets by banning the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to children under 16.
In December, the Prime Minister announced parents could save up to £500 a year on baby formula thanks to new government measures aimed at reducing household costs and easing the cost of living for hard-working families.
This government has also introduced supervised toothbrushing for three to five-year-olds to protect those in the most deprived communities from tooth decay.
The landmark Tobacco and Vapes Bill, meanwhile, will break the cycle of addiction and stop the next generation getting hooked on nicotine. It will also halt the advertising and sponsorship of vapes, limiting their packaging, flavours and displays which lure young people in.
These measures combined with the junk food ban mark the 10 Year Health Plan’s shift towards prevention and significant progress towards the government’s our pledge of raising the healthiest generation of children ever.
Farid (17), Bite Back Activist, said: “Today is a milestone moment – one that young people across the UK have been campaigning for over many years. We welcome the government taking action to put children’s health front and centre, to protect young people from the predatory and manipulative marketing of unhealthy food by junk food giants.
“These new rules are an important first step that begins to rip down the wallpaper of junk food advertising that surrounds young people on TV and online every day. We’re proud to see this change finally happen. But this cannot be the end. Young people are energised to keep pushing, working hard to make 2026 the year we fully transform the environments children grow up in.”
Malcolm Clark, Senior Policy Manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “The world around us heavily influences what we eat and drink, which is why Cancer Research UK has long campaigned for restrictions on advertising unhealthy foods to children.
“Measures announced today – if properly enforced – are a crucial step towards creating an environment that protects children and empowers healthy lifestyle changes.
“Obesity and overweight causes at least 13 different types of cancer, and children living with obesity are much more likely to live with obesity as adults too. The UK Government must build on this landmark legislation with further bold action to make a healthy diet more accessible and reduce people’s risk of cancer in the future.”
Cllr Dr Wendy Taylor MBE, Chair of the Local Government Association’s Health and Wellbeing Committee, said: “This is a positive step towards creating healthier environments for children and tackling childhood obesity.
“Childhood obesity remains one of the most significant public health challenges we face, driving health inequalities and placing a significant cost burden on the NHS and wider society. These measures are an important part of a whole systems approach, alongside local action to improve access to healthy food and opportunities for physical activity.
“We are pleased to see that these measures complement other public health initiatives, such as the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which together signal a strong commitment to prevention and improving health outcomes.”
Alice Wiseman MBE, Vice President of the Association of Directors of Public Health, said: “The vast majority of deaths in this country are caused by preventable illnesses and disease, including many cancers, respiratory, heart and liver disease. These illnesses are often linked to the consumption of harmful products like unhealthy food and drink, but this is not the result of personal choice.
“The reality is that what we eat and drink is heavily influenced by cheap prices and clever marketing campaigns backed by multi-million pound budgets. We simply don’t have the freedom to choose.
“There is no quick fix, but we know from our experience of tackling tobacco harm, that one of the key ways to reduce illness and death caused by harmful products is to introduce tighter restrictions on advertising those products.
“There is of course further to go, but today’s legislation is a significant and welcome step forward in protecting people from industry influence and reducing the number of people living with – and dying from – preventable illness and disease.”
The clock is ticking and the countdown is on. In January 2027, BT Openreach will shut down the Public Switch Telephone Network (PSTN), the technology behind analogue landline phones.
But with just 12 months remaining until the big switch-off, the digital experts at Workflo Solutions are warning some businesses are woefully underprepared for this landmark change.
The PSTN switch-off has been deemed necessary because the network of traditional copper lines is no longer equipped to handle the demands of today’s advanced digital world. Bandwidth limitations restrict its ability to support features such as video conferencing and data sharing – crucial tools for modern businesses – and maintaining this ageing infrastructure has become increasingly expensive and impractical.
Any equipment that currently uses the PSTN will stop working in January 2027. From phonelines to security alarms, door entry systems to CCTV, any technology that relies on the old copper lines will be affected.
And so businesses across the UK have been urged to move to a single, digital Internet Protocol (IP) network that primarily uses full-fibre connections.
Described by Workflo Solutions as the next generation of business communication, IP leverages the power and flexibility of the internet to deliver voice, data and video services over a single, high-speed fibre optic network. This shift to IP signifies a major technological leap forward in terms of speed, reliability and functionality.
Commenting ahead of the switch-off, Workflo Solutions’ managing director Michael Field said; “For sectors heavily reliant on traditional telephony, such as healthcare, telecare and security, it is essential that their critical services remain uninterrupted while alternative solutions are implemented.
“They need to act now to ensure a smooth transition to digital technologies to avoid disruption to their operations.
“Worryingly, there are still some businesses that are woefully underprepared for the switch-off. The move to IP-based networks is unavoidable, and postponing preparations might cause last-minute issues.
“So we’re urging all businesses to act now, review their current systems and begin implementing the necessary updates to ensure a seamless transition to a more advanced, efficient and versatile communication network before they get left behind.”
We are so excited to see runners signing up, doing what this community does best, coming together!
Join the fun and get yourself involved. Be part of the solution. We need you!! 
Not a runner, don’t worry, you can walk it all if you like, or you can create a relay team and there will be lots of other fun activities over the weekend including a junior fun run for the small people and a more competitive version for the teens if they sign up.
Scan the QR code to learn more.
Just a little reminder that Chatterbooks our P4-7 book group will be restarting on Tuesday 6th January, 6-7pm.
Come along to chat about books, read, arts and crafts, games and lots of fun!
An Inverclyde woman enjoyed her first smoke-free Christmas in 40 years thanks to NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde’s free stop smoking service.
Mounting pressure from her sons and daughter, combined with the increasing cost of cigarettes, meant Patricia Weir from Port Glasgow was facing an uphill battle to justify her partially-private habit of smoking – something she’d done with close friends and at home regularly for 40 years.
However, after struggling to shake off what felt like a lingering hangover after her son’s wedding this summer, Patricia, 62, knew something was wrong and it was time to make a change.
Patricia said: “I was in the hospital five or six times this year and I came home after my son’s wedding in the summer and didn’t feel right.
“I didn’t feel great on the Monday and by the Tuesday, I still wasn’t myself. When it got to the Wednesday, I still wasn’t right, and my son took me to hospital. I discovered my kidneys weren’t functioning and I had sepsis. I knew then that it was time to stop.”
One call to NHSGGC’s stop smoking service, Quit Your Way, and Patricia was set up with free behaviour change support as well as free stop-smoking medication Varenicline through her pharmacy, and she hasn’t looked back since.
Like all smokers, Patricia had her own unique behaviours to change on her journey to going smoke free. For her, it was breaking away from the secrecy she’d built up around her smoking.
She’d only do it around certain people and in specific places, like late at night on her own.
However, with the help of Alison Workman, NHSGGC’s Quit Your Way stop smoking practitioner in Inverclyde, and Varenicline, Patricia has successfully completed her 12-week quit and is now smoke-free.
Patricia added: “There was a lot of work for me to do to change those habits. My family didn’t like it, it was affecting my health, I was embarrassed about it, and I couldn’t justify spending that money but I still had to make a choice to stop.
“I had to do that and I’m proud of that. I’m chuffed to bits with myself and I’m really grateful for Alison’s help, and the team at the pharmacy were great as well.
“I feel in more control of my life, and I genuinely now enjoy the fact that I don’t smoke.
“I’d highly recommend it to anyone who is thinking about stopping. Everybody’s different and there are all these different products to help you. I knew about Varenicline, and I knew I would be able to do it with that, so I have genuinely quit in my own way.”
Alison said: “Patricia found a way to quit that suited her and that’s why it worked. We decided Varenicline would be the right medication to curb her cravings, but the most important part was her desire to change.
“If you can make the commitment to change, we can support you to see it through. Patricia is living proof of that and is now smoke-free for Christmas after 40 years. We’re very proud of her and I’m sure her family are too.”
If you’d like to find out more about Quit Your Way, visit www.nhsggc.scot/your-health/quit-your-way or call 0800 916 8858
The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition (SCSC), an alliance of leading providers of specialist care and education for vulnerable children and young people, is calling for urgent action from the Scottish Government and local authorities following a dramatic reduction in the number of legally binding co-ordinated support plans (CSPs) for children and young people with complex or multiple additional support needs (ASN).
Recent data from the Scottish Government show that the number of pupils with ASN, such as autism, dyslexia and mental health problems, has surged to 299,445 in 2025 – representing 43 per cent of Scotland’s pupil population – up from 153,143 (22.5 per cent of pupils) in 2015.1.
Against this backdrop, there has been a staggering 63 per cent drop in the number of pupils receiving CSPs over the same period. 2
In 2015, there were 3,128 pupils with a CSP, but by 2025, this figure had plummeted to just 1,165, representing only 0.4% of those identified with ASN and just 0.2% of the overall pupil population.
So-called co-ordinated support plans (CSPs), prepared by local authorities, are the only education plans that are legal documents. These provide guarantees of entitlement to additional resources and legal redress, placing statutory duties on local authorities to review and ensure that the provisions are met.
The fall comes despite a Scottish Government promise that there would be no reduction in the proportion of pupils receiving them since their introduction through the Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004.
A concern raised by the SCSC is that local authorities are reluctant to issue CSPs because they are seen as cumbersome and time-consuming, resource-intensive, and subject to enhanced scrutiny.
This is all set against the backdrop of under-investment in services, with many local authorities now reluctant to provide legally enforceable support due to cuts in health, education, and social work provision.
If the needs of the child or young person are not believed to have been met, non-statutory alternatives are often offered in their place, with families or carers not being offered the option of a CSP.
The SCSC has called for a number of actions from the Scottish Government and local authorities, including:
● Expanding access to CSPs, ensuring all eligible pupils receive a legally binding plan.
● Reviewing and removing barriers preventing the effective use of CSPs.
● Improving collaboration between local authorities, health, education, and social work services to ensure statutory duties are being met.
● Investing in resources and training to raise awareness and understanding of CSPs among families, carers, and professionals, including targeted training for local authority and school staff
A spokesperson for the SCSC said: “We are calling for urgent action from the Scottish Government and local authorities following figures highlighting a dramatic decline in the use of CSPs, which are designed to support those with the most complex needs.
“This is despite a Scottish Government assurance that they would not fall, and against the backdrop of a dramatic increase in the numbers of those with ASN, including those with more complex needs.
“This gap between the growing number of children with ASN and the declining number of CSPs is simply not justifiable. The threshold for receiving a CSP is already challenging to meet, and local authorities are using vague terminology to deny children the support they need.
“By not providing this legally enforceable provision, many of these vulnerable individuals are being failed and not getting the support they are entitled to, meaning that they are not achieving their full potential.
“This is of particular significance given the devastating impact of Covid-19 and the cost-of-living crisis. The Scottish Government, local authorities and other agencies need to collaborate to ensure that those requiring a CSP receive it, with the necessary resourcing in place to support this.
“With those with ASN drawn disproportionately from poorer neighbourhoods, if we are to close the educational attainment gap genuinely, they must get the care and support they need, when they need it.”
1 Scottish Government, Pupil census supplementary statistics 2025 and 2015, table 1.5. Available at: https://www.gov.scot/publications/pupil-census-supplementary-statistics/
(accessed 2nd January 2026).
2 Ibid., table 1.6.
