Welcome to All things Scotland
As we celebrate Scotland’s 5th year of councillor awards, this week LGIU Scotland team has a range of briefings and reports to keep the local government and public sector as up to date as possible in these ever changing times.
Monday was World Mental Health Day. Recognised every year on October 10th by the World Health Organisation, this year’s theme was “making mental health for all a reality”. To check out what local authorities can do to support their workforces mental health support, make sure to check out this briefing from the LGIU of local authority examples of community and workforce mental health support.
Lightening the load: mental health support for local government workers.
Councillor Awards 2022
We are proud to announce that the winners of the 2022 LGIU Scotland & CCLA Cllr Awards were unveiled Wednesday night at a ceremony held in Dundee’s stunning Caird Hall with hosts Dundee City Council. The ceremony was also streamed live on YouTube.
We were delighted to be joined by several speakers and presenters including Cllr Bill Campbell (Lord Provost of Dundee), Cllr Steven Heddle (COSLA Vice President), Ben Macpherson MSP (Minister for Social Security and Local Government), Cllr Jackie McCamon (Dumfries & Galloway Council), Bailie Willie Sawers (Dundee City Council), Cllr Euan Jardine (Leader, Scottish Borders Council), Cllr John Alexander (Leader, Dundee City Council) and Heather Lamont (Director, Client Investments, CCLA).
Discover the winners or watch the ceremony back.
Reports and updates
- Lightening the load: mental health support for local government workers. This briefing highlights local authority examples of community and workforce mental health support and will be of interest to everyone working in local government and public services.
- Scottish policy round-up October 2022. Covering August and September 2022, this latest policy round-up includes an informative summary of key documents that impact local government in Scotland.
- Devolution update October 2022: Is there a Johnson legacy? This briefing considers whether there will be continuity or radical change as the Truss administration begins – and what the priorities and responses might include for local authorities and their partners.
- Community Wealth Building meets Community Economy: scaling-up local collaborative action that delivers. Building on previous LGIU briefings on Community Wealth Building, this briefing offers practical and aspirational examples to support cross-sector action.
- Working at home or in the office? The growth of hybrid working in local government This briefing looks at home and hybrid working, exploring how it has evolved over the past two years and includes examples from local authorities who have risen to the challenge.
- Leading out loud – Local climate leadership. This briefing identifies some of the challenges around leading and delivering local climate action through effective leadership case studies, outlines how strong local leadership can help deliver infrastructure projects and service changes that contribute to reducing carbon emissions.
This week in Holyrood…
The Scottish Parliament Information Centre published a briefing on the National Care Service Bill. The National Care Service bill was introduced in June 2022 and this report provides an overview of the legislation’s four parts, background, issues, implications for local government and areas for scrutiny.
The Scottish Parliament Information Centre also brought us a Labour Market Update for October 2022 with a Scottish and UK focus on labour market trends with data from the Office of National Statistics.
Finally, the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee published a report evaluating the 2015 Community Empowerment Act. Check out the report here.
To find out more about Scottish local government, check out the LGIU Scottish Councils facts and figures.
On a lighter note…
Commencing the countdown to Christmas, this week we saw the confirmation of Edinburgh’s plan for the Christmas market. Filling the void left by previous contractors withdrawing, a new partnership between Assembly Festival and Unique Events means Edinburgh’s Christmas market is now set to run from 18th November to the 3rd January.
Coming up…
Next week’s briefings will include the most up to date Housing and Planning round up and you can also hear from Duncan Dunlop about his personal experience of delivering services for our most vulnerable children, an important policy topic in light of Scottish Government plan for a National Care Service.
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