Covid-19 & 3rd Sector Update 17/02/2021

• LOCAL & NATIONAL GOVERNMENT

• SERVICE UPDATES

• FUNDING

• TRAINING & LEARNING

• RESEARCH & BLOGS

 

LOCAL & NATIONAL GOVERNMENT 

Scottish Government: The youngest pupils are to return to Scotland's classrooms for face-to-face teaching from next week. The move will see all children in P1 to P3 and those at pre-school returning from Monday 22 February. Other age groups will continue to learn from home, apart from some secondary pupils who need to complete coursework. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said it was unlikely that any other pupils would return to school before 15 March at the earliest. All other existing lockdown measures will all remain in place until at least the end of this month. BBC NEWS  SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT
 

Social Care Payment: This is an update in relation to the £500 payment process for social care staff in the independent and voluntary sector.  Scotland Excel is working with the Scottish Government to administer the payment process for social care staff working for providers registered with the Care Inspectorate in third, voluntary, charitable and private sector. Scottish Government have received a number of queries in relation to eligibility and the payment process and have updated their guidance accordingly. The updated guidance and form can be found on the Scotland Excel website SCOTLAND EXCEL Please refer your providers to this webpage if they have any queries in relation to the £500 payment. The deadline for submissions has been extended until midnight on 28th February. This process is for submissions from eligible independent and voluntary providers registered with the Care Inspectorate only, Scottish Government will confirm separate arrangements for payments to local government staff and for personal assistants.
 

SERVICE UPDATES 

Can Do: offers an annual activity calendar for local children and young people with additional support needs.FLYER

LinkNet: LINKnet Mentoring is the only mentoring organisation in Edinburgh and the Lothians that helps minority ethnic individuals to get jobs, go into further education or to personally develop. More informationLINKNET

People Know How:are currently actively recruiting for two new trustees to join their board. looking for people with a background in either Volunteer/Events Management or Fundraising/Lobbying/Public Affairs. Further details of the vacancies and how to apply are on the Reach platform.REACHVOLUNTEERING

FUNDING

The Revitalising Trusts Project: OSCR and Foundation Scotland have announced a new project which could unlock additional funding for charities and other community and voluntary groups across Scotland. The project aims to identify charitable trusts registered in Scotland that are inactive, and support them to reactivate. ‘Sleepy trusts’ are charities that have either had no income or expenditure over the last 5 years or have donated less than 30% of their total income over the last 5 years. Initial research has identified around 400 of these trusts. The project is expected to launch in April. You can read more about the project on the OSCR website.

The Promise Partnership #KeepThePromise: investment of £4 million from the Scottish Government to deliver change in line with Scotland’s commitment to creating capacity in the ‘care system‘ to #KeepThePromise and provide holistic family support.

Administered by Corra Foundation, funding of up to £50,000 is available to help organisations create capacity, adapt approaches and work towards cultural shifts and collaboration across the ‘care system‘. Changes must reflect what is important to care experienced children, young people and families.

Organisations must have made a public commitment to #KeepThePromise and have identified what they need next, but do not have the financial resources to move things forward.

Applications are now open and close at 12 noon on 1 March 2021. To apply, read the full guidance on the Corra Foundation website and complete the ‘Are You Ready’ checklist to assess your eligibility. CORRA

 

TRAINING & LEARNING

East Lothian Community Lottery - Good Causes launch: A weekly online lottery with the funds raised going to good causes that benefit the local communities in East Lothian.

We invite you to attend the ‘Good Causes’ launch for the East Lothian Community Lottery on 23rd February at 1pm on Zoom with key members of your organisation. You will be able to hear all about the new lottery, how it works and how your organisation can directly benefit from participating.

Register now through Eventbrite and we look forward to seeing you on the day.EVENTBRITE

Delivering Community Food in a Changed Society, Wednesday, 3 March 2021 11:30 - 12:30, online. Social enterprises and community groups rapidly adapted last year, delivering food to vulnerable groups, boosting community food growing and selling healthy food across Scotland. But what happens now as we go forward? What can we be doing differently? What great work has happened over the past year?
At this webinar we'll be joined by Michelle Carruthers, The Food Train, Mary Sinclair, The Community Food Social Enterprise Network (SEN) and Angela Moohan, The Larder Cook School.SOCIAL ENTERPRISE SCOTLAND

ACEs, a Therapeutic Perspective: Thursday, 25th February 4:00-5:30PM, Zoom. This FREE event will be giving an overview of the research into Adverse Childhood Experiences and will explore how we can support those young people in the Midlothian and East Lothian community. This webinar is suitable for a broad range of working contexts and has come from a series of seminars exploring the area of mental health with those who work with children and young people.EVENTBRITE

Tools to improve Health Literacy Bite Size webinar: The NHS course will cover an introduction to health literacy and tools to promote health literacy in practice. Health literacy is as defined by the Scottish government as “People having enough knowledge, understanding, skills and confidence to use health information, to be active partners in their care, and to navigate health and social care systems” (Scottish Government, 2014)”EVENTBRITE

Bookbug Conference:is taking place on Tuesday 23 March. This year, we'll be exploring creative and impactful ways to engage with families during these difficult times, and how we can improve what we offer as we return to normal services. Dr Suzanne Zeedyk, a research scientist studying babies’ innate capacity to connect, will join us as keynote speaker. To find out more, and to book your tickets, please visitBOOKBUG CONFERENCE

RESEARCH & BLOGS 

Coronavirus and Third Sector Survey:Last year the TSI Scotland Network carried out an extensive survey to gather information which helped shaped our responses to Scottish Government and support the sector. We are now inviting local organisations to again take part in a survey in conjunction with Nottingham Trent University and supported by ACOSVO. The survey will take about 5 minutes and you will be entered into a Prize Draw. Please go to the link here to complete.SURVEY

Voluntary Health Scotlandis conducting research to help ensure equitable distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, among all those who need it and would like your help to complete this short survey. We would like to identify who you think the vulnerable demographics are who for a range of reasons may not access the vaccine, even if they are offered it. We would like to identify what those barriers to accessing the vaccine are as well as what can act as an enabler to increase vaccine uptake. We would also like to hear what organisations think about the public facing communication so far regarding the vaccination programme and how this could be improved? We are also interested in hearing about the role of the voluntary and community sector is already playing in supporting the vaccination programme, what more can be done and what resources required. The deadline for completion of the survey is: Friday 19th February. If you have any questions or comments please contact: Kiren.Zubairi@vhscotland.org.uk