To help keep pupils engaged with food education during lockdown, Food and Drink Federation (FDF) Scotland challenged young people across Scotland to design an innovative street food dish that they and their families would love.
Tag: NEN
UK’s internet use surges to record levels
Adults in the UK are now spending more than a quarter of their waking day online with services such as TikTok and Zoom seeing unprecedented growth, according to Ofcom’s latest study into the nation’s online lives.
Ofcom’s annual Online Nation report shows that in April 2020, during the height of the coronavirus lockdown, UK adults spent a daily average of four hours and two minutes online. This is up from just under three and a half hours in September last year.
With people looking for new ways to keep connected, informed, entertained and fit during the pandemic, video-sharing and video-calling services are surging in popularity.
TikTok, which allows users to create and share short dance, lip-sync, comedy and talent videos, reached 12.9 million UK adult visitors in April, up from just 5.4 million in January. Twitch, the popular live streaming platform for video gamers, saw visitors increase from 2.3 million to 4.2 million adults.
The proportion of people making video calls has also doubled during lockdown, with more than seven in 10 doing so at least weekly. Houseparty, the app which combines group video-calls with games and quizzes, grew from 175,000 adult visitors in January to 4 million in April. But the biggest growth was seen by Zoom, the virtual meeting platform, which grew from 659,000 users to reach 13 million users over the same period – a rise of almost 2,000%.
A nation of content creators
Sites and apps such as YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok, which allow people to create, upload and share videos online, have never been so popular.
Our report reveals that nine in 10 adults, and almost all older children aged 8-15, with access to the internet used at least one of these in the last year, with many doing so several times a day. One third (32%) of online adults now spend more time viewing video-sharing services than broadcast television.
And we’re not only watching but creating and broadcasting our own content too. Two in five adults (40%) and 59% of older children who use video-sharing sites and apps now create and upload their own videos, driving an explosion in short-form, user-generated content.
Vlogging is also a money-making enterprise, with 17% of adults who create and upload videos receiving revenue or gifts in return. With some vloggers going on to achieve global celebrity status, the proportion of children under 13 who aspire to become a ‘YouTuber’ had increased by 19% by the end of 2019 compared to 2018. Boys in particular are more likely to consider it as a career.
How the pandemic is changing communications
Our study shows that, before the pandemic, many people were moving away from more established forms of communication – particularly landline calls and SMS text messages – and adopting newer methods.
In the 12 months to February 2020, more people were sending daily text messages using online messaging platforms (52%), such as WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, than using SMS (41%) or email (26%). Daily use of online voice calls (31%) was only slightly lower than mobile calls (38%).
The pandemic appears to have sped up the adoption of online services to keep in touch. More than seven in 10 people in the UK are now making video calls at least weekly, up from 35% pre-lockdown. This trend is particularly noticeable among older internet users; the proportion of online adults aged 65+ who make a least one video-call each week increased from 22% in February 2020 to 61% by May 2020.
Confident but cautious
For many adults and children, watching or creating content on video-sharing sites or apps is a positive experience. But 87% of adults – and 79% of 8 to 15 year olds – have concerns around children using these platforms. Bullying or trolling, harmful or age-inappropriate content and receiving private messages from strangers are among the top concerns.
Adults’ trust in sites to remove illegal, offensive and harmful material has grown by seven percentage points since last year, to 54%. Nevertheless, most adults (57%) continue to support greater regulation of video-sharing platforms (64% in 2019).
Ofcom is preparing to take on new duties for the regulation of UK-based video-sharing platforms. This summer, we will be publishing a call for evidence to inform our guidance on how platforms should protect users from harmful content.
Yih-Choung Teh, Ofcom’s Director of Strategy and Research, said: “Lockdown may leave a lasting digital legacy. The coronavirus has radically changed the way we live, work and communicate online, with millions of people using online video services for the first time.
“As the way we communicate evolves and people broaden their online horizons, our role is to help ensure that people have a positive experience, and that they’re safe and protected.”
Concerns over playpark openings
Jon Dalton, Board Member of the The Register of Play Inspectors International (RPII), said: “While we are pleased that the Scottish Government have announced the date for the re-opening of outdoor playgrounds in Scotland on Monday (29th June), we are aware that some owners and operators of playground facilities have halted safety inspections of playgrounds altogether during the lockdown period.
“The Register of Play Inspectors International (RPII) is calling for all playground owners in Scotland to make sure they have carried out an in-depth inspection prior to the re-opening of any facility and ensure that all inspection schedules are brought fully up to date.
“The RPII is expecting playgrounds to be very heavily used during the Scottish summer holidays and the eagerness of the public to start using them again, so it is vital that playgrounds are thoroughly inspected to ensure a satisfactory level of safety is in place.
“Owners and operators of playground facilities also have a responsibility to open playgrounds safely and remove any temporary barriers that may have been put up during lockdown which may also be hazardous.”
The RPII is providing the following guidance for families that plan to visit a playground safely:
1. If the playground facility you visit has not yet officially been opened, please do not attempt to use, or access the equipment or area.
2. Do not remove any temporary barriers to the playground or plastic fencing or unravel any swing seats or cables that may have been secured to put them out of use – this must be done safely by the owner or operator of the facility.
3. Follow the current social distance guidelines when visiting and encourage your children to do the same.
4. If the playground is busy, consider coming back at a later time. Talk to your children about this possibility before visiting.
5. Wash your and your children’s hands before and after visiting. Take hand sanitiser with you and consider taking a bottle of water for if your children’s hands get covered in mud. Ensure your children are using hand sanitiser frequently.
6. Follow and adhere to all current government advice in addition to the above guidance.
Keep Scotland Beautiful launches new online summer education programme
Environmental charity, Keep Scotland Beautiful, launches new online summer education programme.
Ten brand new interactive online learning courses will be available for young people across Scotland during the month of July. These exciting new online learning programmes have been developed to provide a fun and enjoyable way for young people to continue their environmental learning during the summer holidays.
The courses cover a range of topics and environmental activities which encourage young people and families to explore the world around them and to think how to protect and improve the places they love. Included are courses on Eco-Schools, heritage, food and the environment and climate change, as well as other environmental topics.
Each course consists of a combination of online learning and practical, fun activities, and all those who complete a course will be rewarded with a certificate of involvement.
Registration is now open for each course and the full list, more information and details about how to take part, can be found at: https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/learning
Daniel Barrie, Education and Learning Manager, said: “Following the huge demand for our online environmental education programme during lockdown from both educators and young people, we have developed a series of exciting and interactive courses for children to take part in during the summer holidays.
“These courses will provide a fun and engaging way for young people and their families to explore some important environmental issues, such as climate change and sustainable food, and the work completed can contribute towards their school’s next Eco-Schools Green Flag award. We have something exciting available for all ages – from nursery through to S6.”
As well as the online summer courses, Keep Scotland Beautiful will also be providing environmental education support to educators once blended learning begins in August. This will build on the existing partnership with E-Sgoil and will include a range of online learning activities for pupils coupled with professional learning for staff.
STV Children’s Appeal: Over £1.5m allocated to charities as emergency campaign moves to next phase
More funding for councils
Almost £258 million of additional funding for vital local services, such as food provision for those in need, education and social care, has been approved by the Scottish Parliament.
The provision of a further £72 million is being agreed with COSLA and will be subject to Parliamentary approval in due course. This will bring the total additional funding provided to help Scotland’s local authorities combat coronavirus (COVID-19) to almost £330 million.
This extra funding is on top of the local government finance settlement of £11.4 billion, which already provided an increase of £589.4 million (5.8%) compared to the previous year.
To prevent local authorities experiencing cash flow problems the Scottish Government is providing £455 million in weekly advanced payments to councils until Parliamentary approval is secured. Councils received an additional £150 million in May, £255 million in June, and will receive £50 million in July.
Public Finance Minister Ben Macpherson said: “We have taken exceptional measures in every area of government as we deal with the challenges of COVID-19 – and that is particularly clear in our support for local services.
“To date, Scotland’s councils have received £405 million in advanced payments this financial year, and by the end of July this will have risen to £455 million.
“The Scottish Government has also relaxed current guidance on some of the education grants to allow additional resource to be diverted to the COVID-19 response.
“We will continue to work with COSLA and local authorities, as well as pressing the UK Government for urgent additional funding and flexibility for our partners in local government.”
Salt water solution to reduce coronavirus progression?
A simple salt water solution may help to reduce the early symptoms and progression of Covid-19, University of Edinburgh research suggests.
This new study builds on a trial, published in 2019, designed to identify a low cost and easily accessible intervention against the common cold.
It found that participants who gargled and cleared their nose with a salt water solution reported fewer coughs and less congestion. Gargling also cut the length of their cold by almost two days.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh say the sea salt may work by boosting cells’ antiviral defence that kicks in when they are affected by a cold.
The team has re-examined the data and discovered the same benefits were also experienced by those participants who were infected with one of the four common coronaviruses known to cause colds.
Researchers now aim to investigate whether the same solution will benefit those who are experiencing symptoms of the new strain of coronavirus, which causes Covid-19.
The study is recruiting adults in Scotland with Covid-19 symptoms or a confirmed case of Covid-19. Those who join the trial will be asked to follow government advice on hygiene and self-isolation, with one group asked to gargle and clear their nose with salt water.
The study is funded by BREATHE – the Health Data Research Hub for Respiratory Health.
The original pilot study – known as the Edinburgh and Lothians Viral Intervention Study, or ELVIS – recruited healthy adults within two days of them contracting an upper respiratory tract infection – commonly known as a cold.
The participants were divided into two groups with one group asked to gargle and rinse their nasal passages with a salt solution as they felt necessary. The other group dealt with the cold the way they normally would do.
All participants kept a diary of their symptoms for up to two weeks. Self-collected swabs were also tested to measure the amount of cold virus in their nose.
Those who did nasal irrigation and gargling with the salty solution had a shorter cold, were less likely to pass it on to their family, had faster viral clearance and were less likely to use medicines from a pharmacy.
Professor Aziz Sheikh, Director of the University’s Usher Institute, said: “We are now moving to trial our salt water intervention in those with suspected or confirmed Covid-19, and hope it will prove to be a useful measure to reduce the impact and spread of the infection.
“It only requires salt, water and some understanding of procedure, so should, if found to be effective, be easy – and inexpensive – to implement widely.”
To find out more about the study and to take part, please go to https://www.ed.ac.uk/usher/elvis-covid-19.
New knife crime campaign on Tik Tok
Young people have a new and unusual TikTok challenge to get their teeth into during lockdown.
The #NoKnivesChallenge encourages young people to take their breakfast routine to a whole new level. The challenge is to butter a slice of toast with anything but a knife.
The No Knives Better Lives (NKBL) campaign is all about getting people to think about knife carrying, we may be in lockdown but the issue of knife crime has not gone away.
NKBL exists to reduce the incidence of knife carrying amongst young people by raising awareness of the potentially devastating risks and consequences associated with carrying a knife and promoting positive life choices. NKBL is a primary prevention, national initiative that is delivered at a local level across Scotland.
The TikTok ‘Butter your Toast’ challenge will run for a month and will be hosted on the YouthLink Scotland TikTok account (@YouthLinkScotland). Young people who create a #NoKnivesChallenge video will be in with a chance of winning a £50 Amazon voucher.
Emily Beever, National Co-ordinator for NKBL at YouthLink Scotland said: “Knife crime has significantly reduced in Scotland since 2009 but it is still crucial to talk to young people about knife carrying.
“Peer influence plays a significant role in preventing knife crime. The #NoKnivesChallenge uses humour to encourage young people to have a conversation with their friends and say, ‘Carrying a knife isn’t ok. Ever!’ We are excited to see the weird and wacky things young people are going to butter their toast with.”
Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “We have seen knife crime in Scotland fall drastically over the last decade and No Knives Better Lives has played a crucial role in this.
“We know however that there is still much more we can all do to reduce this further. The #NoKnivesChallenge will encourage young people from all over Scotland to highlight and talk about the consequences of carrying knife.
“I am looking forward to seeing what creative ideas everyone comes up with during this challenge.”
Young People and Knife Crime in Scotland
At its inception in 2009, No Knives, Better Lives was a response to the very high incidence of knife crime in Scotland and the corresponding high numbers of young people charged with handling an offensive weapon. This position has changed dramatically over the last decade.
Between 2008-09 and 2018-19, the number of violent crimes recorded by the police in Scotland has nearly halved (falling by 48%), while recorded crimes of handling an offensive weapon (where not used to commit another offence) have fallen by 53%.
The number of young people, under the age of 18, convicted of handling an offensive weapon has fallen by 83% (from 456 in 2008-09 to 80 in 2018-19).
The Scottish Crime and Justice Survey also shows a 48% fall between 2008-9 and 2018-19 in Violent Crime experienced by adults in Scotland, and that 11% of adults thought that people carrying knives was common in their area in 2018-19, down from 22% in 2009-10.
The general trend has been a large reduction in violent crime and weapons possession over the last decade. No Knives Better Lives attracted a lot of positive publicity for playing its part in helping to make Scotland a safer place for young people.
Over the ten-year period from 2008-09 to 2018-19, the number of crimes of handling an offensive weapon (where not used to commit another offence) recorded by the police in Glasgow City decreased by 65%.
About NKBL
No Knives, Better Lives (NKBL) is a national programme designed to deter young people from using and carrying a knife. It is a youth-work focused initiative supported by Scottish Government delivered by YouthLink Scotland in collaboration with local partners.
The aim of the initiative is to reduce the incidence of knife carrying amongst young people by raising awareness of the potentially devastating risks and consequences associated with carrying a knife and promoting positive life choices. NKBL is a primary prevention, national initiative that is delivered at a local level.
Since 2014 all Local Authorities have been able to access support from NKBL.
NKBL – How does it work?
There are two main strands to our prevention work with young people:
- Working with partners in individual local authority areas in Scotland to support a strategic capacity building approach to prevention and to reach and train 100s of practitioners every year, who in turn deliver prevention work with tens of thousands of young people every year.
- Communicating prevention messages to young people through social media and innovative engagement programmes
Port of Leith allocates vital funding to tackle COVID
Charities and community organisations with practical solutions to tackle the urgent social and economic effects of the COVID crisis in Leith and north Edinburgh have shared additional financial support worth £150,000, Port of Leith Housing Association (PoLHA) has announced.
PoLHA was selected by the Scottish Government to act as a community anchor organisation to identify and support 11 local organisations delivering COVID responses to receive much-needed funding from the national Supporting Communities Fund within a short timescale.
With a remit to fast track flexible access to funding where it is needed most, the programme built on the success of PoLHA’s COVID Response Fund, which distributed awards totalling £50,000 during April and May for community-led interventions ranging from emergency food provision for isolated or vulnerable people to boosting access to vital online services and education during lock down.
PoLHA Group Chief Executive, Heather Kiteley, said: “I am delighted that PoLHA has been able to collaborate with the Scottish Government to administer the Supporting Communities Fund locally here in Leith and north Edinburgh.
“Demand for support from organisations has been very high, reflecting the significant levels of need that exist, particularly among vulnerable people in the local area.
“It has been inspiring to see how organisations have been able to create imaginative and impactful responses to the difficult circumstances presented by the coronavirus crisis. They have shown they can adapt quickly to new ways of working, often in very challenging circumstances, and it’s great that additional funding has been made available for them to keep on making a difference.”
Eleven organisations and projects have been awarded a shared of the £150k funding. These include:
The Edinburgh Remakery which will refurbish 100 computers for distribution to households in Leith and north Edinburgh. The computers will come with prepaid dongles to support ongoing access to the internet. Households will be identified via a network of local organisations.
Out of the BluePrint which will make design and print services available to local community organisations to promote services on offer to those not on the internet or who might be in difficulty for the first time and unsure how to access support.
Edinburgh Community Food, already offering a significant number of free or subsidised food parcels, will be able to better cater for BAME families by offering 50 BAME families free appropriate food parcels. The families will be identified via a network of local organisations.
Other organisations to have received funding include Building Bridges, Citadel Youth Centre, Dr Bells Family Centre, Edinburgh Volunteer Centre, MultiCultural Family Base, Pilmeny Development Project, The Ripple Project and YMCA Edinburgh.
Out of the Blueprint Project Manager Johnny Gailey welcomed the funding, saying: “The community eco-print service is a really timely driver for the Out of the Blueprint studio to reopen, providing our social enterprise with print jobs and income.
“But more importantly, we hope that through the service, over 120 local projects will be able to get the message out about the local recovery services they are offering to support the most vulnerable in our society over the summer.”
Mike Kerracher, Manager at YMCA Edinburgh added: “Since lockdown began we have seen a continued increase over the impact of restrictions on the many isolated women and vulnerable children who engage in our services.
“Funding will allow us to further expand our provision to give those we connect with meaningful, regular contact and support through 1:1 sessions and online groups, as well providing essential items and resources to manage mental health.”
PoLHA expects to be able to distribute further funds to local organisations that are delivering COVID response services to households in Leith and north Edinburgh during the months ahead.
Utilities unite to help vulnerable customers
People who need extra help during a water, electricity or gas emergency will benefit from a new partnership approach by 12 utility companies.
They have created a joint video to promote the Priority Services Register, a service that all utilities provide for people needing extra support for a variety of reasons.
The companies involved – Affinity Water, Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, Essex and Suffolk Water, SES Water, SGN, South East Water, Southern Water, Thames Water, UK Power Networks, Cadent Gas and Cambridge Water – are all members of the Utility Networks Partnership and are already working closely together to help customers living in vulnerable circumstances.
Pamela Goee, Head of Community, SGN said: “Keeping our customers safe and warm is of the utmost importance to us.
“That’s why across the utility sector we have come together to make the Priority Services Register even easier to use, giving our customers extra support when they need it most. It’s completely free of charge and it’s simple to sign up.”
Kerry Potter, UK Power Networks’ Consumer Vulnerability Manager, who chairs the Utility Networks Partnership, said: “It’s fantastic to work as a team to create a new video promoting the Priority Services Register which is making it easier for eligible people to get support. When 12 utility companies share a consistent message, we can help far more people.
“Collaboration is key to tackling vulnerability and our utility networks group work together to provide consistent services for vulnerable customers in the regions we serve.”
Thirty-five charity partners have helped develop the video to increase awareness about the free help available from utilities in the event of a gas, water or electricity outage.
The Priority Services Register is available to customers who:
- Rely on medical equipment
- Have refrigerated medicines
- Are living with a serious or chronic illness
- Have a disability or have communication needs
- Are living with dementia
- Are of pensionable age
- Have children under five in the home
- Need extra support for a short time due to life changing events like bereavement.
Customers are being encouraged to register now to make sure that, in the event of an unexpected emergency, they can benefit from free services from their utilities, such as providing tailored support like alternative cooking facilities, hot meals or bottled water.
To find out more or register, please call our Careline on 0800 975 1818 or send an email to customer@sgn.co.uk