Covid-19 & 3rd Sector Update 13/08/2021

Training & Events

13 Aug

LOCAL & NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
SERVICE UPDATES
PREMISES & TECHNOLOGY
FORUMS & NETWORKS
FUNDING
TRAINING & LEARNING
RESEARCH & BLOGS

LOCAL & NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

Lateral flow tests: More businesses can now apply for free Covid testing kits under a Scottish government scheme. Organisations with 10 or more employees can sign up for the lateral flow kits. BBC WEBSITE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT

16/17 year olds: 16 and 17 year olds can now visit any drop in clinic that offers the Pfizer vaccine. You can find out more about vaccines for under-18s here: UNDER 18 VACCINE They must attend a clinic that offers the Pfizer vaccine. More information on clinics here: CLINICS

Flu vaccine: More people than ever in Scotland will be offered the free flu vaccine to help protect as many lives as possible this winter. Those people eligible for the free flu vaccine now include: those aged 50 and over; those aged 6 months to 49 years who have certain underlying health conditions which increase risk; pregnant women; children aged 2-5 (not yet at school); health and social care staff; unpaid and young carers; all primary and secondary school age children, (in school setting); independent NHS contractors, (GP, dental and optometry practices, community pharmacists), laboratory staff (working on COVID-19 testing) including support staff; teachers, nursery teachers and support staff in close contact with pupils; prison staff and support staff in close contact with the prison population (delivering direct detention services); those in the prison population. The flu vaccination programme will run from this September until March 2022. All those who are eligible are being urged to take up the offer as soon as possible when invited to protect themselves and others and help the NHS and social care services avoid additional pressure over the winter period. FLU VACCINE

SERVICE UPDATES

Men’s Sheds: the first ever Men’s Shed Toolkit for the UK and Ireland has been produced by Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) and the National Lottery Community Fund. The toolkit was built with help from Men’s Shedders, Shed Associations and Shed support agencies from across the UK and Ireland and is designed to be a one-stop-shop for all of your Shedding needs. The toolkit covers a wide range of topics, including: Acquiring premises; Sourcing funding; Health and Safety; Dealing with paperwork; Governance and communication. The toolkit is designed to support both those starting up new Sheds, and those who are already running Sheds who need advice on how to make their Shed more sustainable. The Toolkit can also be used as a useful resource for Shed support agencies and partners. To access the toolkit please click on the following link: Men’s Shed Toolkit for UK and Ireland

Social Security Scotland – Child Disability Case Transfer - Stakeholder Events: Prior to the Case Transfer process launching for Child Disability Payment, Social Security Scotland will be hosting a series of events to provide stakeholders with information and detail of this process. These events will be hosted via Microsoft Teams.

These events are for stakeholders supporting families with children who are living with a disability or long term health conditions and currently receive Disability Living Allowance for Children from the Department for Work and Pensions.

To book your place, please select the date and time you wish to attend. The link will direct you to Eventbrite to book a place.

Queen Margaret University: QMU is seeking tutors to support delivery of Year 2 of QMU’s Tutoring Initiative – ELTI provides free small group and 1-2-1- tutoring to target senior phase pupils in East and Midlothian. Closing date 16 August. TUTORS

UNCRC training E-Learning – Online Workshop – 17 August 2021, 9:30 – 12:30

This is to support organisations/partnerships to prepare for the implementation of UNCRC. You will have to create a learning account (free). Follow the instructions here.
Once registered, follow these steps:

Go to https://childreninscotland.clcmoodle.org
Log in with the account details you just set up
Click Dashboard on the left column, you will see a list of eLearning available.
Click into Children’s Rights eLearning, one with this logo
Read the info on the Welcome and About us page
When ready to start the module, click on the eLearning tab on the top.
Then click on the link says Read instructions below and then click here to access the Children's Rights eLearning module
Read the instructions and then choose Normal at the bottom of the page, then click Enter
A new window will pop up, and the module will start
Once completed, they can download a certificate (optional) for reference.

WAEML provides information, support and accommodation to women (including trans-women), children and young people who have experienced domestic abuse. If you can commit to upholding the rights of women, children and young people, this may be the job for you. 1 x Women’s Support Workers 35 hours Job Ref: WSW-1

This post attracts a Salary up to £23,310 per annum (pro rota) (Salary scale: £21,559 to £23,310 per annum pro rota) Candidates should have a minimum of 2 years work experience. Membership of the PVG scheme is an essential requirement and you should be qualified to a minimum of SVQ 3 in Health and Social Care. The post is available on a fixed term contract until the June 2022 ADVERT

Healthcare Improvement Scotland - Join our Citizens’ Panel on Health & Social Care: The Citizens’ Panel is a group of people from all over Scotland who are willing to tell us what matters to them about health and social care. Panel members are recruited to be broadly representative of the Scottish population by gender, age, employment status, housing tenure, ethnic origin and geographic location.

In order to ensure diversity within our engagement, we are specifically looking to engage with people between 16-24 years of age, as well as people representing the BAME communities. There are also a number of areas across Scotland that we would like to connect with, one of which is Lothian. For this reason, we would ask that this invitation is only shared with people between 16-24 years of age and/or representing the BAME communities within the Lothian geographical area.

If you would like to be considered for the Panel, please click on the link below and complete your details by Friday 20 August 2021. This will take you to our website that will explain more about the Citizens’ Panel and details on how you can join.

www.hisengage.scot/join-the-panel

Deaf Action: offer support to the d/Deaf community in East Lothian. Deaf Action provide various support those who are Deaf, deaf or hard of hearing. We have a Social Care Team which consists of a Social Worker, Sarah Goulding and two Community Care Assistants, Sophia Cumming and Carole Wallace, who can provide assessments for support services, help with communication, correspondence, accessibility and referrals on to other appropriate services. Examples of things we have supported people with include, getting regular support services in place, helping with housing applications, benefit applications, managing bills and finances, helping with accessing health care, making appointments and helping with correspondence. We also support people to become more digitally connected and we can support you to get and learn to use an iPad. Deaf Action also provide equipment for free too, this includes things like flashing doorbells and smoke alarms, loop systems and baby monitors.

If you would like to get in touch with us please do so by emailing us on socialcare@deafaction.org or call on 0131 556 3128 or text us on 07966 562433. We are also on whatsapp so if it’s easier to send us a video in BSL please feel free to do that. Video: https://www.deafaction.org/services/social-care/#BSLVidSocialCare

Member of the RCGP Scottish Patient Forum Recruitment: As a member of our Scottish Patient Forum, you will help to ensure that the patient voice is woven through the work of RCGP Scotland. From feeding into policy consultation responses, to assisting with the development of campaigns and College communications; members of the RCGP Scotland Patient Forum will play a key role in helping to shape the work of the College in Scotland. The Patient Forum will operate as a virtual advisory group via Microsoft Teams. Ad hoc meetings and workshops will be convened, with members of the Patient Forum provided with advanced notice of these meetings. Reasonable adjustments will be made to ensure that those without digital access can contribute to the work of the Patient Forum. This is a voluntary post for 3 years. Closing date 23 August. ADVERT

PREMISES & TECHNOLOGY

2021 SURF Awards for Best Practice in Community Regeneration are open. This year's five thematic categories include; Supporting Youth Employabilitysponsored bySkills Development Scotland, Creative Regeneration sponsored by Creative Scotland, Community Led Regeneration sponsored by Highlands and Island Enterprise, Scotland's Most Improved Place sponsored by Scotland's Towns Partnership and Architecture & Design Scotland and finally Housing and Regeneration sponsored by the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations (SFHA).The closing date for applications is5pm on Monday 6th September. Materials and further informationon how to apply can be foundHERE

FORUMS & NETWORKS

Network & Learn Meetings

Mental Health & Substance Misuse: Tue 24th Aug 21 3-4pm Register
Volunteering, Workforce Training and Development: Thu 19th Aug 4-5pm Register
Criminal Justice: Mon 30th Aug 21 3-4pm Register
Families & Young People: Tue 7th Sep 21 3-4pm Register
Environment & Development: Thu 16th Sep 21 2-3pm Register
Culture & Leisure: Tue 21st Sep 21 3-4pm Register
Social Enterprise: Thu 30th Sep 21 3-4pm Register

Forums

Children, Young People & Families Forum: 24th Aug 21 10-12pm Request Membership
Third Sector Forum: Thu 2nd Sep 21 2-3pm Register
Criminal Justice Forum: 13th Sep (3-4pm or 2-4pm) Register
Health & Social Care Forum: 23rd Sep (Sep (4-5 or 3-5pm) Register

FUNDING

The Herald & GenAnalytics Diversity Awards 2021 are now open and the entry deadline is Thursday, August 26. Entries to this year’s awards are free and you can complete your entry on the webpage which has all the details of the categories and their descriptors as well as information on how to enter DIVERSITY AWARDS

Barclays: As the impact of the pandemic continues to be felt, Barclays will be making a further 50 donations of £100,000 each to UK charities working to support vulnerable people and communities impacted by COVID-19, and to alleviate the associated social and economic hardship caused by the crisis. UK charities, with an annual income of at least £1m, are invited to apply to receive a donation of £100,000 to meet the needs of our communities as they emerge from the pandemic, including:
•            help for people experiencing physical and mental health issues;
•            financial assistance for people facing financial hardship;
•            support for ethnically diverse communities disproportionately impacted by the crisis; and
•            enhancing digital accessibility.   BARCLAYS

Tesco is keen to support local projects that address issues around food insecurity and I wonder if you or your colleagues in the regional areas would be able to let local groups know about this opportunity and encourage them to apply. Ideally it would be good if they can apply by the end of July/beginning of August if they want to be considered for this round of in store voting. There are a lot of stores across Scotland that have not had any applications for the fund. The quarterly customer in store voting rounds for each store area will aim to have one each of the following types of project
•          1 x Children & Families
•          1 x Food insecurity
•          1 x Tesco local store nomination

Customers will be able to choose from 3 shortlisted projects. The project selected 1st will get £1500; 2nd £1000 and 3rd £500. If groups have received Tesco funding previously, they will need to ensure that they have submitted a completion report for your project before applying.  TESCO

TRAINING & LEARNING

Child protection for all: an introduction and refresher Upcoming online training: Thursday, 2 September 2021, 10am-1.30pm. This training is suitable for everyone who works with children, whether you work directly with children or indirectly in an administrative role.

This half-day training will provide you with an overview of what child protection is, what an individual and organisation's roles and responsibilities are, and what steps to take should you feel a child is in danger. Book here

Dementia Awareness: Age Scotland has a range of free training courses on dementia awareness on its website: DEMENTIA AWARNESS TRAINING Their new Dementia awareness self-study course launches on the 16th of August. You can book your place now and login details will be sent to you on the 16th of August. For more details of this new course format please contact the training team at dementiatraining@agescotland.org.uk. Their first ever national learning event will take place on the 13th of September, with lots of speakers and workshops on the four themes: Enabling outdoor spaces and activities; Empowering carers; Taking the lead from people living with dementia; Intergenerational approaches to dementia inclusion. Participants can attend for all or part of the day. You can find out more and book your place here.

Social Enterprise Scotland has a range of free training events for social enterprises: SES EVENTS

RESEARCH & BLOGS

Carbon Footprint: Zero Waste Scotland has a quiz on its blog to help you calculate your business's carbon footprint CARBON FOOTPRINT

Heatwaves: The UK is getting hotter. As a result of climate change, heatwaves are becoming longer and more extreme, and many people’s health and wellbeing are suffering as a result. The Red Cross report, Feeling the Heat, summarises trends, consequences and solutions relating to extreme heat in the UK. The research draws on existing literature, expert interviews, and the results of a new survey of 2,000 UK adults exploring public awareness of heatwaves in the UK. HEATWAVES

Gordon Scott