Local community councils will have the opportunity to have their say on the draft North West Locality Improvement Plan (LIP) Action Plan later this month. Continue reading Community Councils to have their say on LIP Action Plans
Tag: Edinburgh Partnership
North West Locality: all will become clear!
A little piece of civic history was made last week when the first ever meeting of North West Localities Committee was held in the City Chambers on 9 February. It was at times a complex and complicated meeting but it’s set the council on a course of new ways of working with partners. Continue reading North West Locality: all will become clear!
Community Planning for people and planet sessions
Community Planning for People and Planet – help set the environmental priorities for Edinburgh Locality Improvement Plans.
Four events taking place, one in each locality. See below for more information and how to book your place:
Making Work Pay event – a few tickets left
The Edinburgh Partnership is hosting an event at Tynecastle Stadium next Wednesday (4 February) to promote the Living Wage. Ann Budge, owner of Heart of Midlothian FC, will be keynote speaker at the ‘Making Work Pay’ breakfast event and a few tickets are still available.
Ann Budge will be outline the reasons why Hearts have recently adopted the Living Wage, and other local Living Wage employers including Standard Life, Rabbie’s and Bluebird Care will also share their perspectives.
This is the first event to be hosted under Edinburgh Partnership’s new ‘One City’ Corporate Social Responsibility Framework. The target audience is businesses of all sizes and sectors who operate in Edinburgh.
To register, go to:
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/making-work-pay-a-one-city-edinburgh-event-tickets-15003804784
Suffer the little children: one in five Edinburgh children lives in poverty
‘We can and must do better for our children’
Edinburgh is one of the UK’s most prosperous cities – but more than ONE IN FIVE children in the capital (21%) are living in poverty, according to the latest research.
Report_on_child_poverty_map_2014
The Campaign to End Child Poverty (CECP) has today published new figures that provide a child poverty map of the whole of the UK. The figures are broken down by parliamentary constituency, local authority and ward (see report, above). The research was conducted for CECP by the Centre for Research in Social Policy (CRSP) at Loughborough University.
The figures reveal the wide disparity in poverty rates across the UK, between regions and striking variations even within regions. London scores badly – containing ten of the top 20 constituencies with the highest child poverty rates in the UK and 14 of the 20 highest-rate local authorities. However there is variation even within regions: in London, Bethnal Green and Bow has a child poverty rate of 49% compared to just 15% in Richmond upon Thames.
In Scotland, Glasgow has the highest rate of child poverty, with the problem affecting a third of all youngsters in the city. Across Scotland some 220,000 children are living in poverty — a fifth of all youngsters — and campaigners are convinced this total will rise.
CECP is demanding urgent political action at all levels and urges the Westminster government to rethink its tax and benefit policies, claiming these could leave as many as 100,000 more children in poverty by 2020.
They also want local and national housing policies to focus on keeping rent bills down in both the social housing sector and the private rental market.
Chair of End Child Poverty David Holmes said: “These figures reveal just how widely and deeply child poverty reaches into our communities, even those areas generally regarded as well off. Far too many children whose parents are struggling to make a living are suffering as a result and missing out on the essentials of a decent childhood that all young people should be entitled to. We can and must do better for our children.
“Poverty ruins childhoods and reduces life chances. Failing to invest properly in children is a false economy: already child poverty costs the country £29bn each year and in the long run taxpayers will foot an even higher bill for correcting the damage.
“We are calling on politicians of all parties to urgently set out a clear roadmap towards ending child poverty which includes the additional actions needed and the measures by which progress will be tracked.”
CECP Scotland spokesman Neil Mathers said: “It’s important we look behind these figures at what is driving this level of poverty in our country.
“Politicians of all parties, at Westminster and Holyrood, need to act to tackle the root causes of poverty, including low pay and soaring housing and childcare costs. There is nothing inevitable about this poverty. We must build on the good work that is happening in Scotland to support families.”
He went on: “We know there is ambition in Scotland to do more. We now need to act so that all our children have a fair start. We can and must do better for our children.”
POVERTY AND INEQUALITY IN EDINBURGH
The city’s strategic community planning body The Edinburgh Partnership has created poverty and inequality profiles of each of the city’s twelve Neighbourhood Partnerships.
To see the profiles for Forth and Inverleith Neighbourhood Partnerships click on the link(s) below:
Free customer service training
A joint venture by The Edinburgh Partnership, Joined up for Jobs and Connected will deliver Free Service Training for the Retail Sector at Muirhouse Millennium Centre on Wednesday 12th March, running from 11am – 2.00pm. This will run for one day only, but should be of great advantage to young and older people alike. At the end of the session attendees will be given a proof of attendance certificate.
If you are interested, phone Peter Airlie at Muirhouse Millennium (Community) Centre (0131-467-3578) or Gwen on 0131-557-7913 to book a place.
Have your say on poverty and inequality in North Edinburgh
North Edinburgh residents have an opportunity to have their say on how best to tackle the growing gulf between rich and poor at a session in the City Chambers next week.
The city council is to host a ‘tackling poverty and inequality’ workshop session, specifically for North Edinburgh residents, on Wednesday 3 July from 10am – 12.30pm at the Business Centre, Centre Chambers.
The city council’s Tracy Boxall explained: “This workshop has been organised by the Poverty and Inequality Theme Group, part of the Edinburgh Partnership’s community planning arrangements in the city. The Theme Group currently has four main work streams, one of which is considering actions or interventions to tackle poverty and inequality in the city.
A sub-group of city partners, headed up by Dr Margaret Douglas from NHS Lothian, is progressing the development of a ‘framework’ of actions, with the aim of shaping future work to tackle poverty and inequality. The sub-group is now seeking wider input to the framework’s development. The workshop you have been invited to is part of this process. It will be facilitated by the independent organisation, Poverty Alliance.
Workshop participants (local people and other representatives from Neighbourhood Partnerships) will be asked to work together, firstly by considering the causes of poverty and inequality. The workshop will then explore what actions are needed to address the issues; the extent to which the actions are in place already in the city; their impact; and what more might be done.
The outputs from the workshop will be written up and passed back to the Poverty and Inequality Theme Group, to help inform their future work and that of city partners. The overall findings will also be shared with you as soon as possible.
Prior to the session, a background paper on poverty in the city will be circulated for your information. I hope that you are able to attend to help with this important work.“
Interested? Please RSVP to tracy.boxall@edinburgh.gov.uk
