Tag: Children and Families

Soft Play’s back in action at Edinburgh Leisure

Soft play centres reopen today

Edinburgh Leisure’s three soft play centres, Clambers at the Royal Commonwealth Pool, Scrambles at the EICA and Tumbles at Portobello will finally be reopening their doors to customers today, Monday, 19 July 2021. 

Bookings for members went live at 9pm on Tuesday, 13 July and for non-members on Wednesday, 14 July.

Claire Rusack, Leisure Manager at the Royal Commonwealth Pool and Clambers said: “It’s been such a long time coming after an extended lock-down, which meant that we weren’t able to open as originally planned on 7th June, but we’re delighted that we can finally welcome back our youngest of customers and their parents and carers to let off some steam. 

“So, for anyone with little ones who need to burn off some energy, make sure you’re not disappointed by pre-booking in advance for any sessions you want to attend via the Edinburgh Leisure app or website.  And if you think you might be a regular customer, you might want to consider buying one of our soft-play memberships.”

Due to COVID-19 restrictions Edinburgh Leisure has had to adapt their offering with pre-booking done via the Edinburgh Leisure app or website only for all visits, either 8 days in advance for members or 7 days for non-members. No parties or special events can be booked at this stage.

All three venues will follow the same daily opening times from 9.30am-5pm, Monday to Sunday, with five pre-bookable slots of 60-minutes each to accommodate deep cleaning between each.   At the start of each month, the frames will be treated with a 30-day virus protection.

Adults will book a table for a maximum of six people, which will include adults, children, and babies.

Adults can remove face coverings while seated at the table but will be required to wear them at all other times, especially when moving around the space. A café service will be available throughout all sessions.  However, we are running a restricted menu at this time.

To adhere to Government guidelines, there will be no adults or staff allowed in the frames. 

However, adults can enter the frame to support a child with additional support needs. All adults entering the frame or walking around the soft play area must wear a face covering.  Space in baby areas where adults are present, will be limited, due to physical distancing.

Currently, frame capacity has been reduced to 40% of normal operating capacity, and ball pools and modular items have been removed.

The cost of a 60-minute session is: free for 0-6 months; £4.40 for 6 months – 2 years; and £6.80 for children 3 years and over.

And for regular soft-play attendees, there is an option to buy a membership, offering great value.

A monthly membership costs £16.70 for one child; £28.00 for two children; £33.80 for three children; and £39.50 for four children, which can be used at any of the three Edinburgh Leisure soft play centres across the city.

The Edinburgh Leisure app can be downloaded from the Google and App stores.

For more information, visit:  www.edinburghleisure.co.uk

£698,000 set to support 6,821 families in Edinburgh to buy school clothes

The Scottish Government has set to support 6,821 school children in Edinburgh with £698,000 of support to buy school clothes through the School Clothing Grant.

The School Clothing Grant was increased this month by the Scottish Government and provides families with primary school children with £120 per child and £150 per child in secondary school.

The support helps families pay for school clothes and shoes.

Applications are still open for eligible parents to apply for the start of the new school year. To apply, parents should visit www.edinburgh.gov.uk/food-clothing/free-school-meals-school-clothing-grants.

SNP MSP for Edinburgh Pentlands, Gordon MacDonald  said: “The SNP Scottish Government has already helped a significant number of families in Edinburgh with buying school clothes and shoes, and applications are still open for eligible families to apply for the start of the new school year.

“Meeting the costs of buying school clothes can be very challenging for thousands of families across Scotland and the SNP Scottish Government has introduced the School Clothing Grant to ensure every child in Scotland doesn’t miss out.

“Being in a uniform not only breaks stigma in school but gets young people in the right mindset for learning.

“This is another demonstration of our tale of two governments – one in Edinburgh building a social security system built on dignity, fairness and respect, in stark contrast to the one in Westminster preparing to cut Universal Credit which could plunge 20,000 children in Scotland into poverty.”

The number of children and young people estimated will benefit from the minimum school clothing grant, broken down by local authority area, is provided within the following table:

Local AuthorityEstimated number of children and young people (in each LA area)
  
Aberdeen City3,471
Aberdeenshire3,376
Angus2,473
Argyll and Bute1,463
Clackmannanshire1,349
Dumfries and Galloway3,374
Dundee City6,045
East Ayrshire4,167
East Dunbartonshire2,014
East Lothian1,682
East Renfrewshire1,714
Edinburgh, City of6,821
Eilean Siar (Western Isles)416
Falkirk4,678
Fife11,882
Glasgow City28,464
Highland4,333
Inverclyde3,114
Midlothian2,018
Moray1,434
North Ayrshire5,186
North Lanarkshire10,234
Orkney Islands227
Perth and Kinross1,850
Renfrewshire5,498
Scottish Borders2,220
Shetland Islands309
South Ayrshire2,926
South Lanarkshire10,622
Stirling1,692
West Dunbartonshire3,530
West Lothian6,498
  
SCOTLAND145,080

The funding allocation of the £11.8 million in additional funding for the school clothing grant, broken down by local authority area, is provided within the following table:

Local AuthorityAdditional funding for school clothing grants
  
Aberdeen City£351,000
Aberdeenshire£371,000
Angus£239,000
Argyll and Bute£155,000
Clackmannanshire£136,000
Dumfries and Galloway£354,000
Dundee City£357,000
East Ayrshire£334,000
East Dunbartonshire£146,000
East Lothian£218,000
East Renfrewshire£147,000
Edinburgh, City of£698,000
Eilean Siar (Western Isles)£43,000
Falkirk£363,000
Fife£935,000
Glasgow City£1,940,000
Highland£469,000
Inverclyde£161,000
Midlothian£191,000
Moray£187,000
North Ayrshire£379,000
North Lanarkshire£929,000
Orkney Islands£40,000
Perth and Kinross£274,000
Renfrewshire£363,000
Scottish Borders£245,000
Shetland Islands£29,000
South Ayrshire£237,000
South Lanarkshire£678,000
Stirling£161,000
West Dunbartonshire£234,000
West Lothian£436,000
  
SCOTLAND£11,800,000

New charity aims to tackle legacy of grief from Covid-19

Apart of Me, the design-led company that supports young people and their families through the heartbreak of grief via a mobile App, has received a double-boost as it seeks to help those suffering loss from the pandemic.

Firstly, their application to become a charity was not just approved, but fast-tracked by the Charity Commission. The Commission acknowledged both the importance of the serviceto children and young people affected by grief and the time-sensitive nature of the work given the legacy of loss caused by Covid-19.

In a second piece of good news for the charity, it was announced today that they had been named winners in the London Mayoral Resilience Fund, a scheme set up by Mayor Sadiq Khan to help the capital city bounce back against Coronavirus. 

Apart of Me has been appointed to run projects to help young people in London bereaved due to coronavirus. The charity’s aim is to apply the same clinical approach and methods they use in their award-winning App to help young people combat their grief.

Apart of Me launched in 2018 as an innovative app-based adventure game that helps bereaved children use their mobile phones or tablets to help cope with the grief and confusion caused by the loss of a loved one.

“When we launched Apart of Me a couple of years ago, little did we know how badly it would be needed today, with so many children and young people left grieving for loved ones as a result of Covid-19,” said Louis Weinstock, the child psychologist who co-founded the organisation with tech entrepreneur Ben Page in 2018.

“Whilst all the talk at the moment is of our desire to return to normality, millions of children around the world have lost parents, grandparents and care-givers from this pandemic. They need our support.”

Acknowledging their new charitable status, Weinstock said, “Charity means ‘compassion’. Having our registration expedited by the Charity Commission not only confirms the urgency of our mission, but it will also allow us to fundraise and accelerate towards our goal of helping every grieving young person transform their grief into compassion.” 

From the outset the goal for Apart of Me was to combine bereavement-counseling techniques with 3D animation and gaming developments to create an app-based game that could help children and young people find a path through grief to compassion. Since then, the app has been downloaded nearly 100,000 times, receiving critical acclaim from clinical leaders and those who have used it.

Henry, who was 18 when his father died of cancer, describes the impact the game had on him. “Apart of Me was my guiding light in the dark when I felt incredibly alone, lost and confused. It helped me to understand what I was going through and took the loneliness of the whole experience away.”

A worldwide focus on mental health in recent years has seen established game developers attempt to tackle the concepts of anxiety and self-worth head-on. 

Apart of Me have been pioneers in this field with Louis and Ben collaborating with 126 skilled volunteers around the world to build their app, which was highlighted as a best-in-class app for safe and accessible support by Good Thinking, London’s Digital Mental Wellbeing Service (backed by the London Mayor’s office, Public Health England, London councils, the NHS and ThriveLDN). 

Louis’ work has previously been acknowledged by the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, under the Government’s ‘Points of Light’ scheme.

In a personal letter to Louis, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “I know you do this with no thought of praise or reward, but allow me to offer my own recognition of how you have created innovative, accessible grief counselling which has supported thousands of young people in the UK and abroad.”

Read More, Feel Better: Fort Kinnaird launches summer holiday reading campaign to support children’s wellbeing

Fort Kinnaird has partnered with the National Literacy Trust to launch a new summer holiday reading campaign, as new research reveals that almost half of children (45%) in Scotland claim that reading makes them feel better.

The ‘Read More, Feel Better’ campaign is designed to help children across the community to continue reading for fun over the summer holidays, with a selection of top tips and advice for parents on the Fort Kinnaird website, including how to create an effective reading space at home and the best books for supporting children’s wellbeing.

Fort Kinnaird and the National Literacy Trust will also be hosting a live storytelling session for children in August, with two expert storytellers sharing exciting and engaging tales for children aged 5 – 11 years. Parents will need to register for the Zoom session in advance – keep an eye on Fort Kinnaird’s social feeds for all the details.

The centre has also donated 100 books to Venchie as part of the campaign. This follows a series of donations the centre has made to local foodbanks and charities throughout the pandemic.

‘Read More, Feel Better’ is being delivered as part of the award-winning Young Readers Programme, an initiative run by Fort Kinnaird’s co-owner, British Land, in partnership with the National Literacy Trust.

Jonathan Douglas, chief executive of the National Literacy Trust, said: “Our research shows that almost half of children across the country said that reading helps them relax and feel better. 

“Not only does this campaign help to support children’s wellbeing, it’s also a great way to ensure their continued literary development in a period of their education which has been so disruptive.”

Liam Smith, centre director at Fort Kinnaird, said: “The Read More, Feel Better campaign is a great initiative.

“The events of the last 15 months have meant that we wanted to go even further to provide some support for parents over the summer holidays, and to highlight how doing little things can have such a positive impact.”

One million children in key worker households live in poverty

New research published by the TUC (produced by Landman Economics) finds that over a million children of key workers are currently living in poverty.

The research, which used the government definition for key workers, found that in some regions more than a quarter of children in key worker households are living in poverty.

Key worker families in the North East have the highest rate of child poverty (29%), followed by London (27%), the West Midlands (25%) and Yorkshire and the Humber (25%).

Government policies could worsen key worker poverty

The TUC says the main reasons for key worker family poverty are low pay and insecure hours – factors that often coincide in occupations such as care workers, delivery drivers or supermarket staff.

High housing costs further reduce keyworker family budgets for essentials like groceries and utility bills. And support through Universal Credit is not enough to guarantee families avoid poverty.

Current government policies are likely to increase child poverty rates. Ministers have capped pay rises for key workers in the public sector, which in some cases will mean real wage losses. And the chancellor is planning to cut Universal Credit for low-income families by £20 per week in October.

The TUC warns that these policies will put the brakes on the nation’s economic recovery by curbing household spending. This will restrain business activity, and impact on wage growth for other workers across the economy.

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said: “Every key worker deserves a decent standard of living for their family. But too often their hard work is not paying off like it should. And they struggle to keep up with the basic costs of family life.

“The prime minister has promised to ‘build back fairer’. He should start with our key workers. They put themselves in harm’s way to keep the country going through the pandemic. Now, we must be there for them too.

“This isn’t just about doing right thing by key workers. If we put more money in the pockets of working families, their spending will help our businesses and high streets recover. It’s the fuel in the tank that our economy needs.”

Support needed for key worker families

The TUC is calling on the government to guarantee decent living standards for key worker families by:

  • Raising the national minimum wage to £10 per hour immediately.
  • Ending the freeze on public service workers’ pay and give all public service workers a decent pay rise.
  • Funding the public sector so that all outsourced workers are paid at least the real Living Wage and get parity with directly employed staff.
  • Canceling the £20 cut to Universal Credit, which is set to hit low-income families in October, and set out plans to increase child benefit above inflation each year across the parliament.

– Children in poverty in key worker households by UK nation and region

RegionChildren in poverty in key worker familiesProportion of children in poverty in key worker families
North East56,19829.1%
North West101,48118.1%
Yorks & the Humber100,21424.9%
East Midlands80,65321.2%
West Midlands111,57725.2%
East of England83,71915.5%
London164,54826.5%
South East143,37218.7%
South West66,67815.6%
Wales60,37823.4%
Scotland74,37618.7%
TOTAL1,062,58620.6%

Peter Capaldi to host Voices 2021 creative writing competition for children in care/care leavers

The charity Coram Voice will celebrate the awards ceremony of Voices 2021, its national creative writing competition for children in care and young care leavers, virtually again this year due to ongoing pandemic restrictions.  

The ceremony will be streamed on the Coram Voice YouTube channel from 5pm tomorrow (14 July) and will be co-hosted by award-winning Scottish actor and former Doctor Who star Peter Capaldi, a long-standing supporter of the competition, and Voices 2019 winner Sophia Hall.

It will also feature members of the competition judging panel announcing this year’s winners, including the children’s authors Abi Elphinstone and Cynthia Murphy, novelist Kirsty Capes and the poet Joelle Taylor.  

Peter Capaldi said: “It is an honour to host the Voices awards ceremony again this year. The competition is a fantastic opportunity to showcase the creativity and talent of care-experienced young people and builds greater understanding around their lives and experiences.”  

Sophia Hall said: “I am delighted to be co-hosting this year’s award ceremony with Peter. I’m a proud care experienced person, but that wasn’t always the case. I used to hide the fact I was in care, and never really spoke about it when I was a teenager.

“Today, after being encouraged by organisations such as Coram, my peers, and the wider community, I embrace my experience as an important and integral part of my identity. The Voices competition means a lot to me because it’s all about encouraging young people in care to use their voices, and encouraging non-care experienced people to listen”.  

This year marks the sixth anniversary of the Voices competition, which is sponsored by UK management consultancy Cadence Innova.

The competition received over 250 entries on the theme of ‘What Makes Life Good’ submitted from across the country. Just 24 of these have been shortlisted over four age categories: primary (age 4-10), lower secondary (age 11-14), upper secondary (age 15-17) and care leavers (age 18-25).  

Brigid Robinson, Managing Director of Coram Voice, said: “The uncertainty and disruption of the pandemic has made the past year incredibly challenging for many children and young people in and leaving the care system.

“But reading the competition entries, we have been so inspired by the stories and poems that show how children and young people are using their strength and creativity to deal with these difficult experiences. Their motivation and resilience is an inspiration to all.  

“I want to congratulate all the young people who entered this year’s competition. This is your night, and we are delighted to be able to host the awards online so that we can all celebrate together and share the talents of every young person who took part.”  

Gary Ashby, Founding Partner at Cadence Innova, the Headline Sponsor of Voices 2021, said: “It is our third year sponsoring the Voices competition and we are delighted to be working with Coram once again. The Voices Awards champion children’s creativity and development and we are immensely proud to be a part of this inspiring contest. We hope that the artistic exploration of this year’s topic – What makes life good – will not only help the participants explore their creative sides, but also grow their confidence for the future.”   

To find out more about the Voices 2021 competition and how you can tune in on 14 July, please visit coramvoice.org.uk/voices.  

Support for Circle from Farmers Foundation

Red heart

We are so pleased and extremely grateful, that the Farmer’s Foundation has offered to fund our School’s Mentoring Project for the next three years.

This involves a generous gift of £105,000 to Circle and to vulnerable children in the North of Edinburgh.

Thank you!

Police issue keep children safe plea following road accidents

Road policing officers would like to remind road users, parents and members of the public the importance of ensuring children are supervised and kept safe near our roads.

There have been several collisions across Scotland in recent weeks, resulting in a number of children being taken to hospital having sustained serious injuries.

Around 6.45pm on Wednesday, 7 July, 2021, a two-year-old child ran onto the road between parked cars on Woodland Crescent in Cambuslang and was struck by a car. She was taken to Queen Elizabeth University Hospital with serious injuries.

On Tuesday, 29 June, a five-year-old boy was taken to the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh with serious leg injuries after being struck by a car on the A198 towards Tranent High Street.

A four-year-old child sustained serious leg injuries and was taken to Victoria Hospital for treatment after being struck by a car on Broad Street in Cowdenbeath on Monday, 14 June.

On Wednesday, 9 June, a nine-year-old girl was taken to University Hospital Wishaw for treatment after being struck by a car on Hareleeshill Road in Larkhall.

Chief Inspector Mark Patterson, of Police Scotland’s Road Policing Department, said: “Unfortunately there has been a number of collisions involving children recently, which has resulted in serious injuries.

“Children are some of our most vulnerable road users and their safety is paramount, I would ask all parents and guardians to ensure all children are supervised at all times when near the road, and urge motorists to remain vigilant for child pedestrians, especially in built up areas.

“Police Scotland is committed to improving safety on our roads across the country and we continue to work closely with partners on all aspects of road safety.”