Welcome to All things Scotland
As the rest of the LGIU team geared up for England & Wales 13th year of Councillor awards in Bath, this week the LGIU Scotland team brings you 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.
On Monday, we saw the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. Spearheaded by the United Nations, this year saw the 30th anniversary for the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty, with the theme centring on Dignity for All in Practice. To understanding how local government’s can tackle poverty in Scotland, make sure to check out these two LGIU Scotland briefings on child and fuel poverty.
- Swift read: Tackling fuel poverty in Scotland. This swift read will be of interest throughout local government, especially for officers and members with responsibility for housing, health and welfare.
- Child poverty and low-income families. This briefing sets out the situation in Scotland and explores some of the ways that local authorities are tackling the pressing issues surrounding child poverty.
Scottish leaders forum 2022
Last week, we saw the first in-person Scottish leaders forum since 2019. Over 120 members gathered for the 2022 Scottish Leaders forum (SLF) in Tulliallan, a collaborative forum where Scotland’s senior leaders come together to discuss individual and collective action in pursuit of Scotland’s national purpose.
You can find an overview of the highlights and programme here.
Reports and updates
This week, Sustrans Scotland released a report providing insight on the extent to which the Scottish government’s active travel programme, Spaces for People achieved its overall aims. With 30 local authorities involved, this report evaluated the 1300 projects we saw over the last two years. Read more here.
The Scottish Association for Mental Health’s Still Forgotten report showed how two years into the pandemic, the majority of mental health support in Scotland is still being carried out remotely. The final of three reports considering the long-term impact of Covid on people with existing mental problems, make sure to read the full report here.
From Creative Carbon Scotland we saw a new report exploring the roles of arts and culture around COP26. The report explores why COP’s provide a special context for arts and culture to work in, provides detailed case studies of some representative projects, and offers tips and advice. Read the full report here.
Finally, this week we saw the Scottish Government provide the latest statistical release on Scotland-level data and information on people displaced by the war in Ukraine arriving through Sponsor Schemes. At LGIU Scotland we would like to congratulate the stellar work of all the Scottish local authorities involved in the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme.
From the LGIU
Whilst the Scottish Parliament remains in recess, the LGIU has been busy preparing a bundle of briefings to keep Scottish local government up to today for its return on October 24th.
- Moving the reform of children’s social care from rhetoric to action. This briefing sets out the current context and challenges while highlighting a range of innovative solutions that local authorities could prioritise. It will be of interest to everyone working the social work and education services.
- Housing and planning round-up October 2022. The latest round-up of housing and planning news in the UK includes, as usual, government announcements, statistics, major reports and ongoing consultations.
- 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.
On a lighter note…
This week Argyll and Bute celebrated Dunoon Grammar being named the World’s Best School for community collaboration. With Academy Award winning actress Emma Thompson and actor and producer Greg Wise congratulating Dunoon Grammar School in Scotland, you can read more about Dunoon’s success from Argyll and Bute Council.
Coming up…
Keep your eyes peeled next week for the LGIU Global Local Newsletter which covers ‘Local Government – addressing the knowing doing gap…COP 26 one year on. Also for next week, we have the most up to date Holyrood round-up and you can also find out more on how Council’s are responding to the Cost of Living crisis, the key focus as we head into winter.
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