Harlaw Monday Group

Was delighted to accept an invite to visit the Harlaw Monday Group yesterday, who are based at the old Dean Park clinic, next to the primary school in Balerno. They support 8 older people who have Dementia or Cognitive Impairment from the local area. Providing lunch and social activities for a few hours each Monday this group gives some vulnerable people much needed social interaction and stimulation while at the same time giving carers a well deserved break which they can enjoy knowing that their loved ones are safe, secure, and going from what I witnessed, having great fun with each other. A very valuable and well run service and all delivered on a very modest Council grant which funds one member of staff with other support coming from volunteers. There are dozens of similar groups performing similar minor miracles throughout the city and they do a fantastic job.

Black Dog Campaign Launch

Angus looks out over Edinburgh

Was delighted to accept an invite today from national mental health charity SANE and Ryden Property Consultants to the launch in Edinburgh of SANE’s initiative to combat the stigma surrounding mental ill-health, and to encourage people to seek help. The Black Dog Campaign is a pioneering programme to raise awareness of depression, anxiety, stress and other mental health conditions.

 

Having confessed my ignorance to the origins it was explained to me that Winston Churchill suffered from depression and referred to it as his "Black Dog", hence the campaign which has been supported by many celebs including Stephen Fry and Joanna Lumley. There are currently 10 other Black Dogs in England but Angus, above, is the first to visit Scotland and can be seen at different locations around Edinburgh in the next few months. It was also a pleasure to meet Marjorie Wallace CBE, SANE’s Founder and Chief Executive and David Fraser partner at Ryden and his colleagues who have done a fantastic job of fundraising to make Angus's arrival a reality. I wish the campaign every success and hope we can do as much as possible to promote it.

Balerno Fairtrade Recognition

Donald Wilson at yesterday's event

Edinburgh's Lord Provost, Donald Wilson paid a very welcome visit to Balerno yesterday. After a wander round the monthly Farmers Market, in which he showed a great deal of interest, we dropped into Balerno church's Mill Cafe for a coffee and couple of photos then on to the main event, which was the presentation by the Lord Provost of the certificate from the Fairtrade Foundation confirming Balerno's newly acquired status as a Fairtrade Village. Its taken a long time and a great deal of work from the local Fairtrade groups in the community to achieve this recognition and congratulations are due to everyone involved. The local schools too are Fairtrade conscious with Dean Park Primary having also achieved success as a Fairtrade School as well as supporting the wider community project.

Super Ska Sunday

Had a brilliant time last Sunday at the Citrus Club in Grindlay Street. The first Sunday of each month Edinburgh Ska giants Big Fat Panda invite other Ska chums to support them in a tea time stomp (from 5pm, entry only £5) and last week was a bumper treat of 3 bands, Edinburgh's Sea Bass Kid, followed by Esperanza from Glasgow and rounded off by Andy and the boys. A fantastic 4 hour Ska-fest to satisfy the needs of Ska addicts anywhere. This weekend Big Fat Panda and Esperanza have made the long trek to Dorset to participate in the latest "Specialized" project which supports the Teenage Cancer Trust. Various Ska artists perform live and have also recorded a couple of albums of classic Ska cover versions. You can buy the downloads on the Specialized website on this link. A worthy cause and pretty good value for the equivalent of 2 or 3 cd's worth of music.

Neighbourhood Watch & Derby Success

....talking of Police, I attended the AGM of Currie East Neighbourhood Watch the other night at the Gibson Craig Hall. A seriously impressive turn out of around 30 people duly ratified the accounts, constitutional changes and then elected their office bearers for the year ahead. It's good to see such interest in community activity (I suspect the glass of wine at the end may have boosted the attendance!) and this particular group, although Neighbourhood Watch and community safety are their primary purpose and concern, they also take an interest in the wider community and this is to be welcomed. Thankfully Currie East is not a high crime area but this can partly be attributable to the work of these volunteers maintaining the vital communication links locally to ensure that people take all the relevant measures to keep themselves safe. I look forward to working with them and providing whatever support may be required.

Meanwhile....., last night I headed for Easter Road more out of a sense of duty than any optimism or expectation. After 20 minutes we could have been 4-0 down and thoughts were turning to a possible return to the pub to dull the pain. However, Hearts didn't concede, held on, and clawed their way back in to the game. Ryan Stevenson scored and Hibs never looked like the same side after that. A famous 1-0 victory takes us to the semi finals and, more importantly, a confidence boost for the league games ahead.

'ello, 'ello, 'ello...

A sign of things to come ?

The consultation on Police station public counter closures finishes later this week. Balerno, currently open 9-5, Monday - Friday, is one of those proposed for closure. I've picked up some concern from the local community who, although they agree they may not pop in to the local cop shop on a regular basis, believe its closure will add to the feeling of public services being reduced or withdrawn. Since the creation of Police Scotland there's been a bit of debate about how local priorities are set and delivered under the new force. There is a perception in some quarters that the centralisation has seen a diminution in community Policing and an imposition of Scottish wide Police policies. We've received reassurances that this isn't the case and that local priorities will prevail. I've also received reassurances that there are (currently) no plans to completely close Balerno Police Station. I await the outcome of the consultation and further developments with interest.

The Revolution will be Improvised

"Old" Craigmillar

Had a very interesting visit to the new East Neighbourhood Centre office in Craigmillar this morning. A beautiful new building, it provides a base for around 400 staff from various public sector agencies including the Council, NHS, Police, Fire and Rescue, the voluntary sector and community groups. The ground floor in particular is a welcoming and well used space. The reception area leads on to a community space and also to the café which is adjacent to the library and internet access section, and on to the youth and younger children's spaces. Numerous small meeting rooms also provide a suitable environment for staff to meet local residents to discuss any service or personal issues. It also leads to an attractive outdoor garden with a concrete table tennis table !

Upstairs are two floors of fairly standard, but open and bright, modern office accommodation, where I met and talked to members of staff who are taking a pioneering approach to the Total Neighbourhood concept. Inspired by the Christie Commission report, staff here are building real partnership working across organisations and informed by community and service users views with the intention of improving outcomes for local people, particularly those who need the most help and who may not have had the most productive relationship with public services in the past.

There is a cautious optimism that this approach is beginning develop and establish trust and sound working relationships across various organisations and the community. Much of the joint working may appear to look like common sense but perhaps we've all been guilty in the past of promoting "partnership working" but not pressing forward or challenging some of the barriers that have limited progress.

The new "East office" in Craigmillar

Jim Hunter and his team at the East office are doing some great work and are, by necessity, having to be bold and experimental in testing this approach. Of course a building doesn't necessarily guarantee good services but I sense that the excellent new facility has provided an ideal springboard for a lot of good ideas to take off and flourish. Because there is no instruction manual on how Total Neighbourhood should work, or any additional funding to make it happen, they've adopted the motto "The Revolution will be Improvised". That's a refreshing attitude in my view and I look forward to seeing further positive progress and hopefully an opportunity to extend this elsewhere in the city.

"New" Currie Community Council

Having been appointed as the Returning Officer for the Currie Community Council election process I was delighted to chair the first meeting of the newly re-established CCC on Monday and oversee the confirmation of new elected members and appointment of the new office bearers. A number of long serving community activists had chosen to stand down prior to the elections, having given several decades of stalwart service to the local community, so this is something of a transformational period for community representation in Currie with new people coming forward. I was a little anxious that people may be reluctant to get involved, voluntary service isn't always an attractive option for folk who already have busy lives, but I'm pleased to say that sufficient worthy souls have come forward to re-establish the community council and represent their local area. My heartfelt congratulations go to new chair Allister McKillop and his new team, there are plenty of important issues on the horizon and I look forward to working with them now and in the years ahead.

Consulting on setting the rent

As the largest landlord and housing provider in the city it's important for the Council to consult widely before setting the rents for Council house tenants. In 2007 the previous Council agreed to a strategy of annual rent rises of inflation plus 2.7% for the five years up to 2015. The added income supported an investment programme that is delivering Scottish Housing Quality Standards, through new bathrooms and kitchens etc. It's also contributing to plans to build new Council houses. The time has come to review that strategy and investment priorities looking forward another 5 years and considering what is reasonable, and affordable, in the short to medium term for Council tenants. This report, to the HWH Committee last month, agreed to start a consultation exercise and so yesterday saw a joint Council / Edinburgh Tenants Federation conference that began the consideration of rent levels and priorities for future investment. One of the risks to future investment is the impact of Welfare Reform and the Bedroom Tax. The Council can only use income from rent to invest in Council houses and our housing service so any reduction has a knock on effect to investment and service, not to mentions jobs and regeneration. Rent arrears are increasing and this remains a serious concern. However, it was an interesting session yesterday and the consultation will continue until we get a further report with some recommendations early next year.

Weekly Update

Blog Neglect is a serious accusation and one I'd find difficult to defend so, after being a bit lazy in recent days, here's a wee update.



Last week saw a meeting with a delegation of retired Swedish trade unionists, interested in pensioners rights and care services for the elderly. A very interesting discussion, through an interpreter.... My Swedish is a bit rusty these days. Wednesday was a meeting of the NHS Lothian Board with a slightly amended way of dealing with the Agenda that allowed us to focus consideration on a few higher priority items. Thursday was the full Council meeting, a full set of papers / reports can be accessed on this link.



Capt Danny Wilson & Gary Locke

Last Friday I was delighted to accept an invitation to the unveiling of a bronze plaque outside Tynecastle that commemorates the date on which the entire Hearts first team joined the army to fight in the First World War. The Haymarket Clock and the cairn at Contalmaison are now joined by a fitting memorial to these men who were photographed on the day they signed up at the back of the new stand in 1914. Captain Danny Wilson and the 2013 team then fought out an entertaining 0-0 draw with Dundee Utd on Saturday. Frustrating to have a perfectly good goal disallowed but a draw was probably a fair result.


Back to Business

Having enjoyed a few days off in the sunshine last week it was back to business with a bang this week. The Health, Wellbeing and Housing Committee met on Tuesday, you can access all the committee papers on this link. We heard a deputation from Edinburgh Tenants Federation about the Kitchen and Bathrooms programme at Prestonfield which created a little debate but most of the rest of the items were relatively un-contentious. Today was the first meeting of our new Welfare Reform Working Group. To be clear, there are many groups looking at Welfare Reform and doing some very good work but we thought that elected members should be involved in a forum that could look at issues in more detail with Council officials and partners from the voluntary and third sectors. Good turnout and an excellent discussion. Still a pretty depressing subject matter with not much good news on the horizon but it is at least encouraging us to work together and seek to understand each other's priorities and challenges. The group also agreed to supplement the membership with those who had requested this and it does mean the next meeting with be held in the Usher Hall but if people are keen to contribute I'm keen to have them at the table.

PALM Launch

Really enjoyed the launch of PALM at Balerno Parish Church this week. Hosted in St Joseph's Hall, PALM (People with Advanced Loss of Memory) is a new group created -

To provide a space for people with memory loss and their carers to meet others for support and social contact.

To use activities such as music, movement, reminiscence and craft to enhance the wellbeing of the person with advanced memory loss.

To provide an opportunity for informal support and information for carers.

 

More details on the Balerno Church website. It was really well attended and it looks like this could be a popular monthly routine. As we know, with an ageing population and an increase in age related health conditions we need to look more to providing community based services that support people in their own homes and their own area. Not forgetting  a bit of support for carers too obviously and the PALM café aims to do this.

 

Congratulations and thanks to Kay and her colleagues for staging such a successful opening event and to the church for hosting. Looks like this will grow and there's obviously a need for such initiatives.

51st Balerno Scouts marching on and handing over the baton

Was delighted to accept an invite to the 51st Balerno Scouts AGM on Friday night. A significant meeting in many ways as Lawrence Mitchell, with 20 odd years of supporting the Scouts at many levels, standing down as Group Scout Leader and handing over the reigns to a worthy successor in John Henderson. As with many such organisations this scout group exists largely due to the generous support and contribution from numerous volunteers and 51st Balerno is in fact thriving and very successful due to that commitment. Several young members of the group received various certificates of achievement and then after a lovely tribute to Lawrence the meeting was adjourned and the cheese and wine got underway. Very enjoyable it was too and nice social way to end the evening. If you want more info check out their web site on this link.

Tynecastle yesterday was rocking. If all the games are going to be like the last three (Hibs, Partick, Aberdeen) that I've been to then its going to be some season. Passion, excitement, incident some good football and late goals makes for a compelling spectacle. Okay, it's our current predicament that's produced that heady mix, but in the face of adversity its up to everyone to rise to the occasion and the fans, the players and the club are certainly doing that.

Our Glass House

Was delighted to attend the launch of Our Glass House this afternoon. A play produced by Common Wealth Theatre Ltd as part of the Fringe deals with the issue of domestic abuse and is staged in an empty house in Westburn, Wester Hailes. Different strands of the performance telling separate stories are played out in different rooms and coincide and collide and combine to produce a very powerful experience. The audience watches on but does not intervene. The invited guests then adjourned to the Whale Arts centre for some formalities and a cuppa. Today's attendance was by professionals from various agencies ; the Council, Police, NHS, Scottish Government, Prospect Housing and the Edinburgh Violence Against Women Partnership, but I was delighted to hear that the twice daily shows are now sold out and that a  number of tickets were reserved for the local community and they too have been snapped up. Also delighted that the launch event was attended by new Police Scotland Chief Constable Steve House who has a well known commitment to tackling domestic abuse and carried out some significant work on this in his previous role in Strathclyde. A successful event and information was also provided of some good partnership working being developed. We need to build on this though and make sure that the messages of help and support for victims and confronting and changing the behaviour of perpetrators gets through to all our communities.

Big Hearts, Roddy Hart and back to business

Not a bad weekend all in all. A hugely significant derby victory and Roddy Hart in concert. Hearts just about deserved the win, on commitment and desire, if nothing else and hopefully this will be a good start to what will be a long hard road to overhauling the 15 point deficit. Best wishes to Ryan Stevenson who picked up a bad injury after only 13 minutes. Next stop, Maryhill (Partick Thistle) on Friday night. Roddy Hart and the Lonesome Fire were awesome at the Assembly Rooms last night, uber cool and a modern day combination of Johhny Cash, Bruce Springsteen and Gerry Rafferty, can't understand why the lad isn't a huge star by now. Semi acoustic set (with the full band from what I could tell) in the ballroom which had been transformed into an intimate all seated venue that was perfect for the occasion. 

Back to business this week though, community meetings each night in Currie, Balerno and Wester Hailes. Expecting a full house at the Balerno public meeting tomorrow to discuss Green Belt issues and the recent spate of applications by developers to build on various fields in the area. Currie Community Council tonight, Wester Hailes Community Council special meeting on Wednesday to discuss public transport links to the new Healthy Living Centre and Balerno Community Council on Thursday. Oh yeah ! the summer hols are over !

Speak Up Speak Out

Not funny and not sexy I'm afraid. Amid the fun and frolics of the largest arts festival in the world the Council has launched its public protection Speak Up Speak Out campaign. This part of the campaign focuses on older people and is designed to encourage older people themselves or family or friends to report any suspicions they may have about older people being harmed. It could be physical, psychological or financial and the message is that it must stop and there is help for people who don't know where to turn. Material will be circulated throughout the city in Council buildings and through our partners in the voluntary sector as well as newspaper and radio ads. Full details are here on the Council's Speak Up Speak Out blog page. Feel free to keep a note of numbers and hand them on to people who may wish to use them.

Welfare Reform / Bedroom Tax - Edinburgh Update

The latest Welfare Reform update report goes to the Council's Policy and Strategy Committee next Tuesday (6th August). As would be expected for a professionally written report by Council officials it is purely factual and not designed to be contentious or political, however, when one considers that there's a person, a family, and a story behind each of the statistics it does make for depressing reading.

You can read the report in full on this link to the Council's website but the edited highlights (???) are as follows -

The Council, in partnership with the voluntary sector has applied for more funding for advice services, so that we can tell people exactly how much financial doo doo they're in and hopefully help them climb out.

The Benefit Cap, introduced in London boroughs in spring is likely to be rolled out in Edinburgh at the end of this month.

Scottish Welfare Fund Grants, disbursed by the Council, are within budget and the relationship with Bethany Christian Trust who provide furniture to people on our behalf appears to be working particularly well.

 

At the end of May 2013 there were 3,566 Council tenants affected by the Bedroom Tax. Prior to implementation on 1 April 2013, 969 (27%) of affected tenants were in arrears; by the end of May and this had increased to 2561 (72%). In terms of rental income it is estimated that in the eight weeks following the 1 April 2013, around £390,000 (69%) of the £560,000 of rent due, has not been collected. As I've mentioned before this money should be used to pay for Council housing staff and to finance investment in existing and new homes. 
Next step is to prepare for the introduction of direct payment of Universal Credit (all benefits lumped together basically) and paid direct to the tenant rather than the housing element paid to the Council (or RSL) as it is now. Happy days !!!

Discretionary Housing Payment (short term awards based on circumstances) spend is within budget (£1.348m). Up to 5 June 2013, there had been a total of 1134 DHP claims assessed, 831 ongoing awards, 19 one-off payments and 284 refusals. This equates to 75% of applications receiving an award, a rate that is markedly higher than the Scottish average of 44%. We've also received news this week that due to a DWP miscalculation we are to receive an additional £80k, one small crumb of comfort amidst the unremitting gloom.

Now, moving on to benefits for people with severe illness or disabilities -

the ongoing replacement of Incapacity Benefit and related benefits by Employment and Support Allowance (ESA), with more stringent medical tests, greater conditionality and time-limiting of non-means tested entitlement for all but the most severely ill or disabled: the DWP intends to complete this process by 2014; and the phased replacement of Disability Living Allowance (DLA) by Personal Independence Payments (PIP), including more stringent and frequent medical tests, (sometimes carried out by ATOS, who you may have heard of) as the basis for financial support to help offset the additional costs faced by individuals with disabilities.

From 7 October 2013, existing recipients of DLA will begin to be transferred to PIP and from October 2015 all the remaining claimants in receipt of a DLA award will be invited to make a claim for PIP. DWP will randomly select those recipients of DLA in receipt of an indefinite award or a fixed term award, and notify them about what they need to do to claim PIP. The intention is that this process will be completed by October 2017.

The new benefit is expected to bring an anticipated reduction of expenditure by 20% on current levels and an anticipated 55% of current DLA recipients will receive reduced benefit or will be refused PIP when the reassessment takes place.  

The conclusion is that more people will experience more hardship and uncertainty and as result will seek more support from Council services. This, at a time when budgets are reducing, inflation is rising and demand for services is already expected to increase due to other factors.

I'm not normally a pessimist but it's difficult to see a bright side in all of this :o(

Wickerman Highlights

Just back from a great weekend at the Wickerman Festival, south of Dumfries. Brief highlights for me as follows - Bombskare - Scotland's Ska Juggernaut rolls on, great set guys. Chic, featuring Nile Rogers, one last chance to wear that white suit and boogie on down to disco hits of the 80s.  Primal Scream - the Scottish Rolling Stones ? Roddy Hart and the Lonesome Fire, superb, has to be the next big thing in Scottish music and a good looking laddie too, according to my missuss. Amphetameanies, Dumfries based Ska outfit. Anti Nowhere League - old fashioned, in your face, kick in the balls, punk rockers. Dexys - bit pretensious and self indulgent but at least he did versions of Gino and Come on Eileen both of which went down well with the crowd. Rezillos - headlined in the Scooter Tent, absolutely timeless and a new album out in September apparently. Loads of other stuff, acoustic, reggae, poetry, new music, and almost enough bars to satisfy demand. Met up with my youngest and her pal who were working at the festival and heading up to Belladrum for next weekend. I'm soooo jealous !!!

   

Visiting Time

Corstorphine Hospital, a few years ago...

As mentioned in the post below summer and less meetings presents an opportunity to get out and visit services and people. On Friday as part of the programme for the new Health and Social Care Partnership we visited Corstorphine Hospital which provides nursing care to frail, elderly people and then the newly opened Drumbrae Care Home. Both venues provide a good standard of care, obviously to different categories of service users, based on need, but in hugely different settings. Corstorphine is an old, traditional hospital (Florence Nightingale wards, I was told) and Drumbrae is brand new, state of art and feels quite luxurious, a sign that accommodation standards are improving and expectations, quite rightly, increasing. The challenge is to find the funding to deliver more new facilities.

This morning saw an organised tour of three voluntary sector organisations delivering services in the city centre. First the Canongate Youth Project which works with youngsters between the ages of 5 - 25 although today we focused more on the support to school leavers who don't go into employment or further education and need to be equipped with the skills to put together a CV and handle the trauma of a job interview. More info on their excellent website.

Then a wander up to Guthrie Street and the new home of Remade Edinburgh (website/blog link) which works to support people (all of us) to reduce waste by reusing and repairing items that all too often end up in land fill sites. Everything from toys and fabrics to computers and furniture can be repaired and reused and Remade is part of a growing international movement as people become more aware of and dissatisfied with today's consumerist and disposable society. They also gave us chocolate biscuits and strawberries !!

Finally, another short walk to the Serenity Café and a meeting with Comas, who work with people recovering from addictions and the numerous issues confronting individuals and families who are affected. A really interesting discussion about these services and the role of the third sector in their delivery and ability to sometimes be more innovative and imaginative than is sometimes possible through traditional methods. More about them on this link. 

Joys of Summer

One of the joys of the summer season is that most formal Council committees don't meet and given that many colleagues are on holiday its a chance to shake off the dust of the City Chambers and spend more time in the local community. Monday night's Ratho Community Council meeting went ahead as scheduled and we managed to conduct the business without any undue difficulties. Tuesday, sandwiched between two constituent visits in Clovenstone and Balerno, I accepted an invite to visit the new Bridge 8 Hub at the Calders. A social enterprise initiative led by Sean Barry the idea is to create an outdoor activities centre that can be used by young and old from the surrounding communities and also tap into the commercial possibilities presented by the corporate market seeking team building opportunities. Canoeing, kayaking, mountain biking, archery and a community garden are the initial offerings but Sean and his colleagues have big plans for the future and seem to have done their homework in terms of potential custom and other sources of funding. It's certainly a great idea and nothing similar exists on this side of the city so I wish them well and if you want to read more about them there's info here on their web site.

Tuesday evening was the latest meeting of the South West Communities Forum, basically a forum for local community councils to come together to discuss a collective response to the ongoing process of the Local Development Plan and the increasing number of attempts by developers to breach the Green Belt in our area. Excellent discussion and a good chance to discuss future strategy and how we should attempt to shape policy decisions.