Eligible parents of children aged 4 and 5 are being encouraged to apply for financial support worth over £250 – applications opened on 1 June 2021.
The School Age Payment is open to families who get tax credits or certain benefits and have a child who was born between 1 March 2016 and 28 February 2017.
The one-off payment can be used for anything from a new pair of shoes to books or arts and crafts materials.
Parents who have deferred their child’s entry to school from August 2020 to August 2021 should still apply before the closing date on 28 February 2022 – if an application is made after this time it will be too late.
Family run, for family fun Conifox Adventure Park is waiting to welcome back all of our favourite dads, daddies and ‘you’re like a dad to me’ dudes, with an unmissable offer this Father’s Day – by gifting a FREE ticket for every ‘Dad’ entering the park with a purchased child ticket, families can save money, whilst making precious memories.
As the weather starts to warm up for Summer and days seem much brighter again, what better way to spend priceless family time, than at Conifox Adventure Park? With its abundance of green outdoor space, awe-inducing attractions and delicious al fresco food, the park offers the whole family the opportunity to rediscover some of life’s simple pleasures.
James Gammell, Managing Director at Conifox Adventure Park, said: “We are delighted to welcome families back to Conifox Adventure Park this Father’s Day, where groups can once again enjoy spending time together, laughing, playing and forgetting the difficulties of the past year.
“Whether swinging on the rope bridge or letting dad show off his skills on the footgolf course, there is fun for everyone. With dads going free, there might even be a little extra to buy an ice cream!”
Conifox Adventure Park is fully open for business, so kids, young and old will be able to enjoy the numerous attractions safely throughout Conifox Adventure Park including a: Nine-Hole Footgolf Course, Pedal Go-Karts, Off-Road Pedal Tractors, Giant Sand Pit, Kid’s Pedal Tractor Farm, Springers, Giant Jump Pillow, Trampolines, Swings, Balance Beams, Rope Bridge and so much more!
Father’s Day tickets can be purchased in advance at www.conifox.co.uk . Getting booked up, tickets are selling fast!
To find out more visit the Conifox Adventure Park Facebook page @conifoxadventurepark or www.conifox.co.uk.
For every pair of booties received, the charity will donate one pair to families it works with in Glasgow and the other it will use to raise awareness with MSPs about the importance of investing in early childhood.
Through its Fight for a Fair Start campaign, NSPCC Scotland is urging the Scottish Government to provide support for all families who need it, so that every child is given the chance to thrive.
The charity says substantial investment is needed in specialist services that support the parent-infant relationship, which in turn help a child’s healthy development and prevent future problems in its life.
Evelyn Hart, a volunteer counsellor at the Aberdeen Childline base, has already been busy with her knitting needles and has completed her first pair of booties.
She said: “I want to help the NSPCC in this campaign because I know that it is so important that families receive all the support they need, so children can grow up feeling safe and nurtured.
“If we can prevent some of the trauma and hardship that some children face by giving them a better start in life, then I want to do what I can to help – and knitting a couple of pairs of booties is a small task!”
NSPCC Scotland research shows that despite overwhelming evidence that people’s experiences in early childhood lay the foundations for their future health and wellbeing, there is still very little support available in the country for families with young children.
In studies carried out before the pandemic hit, the charity found that very few services across Scotland specifically addressed the emotional and developmental needs of children under the age of two. Last year, around half of the children on the child protection register and over a third coming into the care system in Scotland were younger than five years old.
Joanne Smith, Policy and Public Affairs Manager for NSPCC Scotland, said: “A baby’s experiences can have a profound impact on the rest of their life. Yet, this is a stage of life that is too often overlooked and under-supported.
“We recognise that advances in early years policy have been made in the last decade in Scotland but this needs to be matched with funding. Providing early support to families can help build positive relationships that prevent harm and, in turn, change life trajectories. This is fundamental to transforming childhood and creating equality in Scotland.
“People don’t need to be seasoned knitters to support our campaign, in fact they could even sew or crochet the booties. And we will appreciate all the support we can get to help us fight for a fair start for every child.”
To support the Fight for a Fair Start campaign by creating two or more pairs of baby booties sign up here. People will then receive an email, which includes patterns and a postal address to send the booties to by August 31.
People can also support our Fight for a Fair Start campaign by signing our petition here.
More than 90,000 primary school pupils will be entitled to new free school meal support in term time.
The Scottish Government and local authority partners have reached agreement to introduce universal free school lunches for primary 4 and 5 children and targeted support during school holidays for all eligible primary and secondary children and young people.
The £28 million commitment will deliver free school lunches during term time for P4 children by August 2021 and to P5 children by January 2022
A further £21.75 million will provide targeted free school meal support during school holidays in 2021-22. This will start in July for around 145,000 primary and secondary children and young people from low income households.
Councils will determine what approach in school holidays meets local needs and circumstances, which may include the provision of direct payments, vouchers or food parcels.
Education Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “Free school meals are a vital support to thousands of children and young people across the country – ensuring that children have access to a free, healthy and nutritious meal every day they are in school and are ready to engage in learning.
“The provision of £49.75 million in new funding to local authorities demonstrates our support for the health and wellbeing of children and young people and our commitment to reduce the impact of poverty on thousands of families across the country.”
Councillor Stephen McCabe of COSLA said: “Councils across Scotland have long been committed to delivering healthy free school meals – to eligible children and young people.
“We are pleased that, in partnership with Scottish Government, this commitment can be further expanded upon by providing free school meals to all Primary 4s in August 2021 and Primary 5s in the later part of the academic year.
“Local authorities will continue to work hard to ensure that children and young people have access to healthy and nourishing meals so that they are fully able to learn, play, and engage with their peers and communities.”
Extended school days should focus on children’s play, socialisation and wellbeing, say educational psychologists
Educational psychologists are urging the government to re-think the way it approaches the so-called ‘catch up’ programme for children in schools, with a focus on play, socialisation and wellbeing as opposed to just adding more hours of lessons to the timetable.
With an extended school day being suggested as part of the Covid recovery plan, members of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Educational and Child Psychology are advocating for a holistic approach to learning within these hours, saying that this is an opportunity to re-set our priorities for our children and their education.
They are also highlighting the need for school to be the heart of the community, with the opportunity of longer school days providing safe spaces for children to play, socialise, and engage in activities such as music, crafts and sports.
Vivian Hill, vice-chair of the DECP said, “If the school day is to be extended, it’s important is that we don’t just fill those extra hours with more and more formal teaching sessions.
“It is about developing a balanced offer and recognising that learning is a dynamic process. We urge the government to use this as an opportunity to re-set the approach we take to education and our children within schools.
“Children don’t have to be sat at desks in a classroom to learn, giving them space to play sports, paint, try different crafts, and socialise will all lead to learning and the development of important life skills.
“We have an opportunity now to re-think what we view as ‘good outcomes’ for children. By having schools as the centre of the community they can be used to help tackle social inequalities and give all children access to the resources and support they need.
“For example, for children who have no safe spaces to play outside at home, having access to the school playground to play football with their friends would be invaluable. For children living in overcrowded accommodation it could give them space to read and do their homework, or find their passion such as music or other forms of art.
“If we create the right environment for our children to thrive, then good academic achievement will be a by-product of this. These plans must be psychologically informed, and children must also be consulted on what they want and what they need to thrive. It is important as well that these services are properly resourced, we cannot expect teachers to just do more and more after an incredibly difficult 15 months.”
Dobbies, the UK’s leading garden centre retailer, has announced the online relaunch of its much-loved Little Seedlings Club, to support and celebrate National Children’s Gardening Week (29 May – 6 June).
Packed with activities, tutorials and educational content, the Little Seedlings Club is aimed at Edinburgh children aged 4 to 10 years old, and in its refreshed and enhanced online format, will provide plenty of fun gardening and crafting projects.
Dobbies Little Seedlings Club previously ran in the Edinburgh store, but workshops haven’t been able to take place in person since March 2020. The relaunched online format provides a fantastic way for budding young Edinburgh gardeners to learn all about plants, wildlife, the environment and sustainability, while supplying them with an abundance of fun facts and top tips to impress their friends.
Marcus Eyles, Horticultural Director of Dobbies, said: “Our Little Seedlings Club has always been hugely popular in our Edinburgh store, and so we are very pleased to be able to relaunch the club in a virtual format, marking National Children’s Gardening Week.
“At Dobbies, we are passionate about helping communities to enjoy spending time outdoors and get growing, and who could be better than the next generation of gardeners? We hope that the relaunched Little Seedlings Club will educate, inform and inspire a whole new host of young gardeners.”
Available for free on the Dobbies website, Little Seedlings will offer a mix of topical online content, including factsheets, educational guides, activity sheets and suggestions for ways to put green fingers to work, with topics spanning everything from creating bug hotels and DIY seed bombs, to learning about composting, plant lifecycles and the anatomy of flowers, plus an array of weird and wonderful facts.
The new-look Little Seedlings Club will also offer free virtual events, coinciding with Dobbies’ current series of online Expert Events. On Saturday 5 June at 10:30, Dobbies will host ‘Get Gardening with Your Little Seedlings’ – a free, virtual event open to everybody, designed to encourage parents and grandparents to enjoy time in the garden with their little ones.
Dobbies’ Horticultural Director, Marcus Eyles, and Plant Buyer, Nigel Lawton, will provide a pumpkin-planting demonstration, to encourage children to start their own fruit or vegetable patch at home. Alongside this, there’ll be interactive challenges and fun facts, to get children out in the garden and help them to understand more about the natural world around them.
As well as this, Dobbies is launching a campaign to find Ambassadors for Little Seedlings, open to children across Edinburgh.
The campaign will find the faces of the Little Seedlings Club, who will then have the opportunity to provide their own blogs about gardening for Dobbies customers to enjoy, as well as appearing in Dobbies’ social media campaigns with photos of their gardening progress.
1.7 million adults in Scotland planning on hosting a garden party this summer
1.7 million adults in Scotland will be hosting a garden party during the summer, according to a new YouGov poll and 7 per cent intend to hire a bouncy castle for their event – meaning as many as 120,000 inflatables will be in use in private gardens, yet new research has also revealed that one in three (32 per cent) of bouncy castle operators are not up-to-date with inflatable inspections after the lockdown.
The research, released by the Register of Play Inspectors International (RPII) – an international body for training inflatable inspectors and operators – and national inflatable inspection scheme PIPA – also reveals that 31 per cent of adults in Scotland don’t know what to ask regarding the safety of the bouncy castle at the point of booking one.
Yet despite this, almost one in 10 (9 per cent) of adults have witnessed an accident or injury on a bouncy castle, many of which could be prevented.
The RPII and PIPA have joined forces to launch a new campaign called #BounceSafe, supported by singer and mum-of-two Suzanne Shaw, which aims to get parents and those booking inflatables to take the appropriate safety steps to help ensure safe usage during this summer surge, and reduce the number of accidents and injuries.
Suzanne Shaw, singer and mum said: “After the year we have all had, it’s not a surprise to see millions of people will be hosting garden parties and what better way to entertain the kids than with a bouncy castle.
“I’m supporting the #BounceSafe campaign to send an important message to parents and those hiring the inflatables at-home to please make sure they ask the right questions when they hire and follow the safety advice on the day to help reduce the number of accidents. We all have a role to play in keeping the kids bouncing safe and it’s so important to supervise the inflatable at all times.”
The campaign is calling for people who hire bouncy castles for at-home use to do three things:
Ask the 3 key questions of the operator at the point when they hire – Do you have a PIPA tag and number, are you insured and have you done the RPII operator training during the last 3 years?
Supervise the bouncy castle at all times once the operator leaves a private at-home event.
Follow simple safety advice during the event and brief users about the rules before they go on.
When it comes to supervision, 82 per cent of all adults in Scotland do not know that if they have hired the bouncy castle, they are fully and legally responsible for the safety of the children on it when the operator leaves the event whilst one in five (20 per cent) have witnessed bouncy castles being completely unsupervised while children are on it.
The inflatables industry has been hit hard during the COVID pandemic. The RPII’s research reveals that 56 per cent of operators have suffered financially with 70 per cent having to temporarily close the business, 24 per cent furlough staff and 50 per cent adapt their business model over the last 12 months. The research also reveals the support from the public for the industry as one in seven (15 per cent) want to support their local inflatables business after the lockdown.
Matthew Sweed, Technical Director of Inflatables at the RPII, said: “We are launching our #BounceSafe campaign today to help keep children all over the UK bouncing safely this summer and reduce the number of accidents and injuries.
“By following some simple safety advice, everyone can play an important part in the safe hiring and safe usage of inflatables. As part of the campaign we are also urging all inflatable operators to ensure their castles are up to date with their annual inspection and that operators have also participated in our operator training programme during the last 3 years.”
And when attending a garden party with a bouncy castle, 25 per cent said there were too many children on the bouncy castle at any one time and a quarter (24 per cent) said they saw children climbing on the bouncy castle walls which is the most common cause of accidents.
Sweed continued: “It’s really important that those hiring the inflatable supervise the users at all times after the operator leaves. We know it’s something not all parents are aware of, but it has a huge impact on accident rates.“
As part of the #BounceSafe campaign, the RPII is launching a new digital training programme for all bouncy castle operators which they can complete online and a new website for hirers to access simple safety information – www.bouncesafe.org.uk.
Now, as we approach summer with hopefully fewer restrictions, we can start to make plans about how we will spend time with family and friends.
Following the challenging year we have experienced, we could all do with a bit more play in our lives. Play is a hugely important part of childhood and has a whole host of benefits, including improving physical and mental health and wellbeing.
Throughout this pandemic, children have had to deal with so many difficult challenges; some having to stay in unsafe homes and many living with families who are struggling with health worries and financial issues. Children have told Childline that they have struggled to cope and their mental health has suffered as a result.
It doesn’t matter how people choose to play this Childhood Day (11 June), whether it’s organising a sponsored kickabout in the park, a game of cards, a musical get-together or an online gaming tournament, we just want as many as possible playing and raising money to help us keep children safe.
We look forward to hearing how your readers plan to support the NSPCC and children across Scotland this Childhood Day.
To find out more and download a fundraising pack, visit:
Save The Children Scotland has launched “Dropped into a Cave”, a report telling the stories of how families with young children living on low income or experiencing low income for the first time fared in the last year:
‘We listened to parents across Scotland who had received one of the over 1500 Emergency Early Years Grants we issued since April 2020. We heard how the pandemic was a tipping point for many.
‘Now is the time for the newly elected members of the @ScotParl to ensure families on low incomes are prioritised, listened to and involved in decision making as we recover from the pandemic
‘We need commitments now to:
ensure holistic family support for all families, incl. financial, practical & emotional support
protect family incomes while working towards a minimum income standard
opportunities for children to play & build relationships.
The Children’s Commissioners of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have today published a letter they have sent to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions calling for an end to the two-child limit on Universal Credit and Child Tax Credit.
In the letter, the Commissioners state that the policy, which disallows benefits payments to the third and subsequent children born after April 2017 in most circumstances, is ‘a clear breach of children’s human rights’ that “is inconsistent with the commitments made by the UK through the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The UK Parliament’s Work and Pensions Committee will today hear evidence from Bruce Adamson, Children and Young People’s Commissioner for Scotland who will present the collective views of the Commissioners in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, that the efforts of their devolved governments to tackle child poverty are being restricted by UK benefits rules.
He will talk about the impact of current welfare benefits on child poverty in Scotland and explain that even before Covid-19, poverty represented the greatest human rights issues facing children.
Children and Young People’s Commissioner for Scotland, Bruce Adamson, said: “With more than a quarter of a million children affected, poverty is the most significant human rights issue facing children in Scotland.Living in poverty affects every aspect of a child’s life, including their educational attainment and mental and physical health.
“The UK’s approach to poverty was examined in 2019 by the United Nations’ top expert on poverty and human rights who highlighted that it is political decisions by government that are leading to disastrous levels of poverty.
“When Professor Alston came to Scotland to meet with children and their families he heard from them about the serious impact that poverty is having on their human rights. Now after over a year of the Covid-19 pandemic, the situation for children in Scotland has become much worse.”
The open letter from the Commissioners to the Right Honourable Thérèse Coffey, MP states that the two-child limit breaches children’s rights to an adequate standard of living and is contributing to a rising gap in poverty levels between families with three or more children and smaller households.
The Commissioners note that the policy also has disproportionate impacts on social groups where larger families are more common, such as some minority faith and ethnic groups and in Northern Ireland where families are larger than the rest of the UK.
Bruce Adamson added: “The Scottish Government has taken some action to reduce the number of children in poverty including rolling out the Scottish Child Payment during the pandemic, however I remain concerned that children’s rights are continuing to be breached in Scotland by the two-child limit on child tax credit and universal credit. That is why we have taken the step of writing to the UK Government to urge that this policy is reversed.
“We will continue to hold our devolved governments to account in relation to their obligations to respect, protect and fulfil children’s rights, but these governments can only go so far in their efforts to ensure children and their families get the support they are entitled to while this discriminatory policy also remains in force at a UK level.”
The Commissioners conclude their letter by stating that the ‘levelling up’ agenda signalled in the Queen’s Speech earlier this month must start by discontinuing the two-child policy: ‘With the focus in the Queen’s speech in May 2021 on ‘levelling up’, there can be no excuse for continuing to breach children’s rights through this discriminatory policy that will continue to harm and prevent children and families from moving beyond the impact of the global pandemic.’
